Illusions Of Free Markets

Read an excellent article on the fact that even though we talk continually of free markets, we have in place thousands and thousands of schemes and pranks and wheezes by which we subsidize and transfer money to the rich.
Things like baseball stadiums come to mind; how often sports owners ask for (and get) outlays from the entire local population, not just those who are baseball fans. In the old days, sports teams relied upon the paying public, and they were forced to cater to those ticket-buying folks.
Now it is a bit different, for there are numerous others ways to generate revenues, one of which is getting the municipalities to cough up subsidies, either by outlays or tax reductions or bonds.

Is there a Free Market in the Entertainment Industry when one of the members, say the local hockey team, receives public money?

Read the article and think about the numerous ways we do the types of activities described.

"Free Lunch": David Cay Johnston on hidden government subsidies for the very, very rich
http://prairieweather.typepad.com/the_scribe/2008/01/free-lunch-davi.html

... What I’ve done is examine a number of cases to show that government has rewritten the rules to favor the already rich, the politically connected, and the powerful at the expense of everyone else. In effect it’s set up mechanisms that the government itself reaches into your pocket and gives money to rich people; the government allows businesses to reach into your pocket in ways it never did; the government has all sorts of subtle and hidden policies now that funnel from the poor and middle class and upper middle class into the hands of the super-rich.  And that is at the core of what’s happening in our society...

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ps.

I remembered a post on the old days when milk was in bottles and they were returned to be washed and re-used.

The cardboard and plastic cartons were introduced because they saved money for the milk distributing company, as they no longer had to wash and re-cycle glass.

However, the new cartons were trash and had to be placed in land-fills, which the public pays for. If there were no land-fills possible, the milk companies would have to go back to glass (as some already have for ecological reasons).

By my tax money being used for land-fills, I am in essence providing tax support for milk... and Huggies, too!