Steel company hanging on

[Wingnut]

sure glad we don't subsidize our companies ... otherwise our farmers, sugar companies, etc would get dependant on those subsidies and handouts, right?

Sorry ... couldn't resist. I spent all my formative years in Canada reading how the American government was always hitting Canada with tariffs due to grain marketing boards, low stumpage fees and other things they contrued an unfair subsidy which let Canadian products be priced lower than American ones. Then, when I first started travelling to the States, many many years before I moved here ... I discovered that the US government paid farmers to take acres out of production, subsidized companies to relocate to areas that needed jobs, very heavily subsidized the sugar industry, subsidized the tobacco growers, etc, etc, etc ... and grew to understand that railing against other countries subsidies was a bald-faced attept to stay elected. Give people tax dollars and they'll vote for you ....

 

[TBone]

Wingnut,

I think some of the farm subsidies started out with good intentions (to keep farmers from going out of business resulting in a lot of hungry Americans) but over the years they have gotten way out of hand.

If you look up the names of people and corporations on the farm subsidy take you will see very few true farmers and IMHO very few that deserve the government handout.

I do not know anything one way or the other about the sugar companies.

As far as subsidizing companies to locate to certain areas, I know a lot of states and municipalities give tax breaks, free land and cheap interest to companies as incentives to locate in certain areas. I am not aware of any government agencies that pay a steel company X amount per pound for every pound they produce.

I'm not saying it doesn't happen but if it does I'm not aware of it (nor would I be in favor of it). This is what a lot of foreign governments do. That puts American companies and American workers in direct competition with other governments not other industries.

That, to me is unfair.

TBone