Yes I would. But I can understand why some people who have been sucking on the federal tit for years would think that government is the source of all life.
Federal involvement with railroads can be argued because it makes it easier to get the right-of-way but there is no reason that a product such as ethanol would need a federal subsidy if it were truly a competitive product.
Yes, I would have opposed federal subsidies to the highways on the grounds that it will be used as a precedent by other rent-seekers and parasites feeding at the public trough. Marvelous infrastructure like the Internet have been built without public funding.
Hell you think there would be airlines today without government support back in the early days.
Back in the early days of aviation, a guy named Samuel Langley wasted a lot of taxpayer money trying to build an airplane. It took a couple of bicycle mechanics, spending their own money to do the job right.
Government just gets in the way and wastes money.
90% of the corn farmers don’t irrigate their crops.
Good farmland with good rainfall has not been sitting idle just waiting for someone to grow corn on it. I would wager that most of the new corn farming in the last few years is being done with irrigation. And if we have a dry spell, and that is very possible, we will be in serious trouble if we have become dependent on ethanol.
Nothing wrong with sucking the government teat if the calf grows up nice and strong and independent and gives more milk than it sucked from the teat.
Wilbur and Orville needed the government to make their invention a success. Without the Army contract they got the Airplane may of took much longer to be commercially viable.
The Internet wouldn’t be around without early government funding and support.
I understand and respect your libertarian thoughts and I love the works of people like Ayn Rand who believed in little government support.
But when I look at American history of the period before the Civil War I see the North where government (many times foolishly) supported industry and provided infrastructure like canals and roads for business use.
I see the South where the Planters controlled the governments and wanted low taxes and therefore low government services. They didn’t help other industry develop they didn’t see the need to educate poor whites and the area stagnated. If you was part of the Cotton industry things was good but by all standards the middle class and poor of the South fell behind those of the North.
Everything from the Coast Guard to the Weather Service has their roots in government helping commerce. If a good workable alternative fuels program comes out of this then like computers which also came out of government programs it is a good thing. If it is just a big boondoggle and we has wasted billions well at least the government wasted it in this country for a change.