Saturday, June 20, 2009

Regarding "Cash-for-Clunkers"

I'm pretty much on extended hiatus from Desert Biofuels stuff, although I've been making my weekly trek down to AZ Biodiesel to top off and fill a couple 5 gallon jugs. As long as B99 is $2.19/gal it's hard to get motivated to go through the hassle of making biodiesel at home. So thanks Dan!

What I have been doing (besides my two jobs, and life in general) is trading a lot of emails with two of my brothers-in-law, one of whom is conservative, one of whom is liberal. I'm the token independent.

Some of the "conversations" get pretty far afield, but just the other day I forwarded a quote from a great motorcycle blog called The Kneeslider (subtitle: Motorcycle News for Positive People -- how cool is that?!). It's regarding the recently passed "Cash-for-Clunkers" bill and it that pretty much sums up my views on the insanity coming out of Washington D.C.:

Frederic Bastiat once said, “Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.” Unfortunately, we are now living in this fictitious world, or at least, many people are trying to make it come true.

Note to politicians giving away our money: You look more foolish and cynical every day by constantly adding people and businesses to your list of political beneficiaries, trying to buy votes with our money. Stop it.

Note to people and businesses taking the money: When you tell everyone how beneficial these programs are, you sound greedy and shallow and you think people believe you. Stop it.

I have a simple idea, let’s all buy our own cars, trucks, motorcycles or anything else we want within the limits of what we can afford. Then companies can build products that people want to buy. There’s no government bureaucracy involved either so we can start immediately. Let’s try that.

Motorcycle Vouchers Proposed in Addition to Cash for Clunkers - A Bad Idea Gets Worse