Government Favoritism in the Auto Industry

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/06/government-favoritism-in-the-auto-industry

A columnist is speaking out against the government's plan to subsidize plug-in cars and electric vehicles made by only some automakers. "It smacks of favoritism when the government decides who can get the subsidy and who cannot.... Automobile manufacturing is a highly competitive industry. Government favoritism can prop up an automaker for awhile, but cannot make it more competitive in the long run."

Reason magazine or the Wall Street Journal on the Obama-Bush auto bailout or the Department of Energy subsidized loans to automakers? Nope, that is Yang Jian, managing editor of Automotive News China, and, as we noted here earlier, a writer with a highly developed sense of the limits and contradictions of state capitalism.

by Ira Stoll  |  Jun 14, 2010 at 2:54 pm Related Topics:  Auto Industry, China, Government ownership, Press receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list