Forum Post: Cash for clunkers
Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 9, 2011, 11:42 a.m. EST by Farleymowat
(415)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
I went to look for a used car recently. It was pretty hard to find anything not total junk for less then 4000 bucks. I mean really hard. I asked a dealer why so few decent cars available. He said it was because large numbers of decent cars were crushed recently and as a result, it has driven the cost of used way up. The law of unintended consequences once again by our brilliant elite government. The peoplle who need cheaper transportation get the short end of the stick, and the taxpayer got to shell out 4000 per clunker, to subsidize people who bought new.
from someone who grew up poor, learned to live poor.
you will ALWAYS Overpay at a dealer and if you believe ANYTHING a used car salesman says you probably deserve to get taken.
plenty of trade papers out there, classifieds, word of mouth even to find a deal isn't very hard.
bought myself a mint condition body and leather interior jeep wagoneer 4WD power everything. leaks a bit of oil, maybe a quart a week. $600
this was 6 months ago.
but you are right, Government involvement sucks period.
Tom,
Anarchist and a Conservative ( and Troll to a few liberal fags on this site )
I know what you mean about private party being a better way to go. My towns main drag has 8 used car lots, ranging from junk to decent, and every price too. It's a pain to shop cars as I am 60 miles north of the nearest suburb. You get a great song from someone, spend half a day driving, and it turns out it's got a salvage title, or something mechanically bad.
Don't be so cheap. You get what you pay for.
I bought a used Dodge for $350 and drove it all through my college years and a few years after that without a problem. Just changed the oil and break pads.
Bought a used Ford Fusion last year and it runs great!
I used to get lucky that way too.
Whatever happened to the $50 winter beater?
Another example of special interests slanting our politics by buying off our politicians. Root cause - money in politics. Here's my 2 cents:
There are a lot of improvements that need to be made. The list reforms people Americans want to see is long and varied depending on who you talk to. That said, I believe there is one reform that would provide the American people the best chances of seeing other meaningful reforms actually happen - that is REAL, loop-hope free CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM! I have seen others on this site calling this the "fulcrum" or pivotal issue. Right now the current legalized bribery, pay-to-play system of campaign donations and paid lobbyists has disenfranchised the American voter. Until this is fixed, any other reform the politicians may try to placate us with (be it a change to healthcare, clamping down predatory school loans, new financial regulations, etc.) will be about as effective as a farmer putting a new roof on his CHICKEN COOP, but still letting the FOX guard it.
We need to go back to the original political currency. Instead of the current system of who can collect the most money from corporations and special interests it should be who has the BEST IDEAS to EFFECTIVELY RUN THE COUNTRY (we don't need "Wealth Redistribution," what we need is "Political Influence Redistribution")!
For the sake our our children and future generations of Americans, we need to take back our democracy from the rich and powerful who are using their vast sums of money to "speak" as if they represent millions of Americans. This "Corporate Personhood" that has crept into our laws is allowing them to manipulating our policies in their favor at the expense of the average American (the recent "Citizens United" Supreme Court ruling is a miscarriage of justice and must be reversed. The $50 or $100 a normal American may give to a political campaign becomes meaningless when corporations or other special interests are handing our millions to buy political access to the decision making process.
For decades now the corporations and special interests have had our "representatives" bought and paid for (both on the right and the left). Concentrating our efforts on getting the money out of our politics is the best way we can create an environment in which further reforms can be realized. Until we end the current system of legalized bribery (campaign donations) and paid lobbying our politicians will continue to be the LAP DOGS of the corporations and special interests. What we need first and foremost is real, loop-hole free CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM!!!! If the corruption is not dealt with first, the chance of any other meaningful reforms becoming a reality is almost zero - the special interests will just use their money to buy votes and put forward bills that create loop-holes or otherwise twist the law in their favor. If we want our children to live in a country where there vote matters, we need to get the money out of our politics, otherwise they will increasingly become the 21st century version of the "landless peasant." Spread the word - End the LEGALIZED BRIBERY!!! CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM needs to be THE main goal of the protests!!!
Money and politics do go hand in hand. Corruption on every level, and by both of the main parties. It is such a disgrace, and runs so deep, and has gotten so metastasized, that major surgery is required for it's removal. Obama bought the presidency for a billion dollars! John McCain's 700 million bucks left him in the dust. If he had out raised Obama, he would most likely be commander in chief. Imagine the countless millions spent on all of the other national and local contests. It's all about power. Money is power and power is money.
Well said - the campaigns have turned into bait and switch marketing. I really like the idea of a publicly funded campaigns (set up some kind of trust fund). Spread the word - address the root cause, the rest will follow.