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Old 10-11-2025 | 07:54 PM
  #101  
MaxQ
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Originally Posted by GogglesPisano
Agreed. Actually all subsidies need to stop.
There is not a business or organization that doesn't depend on some degree of government subsidy.
Collective investment into all the complex webs that make complex societies function is a requirement for daily life.
Without these subsidies everything would grind to a halt pretty quickly.

In fairness I know you are speaking of the egregious excesses. But where and how to rein them in isn't as straightforward as we think.
Example: a public company is awarded a no bid open ended contract during the Iraq war. Their stock soars. You, or your 401K , owns some of that stock. You become richer, without doing a thing.
The money for that no bid contract came from govt 10 year TBills. It's borrowed.
The large number of people who have zero stake in the market are negatively affected by this debt, as are you. But you also made money from this act of borrowing. Your 401K, or stock portfolio pockets a subsidy that was granted in a borderline corrupt fashion. A crackdown on this would generate howls from those with political power. Those who buy stocks have political power.
They (and that includes your economic group) don't want the egregious excesses reined in.

The philosophy of acting for the greater good was essentially killed by the 1980 Presidential election, and then put into practical application with Newt Gingrich becoming Speaker of the House.
Ending egregious excesses would take a sea change of political philosophy that has reigned for 45 years.
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