Today I have a post from a guest writer. Pop_Icon is angry, and here is why:

To take a purposely direct connotation to Family Guy, do you know what REALLY grinds MY gears!? Cash for Clunkers.



Look, I get it. The car industry is the carpet on the floor of the economy. If we can get people to buy cars, we can *jump start* the economy. The road to “The Bridge to Nowhere” was, I’m sure, paved with the best intentions, and I know our government was looking, to what in all accounts looks like a win-win-win — incentivize Americans to ditch their gas-guzzling vehicles for a fuel-sipping new car that not only cuts our dependence on foreign oil, but also cleans the air. And, listen, I know that drastic times call for drastic measures, that’s what everyone tells us, right? Is it the right thing to do? We get into the predicaments over the course of years, yet our microwaveable, instant messaging, ORDER NOW public has no patience for pain. Hell, most of the population feels they have the right to never be offended. Surely, they must have the right to immediate relief from all that ails them. Well folks, the time has come. The most popular stimulus program EVER. Ran out of money in the first week….$1 Billion USD. Gone. Done. Used.

The auto dealerships are ecstatic. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWbxsSKDA5g) Stories roll in from all over the country telling the tale of the busiest they’ve ever been. New fuel-efficient cars rolling off the lot in droves. The proud new owner thinking they’ve just scored a great deal. Save the economy, get a massive incentive to buy a new car, and your old car relegated to obsolescence. Do they know what happened to their old car? Do they care? My wife, mother, father, coworkers, and friends were all flabbergasted when I clued them in. You, dear readers, are going to see virtually first hand what this has done. Your friends and family turned into giggling executioners into what I’m calling ‘the economic-automotive equivalent to the holocaust’.

Before you get your knickers in a wad, I in no way belittle what atrocities the millions of Jewish people experienced in that dark and tragic time. However, I am a car enthusiast. There is a whole economic world that revolves around driving, repairing, buying/selling, making parts, maintaining, and ultimately disposing of the machines that changed our world, forever. So, it should come as little shock, to those who know me, what I went through seeing the atrocities these so-called “clunkers” experienced in their days in the CARS program. My soul hurt seeing these cars die, some of which were completely undeserving, and to what ultimate end. If you gave your once-beloved 4-wheeled friend to this government program, you must watch what I’m about to show you. I will warn you, the links to these videos I’m giving to you are disturbingly graphic. In some of these videos, the executioners are laughing and cackling as the automobiles cry out with oil-curdling screams.

A beautiful green Volvo. Clean. Immaculately maintained. DEAD. http://bit.ly/xsIDv

An otherwise perfectly good Suburban for a charitable donation. DEAD. http://bit.ly/dgGyp

Good-looking Jeep Cherokee. Again, looks well maintained. DEAD. http://bit.ly/uaQdK

There are dozens upon dozens of clips like these. Some of these vehicles were not in good shape. I’m surprised some of them were even roadworthy in any way. Destroying the engine, though, destroys parts that are usable in other roadworthy vehicles, though. Some may say that once you sell your car to someone else, they could use it as a prop in a car crash scene in a film or blow it up on MythBusters. My point is, at least the cars are serving a purpose. Cash for Clunkers kills cars. Salvage yards overwhelmed by cars will probably not be able to use the over-supply of inventory of what parts are usable. Most will be, sadly, gone forever. Mere shells of memories of virginity lost, little Billy’s bad seafood, and enough spare change to buy tacos in Africa — all gone.

Bottom line folks, which has been driving this whole notion any how, is that we have to be careful what we wish for. Everything comes at a price. We got here not with cautious optimism, but rampant greed, feeding on excesses at the cost of public well-being. A corporate economy based on use-and-refuse goods, chewing through precious resources for our fancy and luxury. A people and a government so addicted to the drug of money, so deeply addicted (read: in debt) that there are but glimmers of light to be found in a maze of tunnels. In a world where the government no longer fears the people, but fears the spigot capped on the teat of corporate lobbying coffers, where only we could think this CARS program makes any sense. Especially a politically motivated program that, I will agree, looks a lot better on paper than it does in practice, but only through the eyes of a junkie. Maybe it is us who is in need of a mental makeover before we drive the political machine, which could only be considered a two-party clunker, to a major overhaul. What do you think?