Cash For Clunkers = Harmful to the Enviroment

I don't like to say that I'm a tree-hugging crazy person but I do believe it caring for the Earth that we have been permitted to live on. I believe in using reusable bags but I don't beat myself up for forgetting one in my car (I carry a big enough purse to usually pack whatever I'm buying after checking out.) So, when I was talking to my mother about needing a new car (Walter is getting old, he needs lots of oil changes) and she had said something about the Cash For Clunkers. I was like: "DUDE! $4500 to trade in Walter. He is only worth $2000."

To say the least I was excited. But then I found out more about the program and I kept getting more and more disappointed. Now, per a deal with my parents I live at home and I don't pay rent. This of course means I follow the rules of the house and I pay for other things. My insurance is a big one ($100) and I pay for the extras on my cell phone. I hate it. I only pay about $130 a month on things that I like and I don't even pay for my medical, rent, etc.

I've always been a person who hates paying or owing money. So when I found out it had to be a new car I instantly said no. I can't afford a new car and I don't want to be making payments. I'm the type of person that if I bought a car I would come in with the cash to purchase it and that was it. Never speak to the dealership again except for any problems or to buy a new car in the same method.

The people who are buying into this program are the same people who bought houses they couldn't afford. Well, not everyone but at least the majority of them are. Shame on them. Do not purchase anything you cannot afford without at least one income. And if you only have one income do not purchase anything that you cannot afford if you lose your job.
That is something my mother always taught me.

And then I heard that Walter would be destroyed -- all because he is old and is 5 mpg under the limit. I couldn't let a car that has been in my family since my Grandmother bought him as a new baby in 1990, who then become the replacement car for my mom after she sold her van (or was forced to give up the big brown van when my grandmother gave her the car to replace it) and then when I crashed Keith and I was given Walter as my replacement. That was another turn off.

And then I put two and two together and I was stumped. You are trying to help the environment by wasting resources to build new cars all for a few extra miles and you are destroying perfectly good cars that are too old or don't get the best gas mileage. They are built. So you are putting pollution in the air to build new cars AND destroy old cars.

Also, how is this helping our economy. You are giving people my money to trade in a car that is going to be destroyed to buy foreign cars.
That makes a lot of sense. I guess.

Right?