Something for all of us to keep in mind as our country skates down the steep sloap of socialism is that governments and businesses usually operate in exactly opposite ways. An important one is that businesses cut dead weight. They have to in order to stay profitable. If a new program started by a business fails to deliver profits, it is abandoned like Macaulay Culkin in far too many ’80s movies.
As they say, success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.
An unsuccessful government program, on the other hand, is usually seen to be failing only because of limited funding. “Give us more money,” the bureaucrats say, “and you’ll see how successful we can be.”
Problem is, subsidised failure simply breeds more failure.
Case in point: Who would say that the ethanol experiment has not been an abject failure?
Ethanol costs more to refine and deliver than the value of the energy it produces, it’s less efficient than gasoline, it’s driven up the costs of commodities and it’s wrecking the environment, particularly in the duck-producing Plains.
Yet, in true government fashion, the U.S. is looking to expand the ethanol industry by pumping more of our tax dollars into subsidizing it.
Because of its products’ inherent inefficiencies, the ethanol industry is unsustainable without billions of dollars poured in by U.S. taxpayers.
But that’s not a problem for our federal government, which answers every riddle by purchasing new presses for the Mints.
The Environmental Protection Agency is currently considering a move to increase allowable ethanol levels in gasoline from 10 percent to 15 percent.
Aside from the fact that every gallon of ethanol produced costs taxpayers money, such a move would be particularly harmful to the boating industry, which isn’t exactly riding the crest of a totally tubular tsunami at the moment.
“A few years ago, no one thought there would be any problems with E10, and there were,” said Margaret Podlich of BoatUS. “Boaters got stuck with the tab for repairs.”
In particular, it was discovered that ethanol attracts water into gasoline, degrades fiberglass gas tanks and has a solvent-like quality that has led to catastrophic engine failures.
It’s the type of stuff that years ago would have ruined a friendship if your buddy brought even a can of it onto your boat.
And yet you may soon have to pump even more of it into your engine’s fuel system.
