Subsidies

Folks,

In all the talk of unfair trade due to subsidies, I note there is no mention of the fundamental subsidies such companies as Boeing get.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7014370.stm

Aluminum is made from bauxite which is strip-mined, about the worse kind of mining. To get aluminum from bauxite, tremendous amounts of electricity is required. Thus, the rivers are dammed at taxpayers expense, and electricity is subsidized to make aluminum.

Boeing has paid no net taxes in decades, and gets county services like fire suppression at taxpayers expense.

If what Boeing costs taxpayers was actually charged off to customers, then Boeing jets would
cost more than Airbus. If Airbus also charged what they cost, air travel might be too
expensive, certainly more expensive. Could we live without air travel? Or would we work out
an alternative? Or, free of subsidies, would investment distribute in ways that the airline
industries would exist, but just on alternative, self-supporting industrial model?

Certainly in the unsubsidized category of private jets, the price has fallen dramatically as they
now make the fuselages without aluminum.

I read somewhere the Toyota Pius hybrid car costs something like $250,000 each, at present
amortization of the investments, although they sell for something like $20,000. The
difference is subsidized by taxpayers.

What if we had no subsidies for toyota? Would our investment allocation result in better
transportation? Would we have mag lev? Or somethign else? In seattle they have just finished
laying in light rail, 1880's technology, costing deca-millions. China is laying in mag lev at
1/3 the per mile cost.

What if we did not subsidizes education and medicine. Would we get more better cheaper
faster? We have every other time we've withdrawn subsidies.

John

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