So after I posted a month ago (gosh I need to start publishing more of my thoughts more frequently) about my TADA bailout plan, I figured I should take a look at our country’s auto industry bailout. Again, let me preface this with the fact that I am not an economist, I just play one on the internet/tv/my dreams.

So if you read my last post, you know I prefer giving money to lots of people, not just a few, so as to spread the impact any stimulus can have as far as possible. So this leads me to my latest stimulus idea which was cobbled over dinner with my Dad the other day (mostly his idea btw). Lets incentivize people to get rid of their old cars.

There are 200 million cars on the road in the US (give or take a few million), a huge % of them are over 10 years old. So let’s take the 30% (60 Million cars) and find a way to turn them into sales for our domestic car companies and save jobs here in the US. Its so simple its almost ridiculous actually.

So instead of giving $50Billion or more to the car companies directly, lets earmark $25Billion annually for a “Clunker Trade In Credit”. So if your car is 10+ years old, gets under 20MPG highway, and is worth less than $5k, you can qualify for a $5k trade-up credit. Now there will be some key stipulations

1. New car must be predominantly manufactured in the USA
2. New car must get 30MPG Highway or better
3. You must have owned the car for 3+ Months
4. You must be a tax payer

So basically we would taking 5 Million clunkers off the road each year, recycling what we can of them, then boosting domestic car demand by 5 Million cars each year. So the most likely growth point in sales would be in smaller more fuel efficient vehicles.

Giving auto manufacturers money to keep building shitty cars is stupid. Giving them money when no one wants to buy their cars is also stupid. But giving consumers money to buy better cars and driving demand is smart. So congress, be smart.

I sit here late at night, on my 26th birthday no less, and reflect on where we are today.  I like to think that I am a fairly sharp individual, with a solid education and all that, but I came to realize something recently: what good is it to be capable of doing if you aren’t actively doing?  So in the spirit of change and progress I’ve decided that I am going to be more vocal, more active, and make an effort to effect change whenever possible.  This post is inspired by a recent post by Jeremy Schoemaker entitled “What is sticking your pecker out?“

The last 18 months have re-awoken the spirit of a rebel in me that I grew up believing I was.  I have always fancied myself a revolutionary at heart, though I probably wouldn’t fit the definition in the traditional sense.  In the last 18 months we’ve seen what can happen to our society when we allow people to let greed consume us, fear paralyze us, ignorance guide us, and leadership fail us.  We’ve seen the dollar fall, the housing market pop (you HAD to see that coming), the stock markets lose trillions in value, an unpopular war march on, and a ridiculous presidential race emerge. Now it hasn’t been all bad, we as a people have come together to help our fellow man in times of need, and many have been inspired by the symbol of change.

It is that change, the mere symbol of change, that has sparked this renewed spirit of enlightenment in me, and hopefully many others. When in the past many might have refrained from speaking their voices (a very troubling fact in my opinion) for fear of upsetting or offending people, now many share their views openly, and hopefully many more will follow their lead.  I for one was very tight lipped in the past about my support of liberal candidates and liberal policies for fear of upsetting people and having it negatively affect my business and personal lives.  Now though I know that by being tight lipped about my desire for change, or my disgust in the current political leadership (not limited to solely the executive branch), I was really giving in to the oppressive nature of the culture of fear we are allowing ourselves to submit to.  So with that in mind, I think that we cannot expect to grow as a culture and a society if we remain afraid to voice our opinions.  The old adage of “opinions are like assholes, everyone has one” might hold true, but if you keep your opinions to yourself aren’t you really just constipating yourself?