Cash for Clunker Appliances!

This is the kind of nonsense that has to stop.

Yesterday, The Daily Caller reported:

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A new state incentive for Texans to buy energy-efficient appliances didn’t last long — less than a day.

The state began accepting rebate reservations Wednesday for the Texas Trade Up Appliance Rebate Program for purchases of select Energy Star appliances.

But high public demand quickly overwhelmed the reservation system and many callers were being greeted with busy signals as they tried to sign up. By the end of the day, a notice was posted on the program’s Web site saying, “All rebate and waitlist reservations have been filled.”

This shows the economic ignorance of the political leadership in both Texas and in Washington DC. All this kind of program does, aside from create more government jobs, is accelerate some sales that would have occurred eventually anyway. Yes, it may improve the sales of the appliance retailers and manufacturers, but as the cost of some other area of the economy, perhaps plumbers who instead of getting the job of putting in a new sink are force to sit idle while their friend the Maytag man does a new fridge install.

The environmental argument is a non-starter. This will reduce the global temperature by .0000001 degree centigrade over the course of the next decade. (OK, I made the precise number up, but I bet it is close.)

The government on all levels needs to stay out of the economy!