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[quote user="oltmannd"] [quote user="henry6"] Ok..here's an excercise which might or might not clear up the question of subsidy.  Name one program, business, service,  or publicly performed actvity that is not subsidized by any level of government. directly or indirectly. [/quote] There are none.  But, there is the order of magnitude of the subsidy.  We could provide subsidized rides into space because it would be "fun" or fund a rehab of the SS United States - but neither would give much bang for the subsidy buck. [/quote] The investor owned electric utility that I worked for received no direct subsidies, i.e. cash payments from any government entity or any other source.   If you stretch the definition of subsidies to mean police and fire protection, streets and sanitation, schools, etc., a look at the company's financial records would show that the taxes it paid (federal and state income, sales, excise, franchise, inventory, property, etc.) to all levels of government not only covered its footprint but the footprints of numerous other activities.  Not only did the company cover the cost of all these services, it even covered the cost of its numerous regulators.  People frequently confuse the tax code provisions that allow a business to deduct its legitimate business expenses as a subsidy.  That is incorrect.  However, if only one business gets a deduction, one might claim that it is getting a subsidy, but it is different than a direct cash payment.  Our company took claimed no business expenses or took no deductions that were not available to every investor owned electric utility in the United States and, in fact, were available to an over whelming majority of businesses.
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