Why I Didn't Trade in My Clunker
I mentioned somewhere recently that a couple weeks back when the government run clunker program was going my mechanic called me and virtually begged me to participate. I can't imagine why...
I'm not sure that I could have said anything to make this good friend understand, since he and I don't come at life with entirely the same set of values, but maybe you will understand. I really had two reasons why I couldn't trade in my beat up car for a $4,000 gift start on a new one.
Reason one: in this particular case, the program seemed so much a money grab from the rich to give to others, that it felt--and I think it was--like theft. I simply felt I had no right to that money, that it was a pure political ploy to gain popularity among the masses at the expense of the better off in our society (i.e.-those who already pay a massively disproportionate amount of our taxes), and that participating in a political scheme of this sort would constitute stealing money not mine. The government was so brazenly taking $4,000 out of someone's pocket and putting it in mine, and that was so manifestly a matter of thievery that I couldn't stomach it.
Reason two: even with the $4,000 financial jump start, I would have been paying more in a year to get a new car than it costs me to run the old one. Others may think differently and with what seems like, and may be, good reason, but as for me, so long as I can keep my present car on the road less expensively than it costs to buy a new one (without imperiling anyone's well-being in the process), I'm sticking with the old.
It's not that I'm particularly special or penny-pinching in doing this; it's just that I have a car solely to get me from one place to another (it is neither status symbol nor toy to me), and so whatever can get me from one place to another safely and least expensively is what I'm going to drive. After all, I've got a few other treasures I'd like to accumulate and care for that are worth far more to me (and have dividends that last far longer!), than a new set of wheels.
I don't think my mechanic got this. Do you?
I'm not sure that I could have said anything to make this good friend understand, since he and I don't come at life with entirely the same set of values, but maybe you will understand. I really had two reasons why I couldn't trade in my beat up car for a $4,000 gift start on a new one.
Reason one: in this particular case, the program seemed so much a money grab from the rich to give to others, that it felt--and I think it was--like theft. I simply felt I had no right to that money, that it was a pure political ploy to gain popularity among the masses at the expense of the better off in our society (i.e.-those who already pay a massively disproportionate amount of our taxes), and that participating in a political scheme of this sort would constitute stealing money not mine. The government was so brazenly taking $4,000 out of someone's pocket and putting it in mine, and that was so manifestly a matter of thievery that I couldn't stomach it.
Reason two: even with the $4,000 financial jump start, I would have been paying more in a year to get a new car than it costs me to run the old one. Others may think differently and with what seems like, and may be, good reason, but as for me, so long as I can keep my present car on the road less expensively than it costs to buy a new one (without imperiling anyone's well-being in the process), I'm sticking with the old.
It's not that I'm particularly special or penny-pinching in doing this; it's just that I have a car solely to get me from one place to another (it is neither status symbol nor toy to me), and so whatever can get me from one place to another safely and least expensively is what I'm going to drive. After all, I've got a few other treasures I'd like to accumulate and care for that are worth far more to me (and have dividends that last far longer!), than a new set of wheels.
I don't think my mechanic got this. Do you?
Labels: economics, money, politics, stewardship, theft
posted by Tim Shorey at
4:08 AM
4 Comments
