Airbus has managed to wrest a substantial chunk (in some years a majority) of the world's market for airliners from Boeing, the free market manufacturer. Airbus has unquestionably benefitted from massive subsidies from Western European governments. The United States has begun to make a serious issue of this practice.

It is somewhat strange, then, that Airbus has openly requested a further subsidy from the government of Spain. It seems that the success Boeign is enjoying with its privately—financed 787 Dreamliner, a true leap in the state of the art, has put pressure on Airbus as it is spending massive amounts of money to produce the 747—killer A 380 Airbus.

Boeing has a large, mostly—unionized, well—paid workforce in the United States. When was the last time that you saw an American union representative decrying government intervention into the free market, thereby destroying American jobs? With all the money American unions spend on politics and political advertising, why aren't we hearing about the evils of government subsidies?

I guess we all know the answwers. Ideology trumps the interests of workers.

Thomas Lifson   5 23 05