• The post you are reporting:
   
  At the end of the day you cannot subsidise every business that might go broke. Subsidy is debilitating the business in so many ways. Why should business managers run it effectively and efficiently if they think they can get a government bail-out if they get into trouble? Why should the employees behave sensibly if they think that irresponsible strike action will result in a bail-out of their employer if they drive it to bankruptcy? Why should directors or other investors risk their money if they think they can get the government to take the risk? Why should larger businesses that get into trouble be favoured over the many smaller businesses that do so?
  
  Where do you draw the line? Who do you say no to and who do you say yes to? Sometime it has to stop - what then? It is a treadmill that we must never get back onto.
  
  Believe it or not, change is healthy in an economy and business failures are a part of that change. The alternative is to stifle enterprise and innovation and to smother businesses, 'freezing them in time' as they fail to keep up with the world and get out of date.
  
  This is what happened in the 70's - massive subsidies given to failing business that effectively enabled irresponsible industrial action, preserved restrictive practises, stifled new product development and risk taking. Over a couple of decades our businesses fell behind competitors in Germany and elsewhere losing business and when the drug of subsidy eventually had to be turned off many could not survive, it was too late for them. Need I mention British Leyland....a classic example of the evils of subsidy.
  
  Subsidy has to end sometime. Cold turkey is more painful that the natural processes of business growth, merger and sometimes decline.
  
  It is a tough world and businesses have to be tough and sharp to survive. Subsidies get in the way of all that. For those that will bleat on about, 'what about people? - that is exactly why businesses have to be left free to prosper, win orders or fail. The alternative is ultimately worse for people.

Report Post

Your Name

Reason