# 01: The Cash for Clunkers program was like...

Those who planned the "Cash for Clunkers" program did not know that it would go through its first billion dollars in six days.

"The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design."
F.A. Hayek
At http://cafehayek.com/2009/08/just-say-no-to-unintended-consequences.html you can learn more.

Our two goals:
#1: Make 100 videos in 24 hours that mock the things in Washington that require mocking.
#2: Submit it to the PowerLine Prize contest.

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Music: "Constancy Part Three" by Kevin Macleod at http://incompetech.com.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• mock the spending

[honeybunch2k6]

@Aetheras I know right...Let's trade in a steel car for one that looks like its made of plastic...Makes loads of sense :/

[wizard101emily]

kia and hundai if the vin starts with a k dont walk RUN AWAY

[wizard101emily]

no the 2000 and up chryslers were nice not the minivan in 2000 but o1 it got better

[Philinspaces]

If the U.S. didn't make shit cars what you said would make great sense. Getting the polluting old Chryslers off the road was genius.

[Aetheras]

@ztrumpet08 To go on, one can compare the sheer volume of time it takes to unlock everything in a sports game, as opposed to playing through an RPG. More time sitting in a chair = less time outside = higher chance of building fat = higher medical costs. Just saying.

In the end you cannot consider every detail, but must consider the most pertinent, which this video covers. The point of government buyback programs are that the consequences are never truly considered, nor is arbitrary inflation

[Aetheras]

@ztrumpet08 When you consider that most of those SUV's traded in already had the proper mufflers on that helped remove most of the air pollution, and that many of the vehicles traded for were also SUV's, as many people do like to go hiking, or happen to live in the mountains, or need some vehicle for the snow. Said vehicles with only slightly better gas mileage, lower safety standards due to increased aluminum, reduced steel. Kind of defeats your point, doesn't it?

[ztrumpet08]

yes, because sports games pollute our air and consume mass amounts of gasoline

[Pattosensei]

@horsie111 You are operating under the assumption that the political elite care about having a good economy more than lining their own pockets. Things were simple, but it is easy to spot corruption when you can see clearly. In order to hide corruption, you need to first create a system that is so convoluted that once money enters it, it disappears.

[horsie111]

@horsie111 I meant, 'The world is just NOT as simple as some would hope.' ...

[horsie111]

The stupidity and futility of Central Planning.... Your end-quote spells it out. Basically, the world is just as simple as some hope.

If the world *were* that simple, the political elite would have mastered it long ago, and this stuff of theirs would work. It would already have been done, understood & copied -- everywhere, like soda cans. All we would know by now is Socialist Utopia. Sadly, there's one *tiny* flaw.

P.S. See economist Thomas Sowell's interview on 'Intellectuals and Society'.