re: #264 Aceofwhat?

whereas i am trying to highlight what i think is a more important distinction: is the subsidy actually costing us anything?

ebruce is making the mistake of presuming that all subsidies cost something. that’s not necessarily true. all direct subsidies cost something.

when we add up the subsidies for a particular industry, we don’t usually do a good job of separating the subsidies offered at the taxpayers’ expense from the subsidies offered to entice additional activity, and thereby revenue.

did that come out in english?

However that additional activity may or may not result in additional revenue. That’s the point. Corporations do this all the time. Collect all sorts of incentives but then fail to deliver on the promised jobs and economic activity, or then move as soon as they get a better deal elsewhere.