What

How wasteful are European farm subsidies? Here?s a useful comparison, courtesy of Scott MacMillan:

Total amount of annual agricultural subsidies of the EU's 15 Member States: $40 billion. Microsoft's cash in the bank: $40 billion.

Comments

[david f]

except that the eu is the rise of left-wing protectionism under the auspices of "internationalism". how much do the eu subsidies (or us ones, for that matter) cost the third world? how many jobs does microsoft create? what is the dynamic effect of microsoft, besides our ability to exchange ideas, in comparison with the dulling effect of the subsidies.

the eu is worse than the un. thank "god" (whatever that is) that al gore didn't win and give the rest of the us to the eu and the un. heil chirac.

passionately anti eu and pro free trade,
drf

[Jon H]

At least the EU is distributing the money to some 'shareholders' (and other citizens likely benefit from lower prices), while Microsoft is not distributing any money to the shareholders. And it's *their* money, after all. (Actually, IIRC MSFT recently had a tiny token dividend, but not enough to make a dent in the hoard.)

It'd be worse if, like Microsoft, the EU was squatting on the $40 billion to use for corporate acquisitions.