Clunkers and your tax dollar

I recently traded in my 1996 Ford Explorer for a 2009 Toyota Prius. While most of my friends and colleagues were happy and supportive of my decision and good fortune, one of them became miffed when he overheard me talking about it and, his face a little contorted with anger, said "Why should my tax money go to help you buy a new car?" I started to list the reasons but he would have none of it and he left in a bit of a huff (wanna guess who he voted for in the last election?). But it got me thinking. Why did he get so angry? And why should we support a program such as this?

I think there are two main reasons he was so angry. First, he sees me benefiting directly from a government program that he is opposed to. He can't scream at AIG. And besides, they are a corporation- big, impersonal, and far away. An abstraction. But here I was, a flesh and blood target of his tax anxiety. And since I was not in any dire financial straits, just a colleague with a crappy car, he probably felt like I had taken money from him I didn't need. In his mind, it was theft and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it.

Secondly, I think he was having a disconnect of sorts because of his political world view. He believes that anything government attempts to do will be botched and the result will be wasted money and stifled opportunity. Whenever a program appears to work really well and have many positive outcomes it causes a panic and forces him to confront his beliefs in an uncomfortable way. It's almost like an intervention. But now let's get to the heart of the matter. Why should any of us support the "Cash for Clunkers" program? Why should we subsidize one another's automobiles? Here's the list I came up with. Feel free to add the ones I didn't think of.
1) Economic Stimulation- the sale of that car is going to provide income for the dealership, it's employees (sales, maintenance, reception, managers), the manufacturer, their employees, banks, advertisers, media, scrap yards and many others, and far in excess of the government's $4500.00 rebate. The stimulus is actually amplified by the consumer!
2) Safety- the new cars being bought are smaller and hence less likely to kill you if you collide with them. Also, because they are newer, they tend to have better safety features than the clunkers that they replaced. That means the people inside will be safer. So they won't be as expensive to insure (which will help decrease your premiums) nor will their injuries be as expensive to treat (again, theoretically, these saving should be passed on). Fewer injured people mean a more productive workforce (it's important to use free market arguments when debating the uber-conservatives, no?)
3) Security- more efficient cars mean less dependence on foreign oil. This is another way to get your rightist acquaintances attention. I try to remind them that if we weren't addicted to oil that we would care about what goes on in Iraq about as much as we care about what goes on in Burma. (Now I personally think we should pay a little more attention to places like Burma, but most of the people who I will be using these points on won't. Anyway, we can't pay attention to the Burma's of the world, because Iraq and Afghanistan have sucked all the air out of the room. But I digress.)
4) Environmental- OK, this is where you'll lose the hard core right, but they need to hear it- these new cars will cut down on emissions- less greenhouse gasses. Also, less smog. Nobody likes smog, right?
5) Efficiency- Don't forget, the average car being purchased under this program is 60% more fuel efficient than the clunker. That's quite a savings at the pump. But much of these savings will be spent somewhere else on things that we may get more return on than fuel. Newer, faster computers? Education? Health care? All of these things add more to the economy than what we burn in our engines. Money we save there can be turned into brainpower.
6) Psychology- One of the main reasons for an economic downturn (indeed, some argue, the only reason) is that people are worried about the future. But this is very much a group psychology. We are worried about our collective futures. So if people see other people making purchases, they tend to think "Hey, that guy's not too worried. Maybe things won't be so bad". And they loosen up the chains on their wallet a little bit.
OK, there's my six. I'm sure I overlooked some big ones, so help me out. Two billion more is being fed into the program and there will be more wailing and gnashing of teeth from the far right. Let's have our rebuttal ready.
(cross posted at Daily Kos)