Cash for Crap.

Leave it to the government to not learn the lesson Cash for Clunkers taught us:

Ohio will use $11,000,000 federal stimulus money to provide rebates to people who buy energy efficient appliances for their homes.

The U.S. Department of Energy approved the state plan Thursday.

Ohio aims to provide about 90,000 rebates to consumers who replace old appliances with Energy Star certified refrigerators, clothes washers, dishwashers, gas heaters and electric heat pump water heaters.

The rebates range from $100 to $250, depending on the appliance.

Not only is this a horrible waste of our tax dollars, but it's going to further damage Ohio's economy in the long-term.

Don't believe me? Ask this Harvard economist about how horrible Cash for Clunkers was for the national economy:

Did [Cash for Clunkers] sell more cars? Maybe in the short term but, in reality, the promotion stole largely from future sales with taxpayers subsidizing over half a million new car sales that would have occurred anyway.

C4C disrupted the even flow of supply and demand. New car buyers held back in advance of the launch of the program; in fact, many prenegotiated with dealers to do so. And, now the promotion is over, expect year-on-year sales to be lower than they would have been because so much consumer demand has been concentrated in the promotion period.

And there is every reason in the world to believe this exact same thing is going to happen again with Ohio's appliance retail industry.

For all that's holy, what's so wrong with freeing up the market and letting capitalism work?