{"id":2178,"date":"2010-08-27T11:13:31","date_gmt":"2010-08-27T11:13:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=2178"},"modified":"2010-08-27T11:13:31","modified_gmt":"2010-08-27T11:13:31","slug":"the_unintended_consequence_of_1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=2178","title":{"rendered":"The Unintended Consequence Of Cash For Clunkers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday, Ed Morrissey at <a href=\"http:\/\/hotair.com\/archives\/2010\/08\/25\/used-car-prices-skyrocket-a-year-after-cash-for-clunkers\/\">Hot Air<\/a>&nbsp;posted an article about the impact of Cash for Clunkers on the current used car market.&nbsp; Because of the number of used cars destroyed as a result of the Cash for Clunkers program, used cars are scarcer and more expensive.<\/p>\n<p>The article cites the impact of the program on some used car prices:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Cadillac Escalade &#8211; 35.6% increase<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Chevy Suburban &#8211; +34.2%<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Dodge Grand Caravan &#8211; +34%<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>BMW X5 &#8211; +33%<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Generally speaking, people who buy used cars buy them because they are less expensive than new cars.&nbsp; A quality used car will last almost as long as a new car and be cheaper to buy.&nbsp; I live in Massachusetts, where the excise tax on a new car is considerably more than the tax on a used car.&nbsp; I bought a new car in February.&nbsp; In addition to the sales tax on the car, I paid a personal property tax of over $500.&nbsp; Had I bought the same car a year old, that cost would have been closer to $200 or $300.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>The article concludes:<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<p><em>&#8220;As predicted last year, the people most hurt by the price increases are those who can least afford them.&nbsp; The used-car market usually attracts people who need transportation on a budget, who cannot afford to buy new.&nbsp;&nbsp; By destroying a quarter&#8217;s worth of trade-ins in three weeks and permanently taking them off the market, the Obama administration has forced an artificial inflation by supply restriction.&nbsp; Moreover, they did so by subsidizing new-car sales that would have occurred anyway, eating up three billion dollars in taxpayer money.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;In other words, the White House spent $3 billion to make used cars more expensive for working-class families.&nbsp; Nice work.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">This is another example of government interference in the free market.&nbsp;&nbsp; When the government gets involved, there are always unintended consequences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday, Ed Morrissey at Hot Air&nbsp;posted an article about the impact of Cash for Clunkers on the current used car market.&nbsp; Because of the number of used cars destroyed as a result of the Cash for Clunkers program, used &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=2178\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2178\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}