Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to "Mortgage subsidies"?

Wow!
ER — (archived)

Does that sound familiar!

The circumstances are different, of course, but in general, this is the same schematic I encountered between the electrical utilities, the nuclear power industry, and the Federal Government back in the 70s. Big business and big government working together to move massive market initiatives the private sector was unable or unwilling to pull off on its own. It is, of course, everywhere, the airline industry, public works, big engineering, big agriculture, health care, you name it. Even Big Labor loved it, although I'm afraid they aren't much of a player any more. Now it's moving out of industry into finance. Before long you'll see it in alternative energy, offshore drilling...need I go on?

In the nuke industry, the Government provided the fuel manufacturing infrastructure, the research, the science, the insurance underwriting and (ta-daaa!, the public relations expertise). The only thing the Fed never got around to doing, and the industry was too cheap to provide, was waste reprocessing.

I hesitate to condemn this outright, there may be a place for this kind of partnership, especially in space exploration. But I can see that it also has the further (dis)advantage of being able to be claimed as a public relations coup for the private sector when it succeeds, and a built in scapegoat fall guy for the government in case it doesn't.

The Military-Industrial Complex is now fully geared up for peace as well as war.

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