Japanese Benefit Most From Cash-For-Clunkers

“Under the cash-for-clunkers scheme, modeled on similar incentives in Europe, buyers who trade in old vehicles for those with lower fuel consumption receive a rebate of $3,500 or $4,500, depending on the fuel consumption of the replacement vehicle.” This was the brain child of the Obama administration to copy Europe to aid the American Auto Industry, but we are helping Japan instead. Americans are purchasing more Japanese vehicles than American made. “Toyota has an 18.9 per cent share of vehicles bought so far, putting it ahead of General Motors with 17.6 per cent and Ford with 15.4 per cent. Chrysler is in fifth place, after Honda… in contrast to the beginning of the year GM had a 19.6 per cent share of the overall US light-vehicle market in the first seven months of this year, compared with Toyota’s 16.3 per cent.” It would seem that the $2 Billion dollars that was supposed to help Americans is really an incentive for Japanese car manufacturers. FT
Catholic Femina Speaks: So the government is trying to help the American car industry by giving lots of money to the Japanese car companies. I think of it like a coach in a football game allowing players to play for the opponent. That coach is not likely to win, and he is very likely to advance his opponent farther beyond what he could have obtained without the help. This is not an effective way to bail-out anyone. The second question is who will be paying back this money to help boost Japanese car sales? If you answered: “me,” you were right. The American people will be paying back all the money that our government is spending through taxes. So before you take a cash for clunkers deal remember you will be paying for that incentive for a long time; it is not a car manufacturer rebate. C. F. C. is a plan to help large car companies immediately, but will hurt Americans later.