Words'nTone

While we’re at it—talking about idolatry and the poor—I take a slight side route and pause in my mini-series of posts on idolatry and coveting to say…

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If you’re planning on doing the “Cash for Clunkers” deal and get your $4,500 for trading in your used car for a new one—think twice if you have a concern for the poor. I heard and then did a little study that with all the cars being turned in for the “Cash for Clunkers” program, the price of used vehicles are rising. This hurts the poor directly I thought. I couldn’t be the only one who put these two things together, so I began to browse—and I am not the only one. Hundreds of websites and blogs are making comments and postings that “Cash for Clunkers” hurts the poor. You see, since they—the program goal—is to take the older vehicle off the road, this reduces the number of older cars—i.e., used cars—available in the market, which causes the cost of the used vehicles to rise. It is the pool (i.e., market) of used cars that poorer folks and families rely on for their car-purchase, because its affordable (well, it used to be). (Teens looking for their first car will be hurt too!) I betcha that no one in the current administration or congress even thought about this; it is like raising the taxes on the poor, which it actually does. And if you consider insurance, the cost, too, is higher because of the higher cost to the used vehicle, which hurts the poor as well.  This is a clear display that even those who claim through their impassioned speech and rhetoric that we need to have concern for the poor and shift (redistribute) resources to the poor don’t really care about the poor and how their so-called good-will legislation actually impacts the poor negatively. As one person said, “Progressive policy isn’t always good for the poor.” Like corn-for-cars, which leaves long lines for food in third-world societies, cash for clunkers hurts the poor. Where is the outcry from Jim Wallis and his kind? Nowhere to be heard! Where are the community organizers to boycott and speak on behalf of the poor and against cash for clunkers? Not one bit of action on their part! Since this was a liberal idea, a progressive idea, these groups will be silent—which actually shows everyone where their heart is at. It is power they want--not to actually help the poor. Cash for clunkers hurts the poor—boycott the program if you care about the poor.

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