It’s the same old story, always
has been….
A recent post on The Junto, a
group blog on early American history, tells the little known story of
government financing and support for private business enterprise—in the 1820s,
when America’s first integrated “factories” were built in Lowell, MA.
The Junto report, also picked up by DailyHistory.org, spells it out:
Several of the private
investors who organized the Lowell enterprise received $1 million from the
national government, which agreed to pay off private claims against the Spanish
government as part of the 1819 treaty under which Spain transferred Florida to
the U.S. and agreed to favorable western boundary adjustments. I guess the
Spanish government wasn’t planning to honor those claims. The Lowell owners
also benefited directly from American government trade negotiations with Peru,
and, specifically, U.S. intervention in support of American textile exports.
It’s been going on ever since
then.
Let’s acknowledge government
financing of American canals in the 19th century, land giveaways and
other government financing for railroads, and, of course, the interstate
highway system in the 20th century—you go ahead and add your own
examples.
Too many politicians and
business leaders today rally to the cry of “get government off the backs of
business,” but it seems they forget to complain about the vast web of tax
breaks that benefit individual companies and industries, and it seems they
forget to refuse the government spending that “serves the public interest” and
also materially benefits the corporate world.
It’s the same old story.
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