{"id":1759,"date":"2009-12-13T08:42:03","date_gmt":"2009-12-13T08:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/dollars-for-dishwashers\/"},"modified":"2009-12-13T08:42:03","modified_gmt":"2009-12-13T08:42:03","slug":"dollars-for-dishwashers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/libertarianism\/dollars-for-dishwashers.php","title":{"rendered":"Dollars for Dishwashers"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>On the heels of its ballyhooed \"Cash for Clunkers\" program for cars, the federal government is expected to finalize details in the coming weeks of another tax-supported shopping extravaganza, known as \"Cash for Appliances.\"<\/p><p>Supported by $300 million from the economic stimulus, the program will offer rebates to consumers who buy energy-efficient refrigerators, dishwashers, air conditioners and other appliances to replace their older models.<\/p><\/blockquote><p>This <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2009\/11\/26\/AR2009112602420.html?hpid=topnews\">program<\/a> is just as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2009\/POLITICS\/08\/03\/miron.clunkers\/index.html\">misguided<\/a> as the original Cash for Clunkers.&nbsp; The only half-way respectable argument in its favor is the one offered by the Council on Economic Advisers:<\/p><blockquote><p>Clunkers \"is one of several stimulus programs whose purpose is to shift expenditures by households, businesses, and governments from the future to the present,\" the council wrote in a September report. \"Such time-shifting is valuable in a recession, when the economy has an abundance of unemployed resources that can be put to work at low net economic cost.\"<\/p><\/blockquote><p>This view could be right in principle, but it is unlikely to be right in practice.&nbsp;&nbsp;Just as governments are error-prone and easily swayed by&nbsp;special interests&nbsp;when it comes to picking&nbsp;industries to support&nbsp;(industrial policy), they are likely to miscalculate often in picking when and where to stimulate.<\/p><p>Plus, this particular stimulus requires destruction of consumer durables that still work, an unambiguous waste.<\/p><p>Given&nbsp;its $300 million size, the program cannot have much influence.&nbsp; But a better approach with that $300 million is to reduce tax rates and let consumers choose how to spend their money.<\/p><div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/b243d_6379328854053402400-4293088172795248795?l=jeffreymiron.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the heels of its ballyhooed \"Cash for Clunkers\" program for cars, the federal government is expected to finalize details in the coming weeks of another tax-supported shopping extravaganza, known as \"Cash for Appliances.\"Supported by $300 million from the economic &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/libertarianism\/dollars-for-dishwashers.php\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-libertarianism"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}