In a May 16, 2009 New York Times online Op-Ed article, Lisa Margonelli speaks out against the proposed Cash for Clunkers program. In her op-ed article, Margonelli thinks the bill should be getting “better mileage”.

Some of her criticisms include:

• The bill is not targeting low income families.
• The bill is giving cash vouchers to rich people.
• The bill is not achieving its “green” roots.
• The bill should offer select consumers low interest financing.  (3%)

In her article, Lisa Margonelli states “A bigger problem with the clunker credit plan is that it’s not aimed at households earning $65,000 a year or less, which own most of the nation’s vehicles more than 10 years old.”  She also adds that consumers making under $65,000 are hard pressed to find credit as many sub-prime lenders have gone out of business.

Low Interest Rates

The merits of Lisa Margonelli’s case can be read in full using this link: Margonelli Comment on Clunkers Bill.  Although the article has many strong points, there is some concern that making credit cheap for low income families was just the tickets that helped to create our financial crisis.

Should credit be cheap? This question is posed by Tom LindMark on his blog post entitled: Low Interest Rates Forever?  

You can see that many discussions have sprouted from the proposed Cash for Clunkers legislation and you are encouraged to read these articles on this site.

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