Cash for Clunkers Fails! (or so they say)

Back in May of 2008, the Nintendo Wii gaming system had been on the market for a year and a half, but sales were still outpacing supply. According to cnet.news at the time, "the Wii is still essentially sold out online; we couldn't find the console available to buy from major retailers like Amazon.com, Best Buy, and Circuit City ."

Meanwhile, Wii's competitors, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, were both readily available online.

What was their response to Wii's inability to satiate their customer's demands? Well, it's obvious, isn't it? Of course they pointed out that the Wii was a complete and utter failure and suggested Nintendo should get out of the gaming world completely. I mean, if their customers liked their product so much that Nintendo couldn't keep up with demand, then they must have been a failure.

Right?

Of course not.

But, it's that very same argument we're hearing some make against the wildly successful Cash for Clunkers program. Because the demand for this type of relief was so great, and outpaced expectations, how could we ever allow those who came up with this idea to handle any other issues we might have? You know, like health care reform? That would be crazy, right?

Seriously, this is their argument. A program that has allowed citizens to get out of their old gas guzzlers and into new, more fuel efficient vehicles, while helping car sales climb to their highest levels in 11 months is, according to some, a bad thing.

I guess we liked the idea too much for it to be a good one.


Comments

  1. PhippsterAugust 9, 2009 at 5:39 PM

    I really like the cash for clunkers program. I think is is one of the Obama administration's best moves so far.

    ReplyDelete

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