11 Comments
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Barry Butterfield's avatar

Nicely done, thank you. In my mind, there is no doubt to the answer to your paramount question.

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Sarah Montalbano's avatar

"By the end of 2025, Rivian will be bankrupt" is how one X user (formerly Twitter) put it. I agree wholeheartedly.

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Danimal28's avatar

The federal government is guilty of Racketeering at all times with stuff like this. The Deep State term mostly surrounds the intel communities, but this is no different: forcibly taking taxpayer monies and giving it to your benefactors.

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Sarah Montalbano's avatar

Green corporate-welfare policy at its finest!

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Al Christie's avatar

Amazingly, the federal government isn't the only only one that's been keeping Rivian artificially afloat. From Yahoo finance, July 26, 2021:

"Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) and Amazon Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) have announced a $2,5 billion investment round in the Michigan-based electric cars start-up Rivian. Together with T. Rowe Price Group Inc (NASDAQ:TROW), they have been investing in the company since 2019."

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Sarah Montalbano's avatar

I imagine Amazon and Ford want to take what they can from Rivian's technology, Ford for the Lightning/similar and Amazon for their "commitments" to self-driving EV delivery vehicles. They've got the money to invest in the hopes of borrowing a few useful baubles, but they're expecting to lose money (and have) on Rivian.

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Max More's avatar

I can only hope that the new Administration will end all subsidies to favored industries. Governments are terrible at picking winners. By subsidizing companies they are guaranteeing that winners will not be efficient nor provide what consumers really want.

Beyond ending subsidies, what could be done to make it harder to create new subsidies in the future? A constitutional amendment would be great but isn't going to happen (in the foreseeable future).

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Sarah Montalbano's avatar

It's a great question, and I wish I knew the answer to that one.

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Andy Fately's avatar

so frustrating to watch this happen again and again.

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Sarah Montalbano's avatar

Yes it is!

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Larry E Whittington's avatar

I don't like what other people do with tax money we don't have.

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