But this is a case where the fiscal loss is exceeded by the gainful externalities: If nobody buys solar cells today, there will not be a cost reduction tomorrow.

A central assumption of post-Fordist economic doctrines is that you can separate research and development from the physical production. This is a conceit with no basis in reality: The assembly line is customer, testbed and laboratory for industrial engineering. Remove the assembly line, and you will lose the R&D capability within less than a generation.

Whether the assembly line is dismantled to be shipped to China or dismantled because of inadequate demand for the end product is, for this purpose, totally immaterial.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.