Mr. Green Gear is enjoying a lovely summer. It’s nice to take a break from the reviews. Earlier today I was reading the model blog The Truth About Cars and noticed a part II to their editorial on the government program Cash for Clunkers.
Once in a while, borrowing from regional peculiarities of grammar and syntax throws especially apt light on a situation. For instance, what Americans call a “program,” the English call a “scheme.” America’s cash-for-clunkers scheme is a dazzling success, right? Americans are falling over themselves to partake, as it seems; so much so that its (initial?) billion-with-a-B bucks got snapped up within days. Whether the apparent boon to the automakers turns out to be significant and substantial in the long run remains to be seen; I have my doubts, but either way this scheme reeks of myopia, hypocrisy, greed and snobbery.
Whatever its putative and real goals, and whether or not it achieves them, C4C is the biggest, gaudiest emblem we’ve yet devised for the extent to which our society prizes disposability and thrives on waste.
While many praise the rash of marginally higher MPG vehicles purchased through the program, it seems to this green blogger that the program does little more than pad the pockets of automobile companies. All the while, embracing the waste culture that drove us straight into the environmental wreck we’re desperately trying to AAA our asses out of now.
What do you think?
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Sad part seems to be the cars being turned in a “clunkers” are US made ones and the majority of purchases are going to foreign cars which are perceived as more fuel efficient.
Yes, that’s really sad. A lot of products that the manufacturers dish out as green are not truly green after all. Deceptive labels are one of the ways that they get away with this. So it is very important to read the fine print. We run Climatarians, a global sustainability directory where we feature numerous websites on green issues.