Moving goalposts

I breifly considered trading in my pickup in the cash for clunkers scheme, but tit turns out to not really make any sense for me. I had heard some talk that made me think mmy 96 F150 might be eligible, so I looked it up and indeed, it is. And there was supposedly a Chevy pickup that beats the minimum mileage.

However, as of a couple days ago, there's not a single pickup in any configuration and very few SUVs that beat the 18 mpg combined mileage. It would seem the goalpost has been moved.

This would seem to be incompetence, and doubtless will be explained away as a mistake. However, I think the mistake lies not in the actual evaluation of mileage, but more in the fact that the agenda is exposed; not really to be for the people, but against driving. They didn't make the barrier high enough, they didn't beat the horse dead enough, the first time around. So someone came in and changed the science by fiat, with the stroke of a pen. I dunno about you, but personally, I blame Bush. {/sarcasm}

If you make the experience of driving miserable enough (say, in a Geo Metro) maybe people will do less of it. And damn the conomic and personal impact of that. Who cares, after all- it affects the rural rubes more than sophisticated city dwellers in highly dense urban settings.

The F150 is not my daily driver, but it is VERY useful to me as a work vehicle, recreational vehicle(camping, jiking, biking) and in inclement weather (it's 4WD).

My daily driver is a Tiburon, low to the ground, fun to drive, nice enough to display status as much as I care to, but utterly worthless is snow or a natural disaster. It has no cargo capacity to speak of, and while technically a four-seater, I can get 3 people into my pickup easier than I can get 3 into my car. My car is very low mileage and well-maintained; I don't need a second car.

One of the avowed purposes of the cash for clunkers idea (aside from the environemental impact, which I won't touch for this post, or the debatable economic gains of incentivizing new car sales and manufacturing) is that low-income people would get help towards a vehicle that would help them with finding or maintaining work. In some cases, a tiny 2-door sedan might do that, for sure. However, wouldn't one think that a work vehicle, for example a truck or a sport utility vehicle might have great benefits for someone who istrying to , you know, work?