how to kill a "clunker"

From Kevin Helliker in the WSJ, the pathetic story on how the method by which they are killing the clunkers...

If only they could use something like this on bad government policy!

All of this also reminds me of Henry Hazlitt's classic Economics in One Lesson where he talks about how destroying windows is good for an economy (running with an analogy from Frederic Bastiat). Since the broken window creates jobs, and people fail to see the opportunity cost of what the resources would have been used for, it looks like a good thing for the economy. So, too, with war-- and in this context, with destroying cars. These Congressional Democrats are economic GENIUSES!

Robert Mueller deals in chemicals for a living -- things that can unstick glue, thin paint, make plastic -- but he'd never seen an order like the one he got for sodium silicate.

The compound is typically used to repel bugs or seal concrete, but this buyer's online order form betrayed a whole different intent: "To Kill Car Engines."

"That worried me a little, so I picked up the phone and called the gentleman," recalls Mr. Mueller, an owner of chemical-firm CQ Concepts Inc. in suburban Chicago.

What Mr. Mueller discovered is that sodium silicate is the designated agent of death for cars surrendered under the federal cash-for-clunkers program. To receive government reimbursement, auto dealers who offer rebates on new cars in exchange for so-called clunkers must agree to "kill" the old models, using a method the government outlines in great detail in its 136-page manual for dealers: Drain the engine of oil and replace it with two quarts of a sodium-silicate solution....