My former colleague Paul Chesser, now head honcho at the American Tradition Institute, has a great article on how the eco-industrial complex (EIC) –my words not his–is fleecing the American taxpayer. Exhibits #1,2,&3 are Duke Power, General Motors, and General Electric. The EIC has given us, in chesser’s words, “a costly, counterproductive policy, that is ineffective at addressing a non-problem (global warming). Meanwhile the likes of Duke, GE and GM eagerly scarf up the goodies for their corporations with disregard for ratepayers, taxpayers and the overall economy.”
The broader point is that this is the classic progressivist vision of how an economy should work. Big business and big government work hand in glove to manipulate resource allocation and engineer social behavior. Those companies that play the along reap the rewards and those that that just go about their jobs providing good products that consumers, rather than the state, want, end up the losers.
