Technology subsidies to corporations are routinely justified with technobabble to camouflage unjustifiable investments, which typically fall into four categories: subsidizing the rich, competing unfairly with private industry, spending that provides no benefit and spending that hurts the intended beneficiary.
Some argue that corporate welfare is necessary because Japan and Europe subsidize their corporations, but that flies in the face of reality: Japan’s programs have been consistent losers, and Western Europe’s socialized economies are among the sickest of the developed world.
Despite the fact that many of the subsidies are intended to benefit America’s high-technology industries, those firms would be largely unscathed if Silicon Valley firms lost all federal subsidies. The competitiveness of America’s semiconductor firms and other high-technology industries would benefit if corporate subsidies were eliminated altogether and the savings were devoted to reducing corporate income taxes, the capital gains tax or the personal income tax.