Cash For Clunkers Purple Kool-Aid Campaign

I'd love to spend a lot of time on this but I just can't. It has been on my mind and I figured this might help it go away. The two biggest reasons why this issue bugs me is because I've struggled my entire life to get out of debt and second, I've some very close friends who are making enormous sacrifices to do the right thing. The present Cash for Clunkers campaign being sponsored by our government is simply wrong. Ill-motivated and deceiving. The government has put an incredibly tempting opportunity before people who do not deserve to be taken advantage of. I would venture to say that most folks who have a car that is worth under $5000, probably own it. THEY OWWWWWNNNN IIITTTT! They did it right. That means they do not have a single penny owed to anyone....any month....for their car. The government realizes that to get something out of their psuedo-investment of american car companies they have to find a way to generate product. Everyone who thought they could afford a car payment the last 5 years....still have a car payment. They are not gonna buy new....they can't trade in. They are stuck with the car for awhile. The only people who are available to generate action on the assembly lines are those who....own a car. The age of the car is not the issue or its low MPG. That is a smoke screen. An excuse! The reality ....for real for real....is that all these people who had no payment will have to come up with $400 a month for a $20,000 loan or $500 a month for a 25,000 loan....for 5 years. The government wins, the filthy rich car companies win, the dealerships win, THE BANKS win, and "joe" LOSES....big time--every month---for 5 years. That is @450 a month coming out of "joes" paycheck to one bank, instead of family vacations, housing, life, etc. It just ticks me off because I know what most hard working people, who have finagled their transportation for awhile (but own their cars) are thinking during this Cash for Clunker Campaign. It's hard not to give in. But it's the new 'purple kool-aid' and I hope they fight against it. I would like to see the government take that $4500 and pay off everyones car so that that they have no car debt. Imagine a nation that worked together to get more people into a 'clunker' instead of out of one. This is not an effort to get 'bad cars' off the street. ...you know that. I could spend another 2000 words giving examples of how people and dealership are taking advantage of this stupid idea, but I'm sure you can imagine. Especially the 'lease' programs. A huge scam to get my friends into a brand new car at a 'seemingly' low monthly payment. So many 'wrong turns' with that program....as well you can imagine that too. Chances are, as principally right this may be, no one will question, picket, or revolt this issue. The hype will pass, the unable will have been taken advantage of, the car companies will have managed another 12 months of existence, but the customer consequences could last a life time.

just say'n