That was the case 10 years ago but now you're talking about a program that ran nearly 18 years ago. And the best used cars that were crushed were gas guzzlers which the poors can't afford to keep running. The real travesty was not the clunker program but the enshittification of build and design (plastic everything, biodegradable wire coatings that mice eat, and replacing universal parts with modular parts that change every other year).