Personally, I favor direct control, taxation and regulation to restrict fossil fuel consumption and force conservation. The government does not profit...
No profit?
I am really trying to wrap my head around the idea of increased government power, more taxation, and ever-tighter control over the private sector, combined with the idea that the government has nothing to gain by this.
Maybe the problem is how one defines "profit."
People will bend heaven and earth to get elected to national office. In most cases, the office pays them far less, even counting the perks, than they could get in the private sector with their talents.
We're not talking money here.
We're talking power.
The money taken from the private sector is a means to that end, redistributed in ways designed to increase the government's power. Did you read Reich's article? Imagine being able to haul billions out of the industrial sector and use it to write fat checks to voters, probably with a picture of their Senator on the check. There's a reason fiscal stimulus bills are so popular.
Flame » in reply to re: And on "loot"
re: "government does not profit"