Maggie's Farm

WHAT? I'm shocked to see that there is gambling going on with my tax dollars!

That is what government spending is - gambling. Gambling is a zero sum game in which there is no net improvement in the overall size of the pie in question. If you are at the table, that is the size of the game, and chances are you WILL lose your money, no matter how good you think you are. The only way to grow the gambling pie is to include more people at the table, but as most gamblers know, the table is limited.
The ONLY net gain of gambling is a non-quantifiable feeling of entertainment and enjoyment among the players (but mostly the winners...which the government gets to choose).

Private economy, however, produces value by creating an overall feeling of well being related to the need or desire for a product based on its availability or utility.
Cars are very much a day to day utility today for the average person...so they are very valuable. But if too many are created (the market needs 10,000, so we create 30,000), then the value of a car will drop due to oversupply.
If the car is not meeting the needs of the average user (let's say a Hummer in June 2008), then its value will drop because people won't want it.

When the government CONTROLS these things - what you can have, and how many there are - it does not create value. It forces it on people, usually against their will. The market is NEVER wrong, though it is sometimes misguided. The government is rarely right, and is always misguided.

The market takes information and proactively distills it - how much production is needed, how do we distribute it, how do we price it - so that it can meet the needs of users.
The government REACTIVELY assesses situations and provides cover to areas of weakness based on an areas ability to make its "needs" known.

It's clear value cannot be created by the government. Government is dead weight loss in economic terms. It CAN "prime the pump" from time to time. But it has to refill the well AFTER it primes the pump....something we have NEVER DONE. The well is running dry.