Guess what: next comes Cash for Clunker Appliances. John Stossel: "Finally, there is something revolting about the government subsidizing the destruction of useful things. It reminds me of the New Deal policy of killing piglets and pouring milk down sewers to keep food prices from falling" — when, he might have added, people went hungry in the Depression.

I felt at the time I turned over my clunker that it truly was a clunker, but it had a little life left. I just didn't want to have to fix it.