| | | Re <<I suppose the situation can be spun to one's liking or preconceived notions ... no taxpayer dollars, but political lobbying?>>
for the sake of completeness of analysis, let us try another view ...
(1) Team USA tees up tariff on import competition to artificially raise the price of solar panels and related tack-ons to above pervasive internationally available price, in order to give rise to a domestic industry that under free-trade circumstance would not survive
(2) The tariff is paid by tax payers, and alternatively, the artificially heightened domestic sourcing is paid by other payers would did not wish to be taxed, iow, they are extorted to buy domestic
(3) The solar equipment was installed on excess naval reserve land, that which was dispensed by tax payers at some earlier juncture, as the military is not a profit making enterprise at any time except earliest history in days of piracy did not pay for the land out of profit generation
(4) Had the excess land been sold, as opposed to held for rental, presumably the tax payers would pay a bit less than now for the navy
(5) The artificially heightened electricity rate is paid by users of electricity, to finance the tariff and / or artificially price-heightened domestic equipment sourcing, and who otherwise would have enjoyed a less expensive upkeep of the navy, and less expensive electricity
(6) The entire enterprise is then spun as a win for the electorate tax payers, and the instigators who politically enabled the entire schema walks away with a win, say 10X, and probably pay some advantaged tax rate as they monetised the stream of income as a onetime capital gain, and probably got further advantages given that they were investing in green energy - nice
Easy spin, tax dollars from the many were used to enrich the few who managed to navigate the political process.
The analysis requires no preconceived notions, and only used mathematical logic.
Suppose such a schema was papered on a Powerpoint presentation, done by Tesla in a Democrat district, and clearly lays out the step-by-step, and suppose Amazon got hold of it, duplicated the idea elsewhere by way of good-office of Goldman Sachs, but in a Republican area, and both signed off by Price Waterhouse w/r to IRS issues, and further suppose NYT got hold of the presentations, and same again by Fox TV, what should we suppose would happen?
Most likely nothing, because it is the norm, for the people by the people against other people, industrial policy tailored to individual needs; special individuals. |
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