New Math?

The person who calculated this bit of information is a professor at the University of West Virginia in Morgantown, where he's worked for the last 40+ years.

He says that:

• A clunker that travels 12,000 miles a year at 15 mpg uses 800 gallons of gas a year.

• A new vehicle that travels 12,000 miles a year at 25 mpg uses 480 gallons of gas a year.

• So, the average Cash for Clunkers transaction reduced gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.

• The government claims 700,000 clunkers have been replaced so that is 224 million gallons saved per year.

• That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil.

• 5 million barrels is about 5 hours worth of US consumption.

• More importantly, 5 million barrels of oil at $70 per barrel costs about $350 million dollars.

• So, the government paid $3 billion of our tax dollars to save $350 million.

They spent $8.57 for every $1.00 they saved.

…I'm pretty sure they will do a much better job with our healthcare though.