Cash for Clunkers
From a CNO reader

Editor’s note: The person who calculated this is supposedly a college professor. That has not been verified. The numbers have not been verified. But we thought you’d get a kick out of it anyway.

The professor says a clunker that travels 12,000 miles a year at 15 mpg uses 800 gallons of gas a year. A new vehicle that travels 12,000 miles a year at 25 mpg uses 480 gallons of gas a year. So, the average Cash for Clunkers transaction reduced gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.

The government claims 700,000 clunkers were replaced so that is 224 million gallons saved per year. That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil. 5 million barrels is about 5 hours worth of US consumption. More importantly, 5 million barrels of oil at $90 per barrel costs about $450 million dollars.

The government spent $3 billion on the Cash for Clunkers program or $4,285 per vehicle to purchase the vehicles and run the program.

So, the government paid $3 billion of our tax dollars to save $450 million. They spent $6.67 for every $1.00 they saved.

We've been assured, though, that they will do a much better job with our health care.

I feel better already.

And you thought you could manage your money better than the government can.