Gillard bribe: Cash for Clunkers.

Cartoon: Nate Beeler.

In another of her less than original ideas Gillard has come up with an electoral bribe to car buyers with a rehash of the Obama administrations “Cash for Clunkers” program.

The idea as proposed by her is to pay people with older cars $2000 dollars to replace them with a small Japanese model more fuel-efficient model. And of course if you believe the press it’s all in the name of the environment and a more compassionate and caring Australia, which is of course in line with Labors election slogan, moving forward.

Reporters need to be a bit more circumspect when listening to the sort of stuff their political cousins regularly come out with.

“"I want to help Australians to update their motor vehicles," she said, noting that the old cars would be turned into scrap metal. The rebate will be on offer for 200,000 new vehicles, costing the Government $394 million.”

This should read as follows: “I want your votes and I don’t really give a shit how I go about it and as such I am prepared to engage in outright bribery, in order to get those of people with older cars. The old ones will be turned into scrap metal, thus denying those who cannot afford new ones, even with a discount, access to the parts from those handed in, to keep their current vehicles running.

The bribe will be on offer for 200,000 new vehicles, costing the dumb arse taxpayers $394 million.” For the record this is not as the press has dutifully reported the members of parliament forking out their own money in order to do good things, but as usual, tossing our money about in a profligate manner to get reelected in order to toss our money about in a profligate manner to ….. .

In many ways the theory of ‘Cash for clunkers,’ is similar to the ‘broken window’ theory where it is argued that vandalism is good, (the leftist perspective on “Greed is good in the movie ‘Wall Street’,) in that the destruction of property is synonymous with economic revival, (thus wars are good for the economy) by causing the victims to spend money they might have been otherwise too bloody selfish to. The fact that the victims may have had their own aspirations as to what to do with the money they have been forced to spend to get back where they started from is beside the point.

There are numerous reasons why people keep their old vehicles. Some have priorities, which they put before having a flash car. Some just can’t afford it. The reality is, that this scheme is most likely to encourage people to spend beyond their means in order to take advantage of the ‘once in a lifetime offer’ thus putting them in deeper shit than Julie has already placed them in.

This is of course not to say that Julie doesn’t understand the aspirations of the po’folk. She has anecdotal evidence from her university days of what her professors told her of how they yearn for the hard earned dollars of the successful to be taken and redistributed to each according to his needs. Its just those poor misguided pricks that aspire to a job and achieving success by the sweat of their own brow that she has problems with.