Chevy Volt a Failure - GM to Layoff 1,300

A profit incentive might. And consumer (or industrial) demand is what provides that incentive.

Handing no-collateral loans, that we can't even afford, so we issue debt to do it -- which costs all of us -- to entities handpicked by politicians in D.C. hasn't sparked much innovation for the investment we have made. It has sparked Fisker, Soyndra, A123, Ener1, Beacon Power, Abound Solar, Range Fuels, Azure Dynamics, United Solar Ovanic, Raser Technologies, Nordic Windpower, SpectraWatt, Konarka Technologies, Thompson River Power, and a graveyard of other bankrupt companies that we pissed money away on.

Those government handouts aren't incentives. They are actually disincentives. Those companies blew through handouts and had no incentive -- the way I do with my business -- to actually try to meet actual consumer demand to make a profit.

Look at the $150 million of our money that went into building the LG Chem factory in Holland, Michigan to produce electric car batteries. Not only will the U.S. taxpayer never receive any direct benefit from a plant for which they are providing half the funding, at one point, the company was charging the government (which had taken over GM) for tens of thousands of man hours for its employees to play cards and video games because there wasn't any demand for the batteries.

 

Confiscating money from some citizens and giving it to others, is not the role of a government in a Republic, as the U.S. was envisioned.

We put a primacy on life, liberty and PROPERTY. We shouldn't be taking from some people and giving arbitrarily to others who politicians want to favor -- in quid pro quos.

We should never take from Joe to benefit Fred because Fred is politically connected. Under any circumstance. It doesn't matter how much Fred greased a politician and the rhetoric the politician uses about how the unfair playing field that is being created is in the "national interest."

It's unfair. And no, it never justifies their cost, because it funnels money away from potentially productive areas of the economy to areas that are not being dictated by actual demand. It's inefficient at best, downright corrupt in actuality. And it hurts Americans by stunting our economy.

In the case of those DOE loans, the reason I can rattle off those examples so easily, is because all of those companies were handed no-collateral bags of cash, and all of them went bankrupt. Is it any surprise? They took the money and ran. They never had viable businesses. It wasn't an "incentive" to spark innovation, as cran put it. It was incentive to keep the handouts coming as long as possible.

In the case of others -- such as Ford or Nissan -- you would have a hell of a time explaining the direct benefit of Americans who are now indebted even more due to the billions that were handed to the companies.

Then you have companies that didn't have their lobbyists contribute to the right people and couldn't get in on the game. It's a sham.

Even Tesla. How are American consumers benefiting from a company that has delivered 5,000 or so LUXURY cars to a niche market since that loan was proffered 4 years ago. We (all of us) ate interest on half a billion dollars to essentially benefit Elon Musk. Why is he a handpicked winner by our Federal government, and what about millions of other people who would love half a billion dollars to run through while they flounder with their startup business?

It's unfair.