Posts Tagged ‘subsidies’

Remember You’re Only the Middleman for the Graft

Posted: November 2, 2023 by datechguy in opinion/news
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James Hacker: No Mrs. Rogers it won’t do. Either you must get some patients into this hospital or I shall close it.

Mrs. Rogers: Yes well minster in the course of time…

James Hacker: No no, not in the course of time Mrs. Rogers, now! Get rid of 300 of your people and get some doctors and nurses and get some patents.

Billy Frasier: Now look here without those 300 people this hospital wouldn’t function

James Hacker: You think it’s functioning now?

Mrs. Rogers: Minister, it’s one of the best run hospitals in the country. It’s up for the Florence Nightingale Award.

James Hacker: And what, pray, is that?

Mrs. Rogers: It’s won by the most hygienic hospital in the area.

Yes Minister: The compassionate Society 1981

One of the things that allows people to rob us blind is their misunderstanding of subsidies given to various producers of various items.

As a general rule I think the only things that really deserve subsidy are things that increase our supply of

  • Food
  • Drinking Water
  • Fuel
  • Electricity

The basis for this is that a country that can provide food and water, electricity and fuel without outside help is truly independent because if worst comes to worst the necessities of food and warm shelter are available so the people can survive. And of course such a country can tell any other country or group of countries who want to buffalo them to get lost because anything they would have to do without would be either a luxury or convienence.

This is not the case with electric cars. Consider this bit of info:

The paper estimated that the average cost of EV subsidies, ultimately footed by American taxpayers, were around $8,984 per car. That was thanks to a combination of the well-known $7,500 federal tax credit as well as state subsidies.

‘Our preliminary analysis indicates that states handed out over $646 million in taxpayer subsidies to EV buyers in 2021,’ read the report. ‘Dividing by the 435,320 EVs sold in 2021, the average EV buyer received state credits totaling $1,484.’

Now people think. “Hey I’m getting $8500 for buying this car!” but what’s actually happening is that $8500 is added to the price of the car so it’s going to the manufacturer to offset the costs that are being imposed.

Or think of college. People wonder why the price of college admission has gotten so out of hand. The reason is simple. When you have the federal government giving out free cash to help offset the cost of attending colleges, the colleges increase their prices to absorb as much of those funds as possible.

That’s why you have so many more administrators these days. All those tax dollars are helping to pay for all those people who process said tax dollars. The subsidy is not for you it’s for the people who are to be rewarded, it’s just passing through your hands.

That’s why one should always be wary of governments offering gifts because in the end it’s all about rewarding friends and those friends aren’t you.

Once you understand this, then the rest makes a lot of sense.