The Financial Bailout Fiasco

The Obama administration’s “Cash for Clunkers” program is a $1 billion subsidy to the auto industry. We can debate whether or not that’s a good thing and how it will or won’t help pull us out of our economic morass. But let’s not make believe this is about protecting the environment.

There is a total of 249 million Cars on the Road in the USA. Our population is 307 million meaning the capitalist system makes possible one vehicle per 1.2 people. The CashFC will remove 250 thousand cars and when the extra $2 billion more is added, then 750 thousand cars will be crushed. There will still be 249 million cars licensed in the USA.

Why don't we try the Socialist Model. Cuba has a population of 11 million. Their socialist system makes possible a TOTAL of 300 thousand vehicles or one vehicle per 36 people. Pre-1959 American automobiles amount to about 20% of the privately owned vehicles now on the streets. Twenty percent of the everyday drivers (cars) are 50-70 years old! The average US vehicle lasts 9 years before going to the boneyard. So every Cuban classic equals 6+ US automobiles built and crushed. Building 1 car produces about seven tons of CO2. The steel and aluminum for that car comes from iron, chromium, bauxite, and nickel. Most steel production is carried out in countries with lax environmental and worker safety regulations. The largest bauxite producers are Guinea, Jamaica, Brazil, and Australia. Bauxite is harvested through strip mining. Zinc byproducts include heavy-metal-laced slag, sulfur dioxide, and cadmium vapor. More and more, plastic parts are made in overseas sweatshops, producing dioxin. The costs of producing new cars are environmentally costly.

There is a feeling abroad in the land that Cubans love old American cars. Nothing could be further from the truth. Cubans love new American cars, not old ones, but the newest ones that they can get their hands on are 45 years old.

The Democrats bailout socialist plans, programs and new taxes may actually indirectly clean up the environment. With a economy that can sustain only 1 vehicle per 36 people, that would mean removing 241 million cars, to bring that 249 million down to 8 million.

Quickest way to get zero emissions, crush em don't replace em.

http://artvoice.com/issues/v8n31/getting_a_grip
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/27/automobiles/27MILL.html