European-style corporatism

The second force leading us down the social-democratic road is cronyism. America possesses a full-time bipartisan political apparatus dedicated to government growth and special deals for favored individuals and sectors. For example, the farm bill that just passed the Senate contains around $100 billion in subsidies, mostly for large, corporate farms that do nothing to improve nutrition or food security. Or witness the recently reauthorized Export-Import Bank, which doles out about $20 billion annually in corporate welfare.

To begin with, Airbus was born from the womb of European governments. The consortium of European aerospace firms came together “at the direction of the French, German, British, and Spanish governments,” according to the U.S. International Trade Administration (ITA).13 Indeed, a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 1967 between the British, French, and German governments spurred production of Airbus’ A300. An ITA report notes that, “[t]hose governments paid for between 75 percent and 100 percent of the total costs of development of Airbus’s original product line.”
Airbus is significantly a government-owned company. Since 2001, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space company (EADS) has owned 80 percent of the company and British Aerospace (BAE) the other 20 percent.