Government Subsidies
Published Sat, Sep 5 2009 11:53 AM
Well, there’s apparently at least one area where the government can run a business better than private industry. Boeing recently won a ruling in the WTO that the subsidies given to Airbus were illegal. Airbus, unable to compete with Boeing on its own had to rely on European Union subsidies to overtake and surpass Boeing as the leading manufacturer of commercial aircraft. In an effort to level the playing field, the U.S. resorted to having the WTO settle the dispute.
What’s wrong with this picture? More than a few things. But two that come to mind immediately are the notion that government is better at building airplanes than a private commercial enterprise, and that the United States would have to resort to so-called “international law” to protect honest competition.
I reject the notion that any government run enterprise is more efficient than a for-profit commercial enterprise. In subsidizing Airbus, the European Union had to throw billions of dollars away through waste and mismanagement, not to mention layers of bureaucracy. On the other hand, the one thing governments are truly good at is extorting money from the taxpayer and bestowing it lavishly upon their pet projects. No private enterprise can (ordinarily) compete with the tax moneys of a collection of nations like the European Union.
That should tell you something about American private enterprise. Get the government out of the way and it can thrive. Nothing drives an economy quite like successful businesses. A successful business creates real jobs that last. Not only that, but it pulls other businesses up with it.
“International Law?” The United States is a sovereign nation. We don’t submit our government officials to the jurisdiction of the so-called “International Criminal Court,” a tribunal that bases its decisions on no written law. We should also leave the WTO out of our business. It’s hypocritical to support “international law” when it goes our way and reject it when it inconveniently tramples upon our sovereign rights as a nation.
But then, our politicians have never been much else but hypocritical – have they?
Trackback URI for this post: http://perrinelson.com/track.aspx?postid=1361
Permalink URI for this post: http://perrinelson.com/2009/9/5/1361.aspx
Subscribe to this entry's
comment feed. (Atom)
Comments to this entry are closed.