Federal Subsidies

Subsidies are direct payments that the government hands out to select communities, industries, businesses and individuals.

They prop up a particular economic activity or sector over their competitors.

These handouts take a number of forms, from payments to mega-farms to payments to airline carriers for flights that no one want—to a hundred other examples.

Unsurprisingly, these subsidies usually go to the wealthy or well-connected, even when they’re supposed to go to the needy. For example, the Community Development Block Grant program was developed to support low-income individuals and address immediate threats to community welfare where “no local funding is available.”

In 2012, however, none of the nation’s 10 poorest counties received any funding through the program. Eight of the 10 richest counties did—two of which, not surprisingly, are adjacent to the Washington, D.C. city limit with easy access to Capitol Hill.

That’s unjust. Politicians and bureaucrats have no business picking the economy’s winners and losers—only consumers have that right.