The law of unintended consequences strikes again - the flood of used cars, whether they go to the used car lot or the wrecking yard; money that might have gone to food, housing, education etc diverted; dealers keeping their fingers crossed that the deals they made will be honored. On the one hand, what a sign of optimism that the program sold out in such a short time; on the other hand how discouraging that such a program has so many shortcomings.

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Basic requirement of food, shelter and clothes are far more important and one should take care that no money is wasted.

Paievoli - I checked out your site and it looks to me it is a way for you to make money. I don't see how utilizing this site will help US support education ... your pocket book yes, but not education.

"But what really makes me angry is that as a nation, we seem perfectly happy to hand $4500 to upper-income families to relieve them of their self-inflicted clunker wounds, so that they can purchase a $45,000 new car, yet we ration federal financial aid dollars such that government grants are available to only the poorest of poor students and their families. And some of them don't even qualify for the maximum Pell award" Unfortunately a major aspect of why meaningful student aid is restricted, is that there are well placed people in sectors of finance who benefit from the literal rationing of meaningful federal financial aid. Essentially under the sub student loan programs, the less money for genuinely useful forms of student aid, ensures a quite massive cash flow for these corporations. All the SLP's subsidies and etc, could have just as well gone to the aid which M. Jones advocates, but in our current system it is first washed through the coffers of privitized corporations. And that combined with the 580 billion of student debt means what we are paying for in the end, is a bloated structure which makes even the most blinged out Hummer, or Escalade positively restrained. But no doubt it all provides the officers of these companies, enough money to personally buy as many gas guzzlers as they need to get the tax credits or gas for guzzlers tradeins down at the Hummer or Escalade emporium. About nursing along the humble, aging and decaying Toyotas, Hondas, VW's and like relics driven by so many stalwarts... Part of the reason these relics cannot be replaced is that too many ambitious people (or fools) went to college under our current system, and came out with what often is literally lifelong debt. As a result, replacing cars, buying homes, and often eating more than Ramen and crackers is right off the map. As a result, for this afflicted generation, their cars often look like something which should be trundling down the road in some National Geographic photo about some remote and deprived country. And this condition remains well after studenthood is passed. In some cases professorial cars look like the vehicles used in the "Top Gear" trip across Botswana and the Makgadikgadi salt flats. Not exactly the best symbol to show the beneficial effects of higher education. The problem is, as M.Jones noted is we have entire governmental/corporate programs where tax money is taken from the middle classes which popped into programs which are really intended to benefit the very affluent, and the troubled middle class gets nothing back of any real value. I would hope these type of games abate, but given that money (even other peoples money) buys the influence to use government to take the money of the common man, the precedent is not encouraging. What I'd suggest is have a few bumper stickers printed up about how our entire system has become the affluents mans feast, while the working class men and women get the least. These stickers won't matter much politically, but they may help the old Toyota hold together for another few years.

Diane, I agree with the thesis of your article, however you have made an error, which weakens your credibility. Your statement below is completely false. "And for all of you environmentalists out there, it isn't like these trade-ins are going to guzzler graveyards. Many will be found on used car lots across the country, priced low enough that they become the only cars that poor people and young drivers can afford." The CARS program does not allow vehicles to be resold. This information is found on the government's CARS website here http://www.cars.gov/faq#category-14 Here is video of one such vehicle being scrapped. http://www.autoblog.com/2009/07/31/video-cash-for-clunkers-engine-being-killed/ Please check your facts before making these emotionally charged kinds of posts. -Mike

There's a great Facebook group encouraging the government to use some of the (trillions of!) dollars being thrown at the economy to cancel student loan debt. Now that would be a positive force for change, rather than giving the money to megacorps in order to let them hand out bigger bonuses to their execs.

Or giving mega money to megacorps so they can privitize profits, and socialize risk whilst selling student loans at difficult or outright usurous tems. The concept of student debt forgiveness, or at least moderation is gaining substantial public support. The dilemma is that the same sucking of cash which makes the educational debt corporations so very happy, has also permitted them to buy a great deal of undeserved influence over policy. And when President Obama appointed Geithner and Summers, that in itself made creative solutions to the student dent problem (soon to be a debacle) unlikely. The dilemma is that even V. Putin has advised that some debt mediation, or forgiveness may be needed to save the American middle class-which obviously would include the horrors of student loans. Somehow the mere fact that a Russian leader has a better sense of genuine American middle class dilemmas than our own elected leadership, is quite surreal.

Politicians seem to care more about pushing political agendas than actually helping people in need. You can find what people value by looking at how they spend money. Obviously, the politicians in Washington value the auto industry and miniscule changes to improve the environment more than they value assisting people with real subsistence needs or education, which is the key to a good life and prosperity. Improving the environment is crucial, but should be a priority after basic needs and education. When people have their needs met and become educated, they are probably more interested in other issues like being wise stewards of the earth's resources etc. I know it was that way for me.

I would have agreed with most of this post if I hadn't read the following Times article: http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/20/the-illusion-of-miles-per-gallon/ Duke's business school created the following quiz to show how miles per gallon is a deceptive measure: http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/news/mpg/mpg.html Be sure to look at the tables toward the end. The less fuel efficient a car is, the more likely that small improvements in mpg will go a long way. Counterintuitively, the fuel savings of going from 10mpg to 11mpg are the same as going from 33mpg to 50mpg. In order to get the maximum award from Obama's program, one must improve efficiency by 10mpg.

The ultimate beneficiaries are not the car buyers. This is pork for the companies and their stockholders. Real student aid, on the other hand, cuts into the profits of another powerful financial supporter of the political machine. Ours may be the most corrupt political system in the world. What's especially appalling is this form of corruption is legal. Without real campaign finance reform we will be stuck with this corruption of democracy.

Also, by law the clunker engines must be destroyed with liquid glass, so they will not "be found on used car lots across the country, priced low enough that they become the only cars that poor people and young drivers can afford."