Environmentalists have raised the alarm about global warming. The U.S. government responds with massive subsidies to a biofuels program. Unfortunately, corn-based ethanol turns out to be even worse than gasoline in its emissions of greenhouse gases. Plus, the conversion of so much corn to ethanol instead of food has led to dramatically rising food prices and food riots all over the world.
Some call the ethanol program “the stupidist federal subsidy” that “makes gasoline costlier and dirtier.” The Antiplanner calls it government planning on a normal day.
Which raises some interesting questions: Have any major government projects ever been successful? If so, what is the ratio of unsuccessful to successful projects? And finally, what were the characteristics that made some of the projects successful while the rest failed?
