This hour long lecture by Dr. Burt Folsom is very entertaining. Its called The Myth of the Robber Barons. Its an incomplete history of subsidized enterprise in the United States that includes the steamship business in the 1800's and the Railroad wars between UP and CP.
The lessons are relevant to our subsidized industries of today. One solution proposed to solve the biased CBC problem would be to create another CBC. We would have a CBC red and a CBC blue. The literal battles between UP and CP show that doubling up on subsidized entities only introduces competition in stupidity. Two wrongs are not right.
It also reminds us that our times do not have the monopoly on stupid adventures with taxpayer money. There have always been subsidy salesmen. There will always be moron socialists who buy in on our behalf. What is different is that now we have the observed history of failure by government intervention. Speak out against government subsidies.
(h/t Capitalism)
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