Governments around the world spend hundreds of billions of dollars subsidizing selected businesses or sectors. This money is taken out of taxpayers’ pockets and handed over to industries instead of being used for more effective purposes or, better yet, left in the pockets of individuals to do with what they please.
Nearly $22 billion in federal and state subsidies and regulatory credits suppressed the retail price of electric vehicles in 2021 by an average of almost $50,000.
The case of electric vehicles is particularly perverse because government money is being poured into making a product that apparently nobody wants.
“Rarely has an industry been so heavily subsidized to make a product that so few consumers want or can afford to buy,” the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board opined last week.
One need only look to Norway, the world’s leader in EV adoption, to understand how government subsidies end up distorting the market and causing more problems than they solve.
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