Dr. Folsom was an incredibly engaging and entertaining speaker over a topic I did not expect to have much interest in. Throughout the lecture, I found myself very intrigued by every fascinating story Dr. Folsom shared about our nation's history with government subsidies. As Dr. Folsom repeated several times, the first few subsidies the United States government granted resulted in complete failure and massive debt that could have been avoided if the government had invested or at least trusted in independent entrepreneurs to create efficient, quality innovation themselves. Dr. Folsom described the government's decision to grant subsidies as deciding between entrepreneurs and increasing government involvement to jumpstart and improve the economy. As all three stories about the steamships, railroads, and planes ended, Dr. Folsom made it clear to his audience he believes the government made the wrong choice to hand out the numerous subsidies they lost their investment on. Taking Collins for example, the only accomplishment his subsidies assisted him in was draining over 2 million dollars of the government's money. The economic jumpstart they desired to achieve with each innovation from Folsom's stories only costed the government a significant amount of money and encouraged unhealthy spending habits by the consumers the subsidies were granted towards. Trying to understand both sides of the argument, I especially appreciated Dr. Folsom mentioning how government involvement may be necessary for things such as military weapons, however, when the government inevitably begins to micromanage, we run into the major issue of overpowering governmental control. Another argument Dr. Folsom made against subsidies was the motivation of the receiving party. As each of his stories revealed, those who spent their own hard-earned money and hard work on innovation saw abundantly more success than those who received the massive subsidies from the government. He took this observation even further by mentioning after every setback, people like Mr. Collins would simply go and beg the government for more money rather than finding a reasonable, cheaper solution to the issue at hand. Even with the significant help of the subsidies, the receiving parties all resulted in failure in various ways; the entrepreneurs became unbeatable competition. As I mentioned in my weekly response, long term government involvement is one of the major issues of the subsidies Dr. Folsom warns us of; I believe the primary issue at hand is finding the solution to diminishing the inevitable result of the governmental control.
