The real reason behind the Cash for Clunkers program

[Bono]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAOBlqUqUZ8&feature=player_embedded

Text of the Privacy Act & Security Statement at cars.gov:

    “This application provides access to the DoT CARS system. When logged on to the CARS system, your computer is considered a Federal computer system and is the property of the U.S. Government. Any or all uses of this system and all files on this system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorized CARS, Dot, and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign.”

[Marokai Backbeat]

Ooooohhhh, spoookyy.

[tik 🪀✨]

That's pretty screwed up at face value.

[War on Want]

Ooooohhhh, spoookyy.

[Lief 🗽]

Really? I think the real reason is probably to boost automobile sales...

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

It's just pork for the auto companies.

[Associate Justice PiT]

That's pretty screwed up at face value.

     Agreed. The federal government has no business with any more of my property than they already do.

[Ban my account ffs!]

I agree that is pretty messed up.  But I have to wonder if many other government websites don't have such disclaimers somewhere.

Also, private companies do it all the time with spyware..

And might I respond with a question I get from conservatives a lot?  If you have nothing to hide, then what's the problem?

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Try again:

"The "Terms of Use" statement to which Beck refers in this clip is not from cars.gov. Rather it is a login page for dealer transactions located at esc.gov. The only people who can get login credentials for the esc.gov site are dealers who have been screened and registered for the "cash for clunkers" program. To summarize: the page in question isn't on cars.gov and can only be used by dealers who have already registered. Consumers won't be impacted by any of this."

[Bono]

I agree that is pretty messed up.  But I have to wonder if many other government websites don't have such disclaimers somewhere.

Also, private companies do it all the time with spyware..

The difference is, when private companies do it it's illegal.

And might I respond with a question I get from conservatives a lot?  If you have nothing to hide, then what's the problem?

I bet you've never heard me say that.



[/quote]

[War on Want]

Try again:

"The "Terms of Use" statement to which Beck refers in this clip is not from cars.gov. Rather it is a login page for dealer transactions located at esc.gov. The only people who can get login credentials for the esc.gov site are dealers who have been screened and registered for the "cash for clunkers" program. To summarize: the page in question isn't on cars.gov and can only be used by dealers who have already registered. Consumers won't be impacted by any of this."

Hey bono are you going to reply to this?

[Bono]

Try again:

"The "Terms of Use" statement to which Beck refers in this clip is not from cars.gov. Rather it is a login page for dealer transactions located at esc.gov. The only people who can get login credentials for the esc.gov site are dealers who have been screened and registered for the "cash for clunkers" program. To summarize: the page in question isn't on cars.gov and can only be used by dealers who have already registered. Consumers won't be impacted by any of this."

Hey bono are you going to reply to this?

No, the only way for me to confirm that would be going into the cars.gov site, but if JohnnyLongtorso is wrong then I would be giving ownership of my computer to the US federal government, and I think being right on the internet isn't worth that.

But even if that applies only to dealers, I don't see how it's any less outrageous.

[War on Want]

Try again:

"The "Terms of Use" statement to which Beck refers in this clip is not from cars.gov. Rather it is a login page for dealer transactions located at esc.gov. The only people who can get login credentials for the esc.gov site are dealers who have been screened and registered for the "cash for clunkers" program. To summarize: the page in question isn't on cars.gov and can only be used by dealers who have already registered. Consumers won't be impacted by any of this."

Hey bono are you going to reply to this?

No, the only way for me to confirm that would be going into the cars.gov site, but if JohnnyLongtorso is wrong then I would be giving ownership of my computer to the US federal government, and I think being right on the internet isn't worth that.

But even if that applies only to dealers, I don't see how it's any less outrageous.

I'll try and get on the site when it is up again to check.

[Mechaman]

That's pretty screwed up at face value.

     Agreed. The federal government has no business with any more of my property than they already do.

[Hash]

OH NOES

[Lief 🗽]

Here's what this fake news story is really about: the Cash for Clunkers program has been an incredible, unexpected success, increasing business for car dealerships and auto makers, giving people a chance to buy new cars, and having a nice positive environmental side-effect. This can't be, of course; it's a big scary government program! Those never work! So, while a bunch of stories come out about how successful the program is, how popular it is, how it needs more money to keep on going, how government actually works to make people's lives better, conservatives like Glenn Beck trot out this bogeyman story to turn attention away from the program's success.

[Rowan]

Don't you think that if a person is driving a "clunker" to begin with, they really can't afford a $20,000 brand new car? So we are incentivizing stupidity. Brilliant plan.

[War on Want]

Don't you think that if a person is driving a "clunker" to begin with, they really can't afford a $20,000 brand new car? So we are incentivizing stupidity. Brilliant plan.

Did your parents lay your head on the train tracks when you were a baby or do you act this stupid for fun?

The whole point of this is to increase auto sales and have a good side effect. people will always buy new cars, this just gives people a higher incentive to do so. Plus it is for a good, valid long term reason. Anyways if you think incentivizing consumerism is stupidity what kind of a Republican are you?

[Rowan]

Don't you think that if a person is driving a "clunker" to begin with, they really can't afford a $20,000 brand new car? So we are incentivizing stupidity. Brilliant plan.

Did your parents lay your head on the train tracks when you were a baby or do you act this stupid for fun?

The whole point of this is to increase auto sales and have a good side effect. people will always buy new cars, this just gives people a higher incentive to do so. Plus it is for a good, valid long term reason. Anyways if you think incentivizing consumerism is stupidity what kind of a Republican are you?

Yeah we'll see all these good side effects when these people can't make the payments because they were coerced into buying a car they couldn't afford by the government.

[Lief 🗽]

Don't you think that if a person is driving a "clunker" to begin with, they really can't afford a $20,000 brand new car? So we are incentivizing stupidity. Brilliant plan.

A lot of dealerships (at least the ones in my area, from what I've seen on the TV commercials) are matching the government contribution, so that's nearly half off a $20,000 car. I don't know why you don't want increased consumer spending anyway...

[Marokai Backbeat]

Don't you think that if a person is driving a "clunker" to begin with, they really can't afford a $20,000 brand new car? So we are incentivizing stupidity. Brilliant plan.

A lot of dealerships (at least the ones in my area, from what I've seen on the TV commercials) are matching the government contribution, so that's nearly half off a $20,000 car. I don't know why you don't want increased consumer spending anyway...

Similar here, too. The program is incredibly popular in my area and literally half the commercial breaks I've heard on the radio have included dealership ads on the Clunkers program.

[King]

No, the only way for me to confirm that would be going into the cars.gov site, but if JohnnyLongtorso is wrong then I would be giving ownership of my computer to the US federal government, and I think being right on the internet isn't worth that.

Did you even read what you posted? It's only while you are logged into the CARS.gov database.  If you go to CARS.gov as an unregistered guest just to read the registration form's terms of service, then you are under no threat.

[Verily]

Don't you think that if a person is driving a "clunker" to begin with, they really can't afford a $20,000 brand new car? So we are incentivizing stupidity. Brilliant plan.

The whole point is to make that $20,000 car affordable. Moreover, doesn't the market assume intelligent actors? If the actors are intelligent, then they're using the money to buy $12,000 Kias if they can't afford $20,000 Toyotas or Fords--regardless of whether they're getting money for their "clunker" or not.

In fact, effectively reducing the price of both the $12,000 car and the $20,000 car by an equal numerical value by giving out money for a clunker--say, $4,000--makes the now-$8,000 car an even better buy when compared to the now-$16,000 car. It lost a much greater percentage of its price. Whereas previously the cheap car was 60% of the cost of the mid-range car, after the discount it is only 50% of the price of the mid-range car. So flat discounts should actually improve the rate at which intelligent actors purchase cheaper cars because they get greater benefits from buying cheap cars than mid-range cars if they're getting money back.

[King]

I think the idea is that a person who was going to buy that old used car is now going to pick up that new car, which is built around better efficiency standards because 9K was added to their budget..

[Lunar]

Try again:

"The "Terms of Use" statement to which Beck refers in this clip is not from cars.gov. Rather it is a login page for dealer transactions located at esc.gov. The only people who can get login credentials for the esc.gov site are dealers who have been screened and registered for the "cash for clunkers" program. To summarize: the page in question isn't on cars.gov and can only be used by dealers who have already registered. Consumers won't be impacted by any of this."

Hey bono are you going to reply to this?

No, the only way for me to confirm that would be going into the cars.gov site, but if JohnnyLongtorso is wrong then I would be giving ownership of my computer to the US federal government, and I think being right on the internet isn't worth that.

If you post again on the forums of uselectionatlas.org, you imply the right of the forum user named "Lunar," who usually resides in the United States but currently resides in Indonesia, to own your entire computer as well as any pets larger than a mid-sized goose you may have.

ARE YOU WILLING TO TAKE THE RISK BY POSTING HERE AGAIN?