America needs therapy

[James B. DiGriz]

Declan McCullagh wrote:

> On Mon, Oct 01, 2001 at 09:55:34AM -0500, Harmon Seaver wrote:
> 
>>      Besides which, the true cost of gasoline at the pump would be
>>$10-15 @ gallon without all the gov't subsidies to the oil industry.
>>
> 
> I think this canard has been debunked on the list in the last week.
> 
> The current cost (say, US$1.50 a gallon) would probably be closer to half
> that without taxes on each step of the process.
> 
> As for ethanol, which you cite, if it's so splendid an alternative, one
> would think that ADM could survive without such lavish corporate welfare.
> 
> http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa241es.html
>        Thanks to federal 
>        protection of the domestic sugar industry, ethanol subsidies, 
>        subsidized grain exports, and various other programs, ADM has 
>        cost the American economy billions of dollars since 1980 and 
>        has indirectly cost Americans tens of billions of dollars in 
>        higher prices and higher taxes over that same period. At 
>        least 43 percent of ADM's annual profits are from products 
>        heavily subsidized or protected by the American government. 
> 
> -Declan
> 
> 
> 

A far more productive application of corporate welfare would be if that 
money were spent on engineering research and development of 
geosynchronous solar power microwave relays, fusion and advanced fission 
reactors, permanent manned statons on the Moon, Mars, asteroids, etc. 
The planet and its politics would likely be a lot cleaner. Just one 
beneficial side effect.

If govts. didn't insist on scarfing up so much in taxes and thwarting 
markets at the behest of vested interests, private parties probably 
would already be doing most of this by now.

But what else is new?

jbdigriz