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Comment by swampthinker | Hacker News Reader

Military contracts

That and the implicit guarantee from the government that Boeing is too big to fail.

The USG is already putting tariffs on foreign planes. We have all the downsides of nationalization without any of the benefits of collective ownership (except for the fact that Boeing is in people's retirement accounts, which is a little collective ownership). Capitalism and socialism on their own both have provisions for taking care of the elite and taking care of the average person. What we have now with these pseudonational industries is a combination of both that takes the elite-benefiting parts of capitalism and combines them with the elite-benefiting parts of socialism.

>The USG is already putting tariffs on foreign planes.

How so? They can't put tariffs on foreign planes purchased by foreign airlines, and most of the airlines in the world are not American.

They are putting tariffs on foreign planes purchased by airlines in America. It's mentioned in the last paragraph of the linked article.

Airbus gets EU subsidies that works as an effective tariff against Boeing.

And Boeing gets US subsidies.

"The World Trade Organization said on Thursday the United States had ignored its request to halt a subsidized tax break for Boeing Co in its main plane-making state of Washington as a 15-year-old transatlantic trade row edges towards tit-for-tat sanctions."

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-usa-aircraft-wto/wto-s...

It's funny how the US complains about China propping up or even owning (usually partially) big corporations there, but they do the same with Boeing and many other companies.

At least in China, the government is the one that has the final say on everything, and the state-owned corporations have to do what the government wants. Here, the corporations get to do what they want, but they still get subsidies from the government but without being required to operate in the interests of the government or the nation at large.

Defense contracts account for a fraction of their civilian revenues.

I assume "a small fraction" is what you meant.

According to their most recent 10-K, the Defense, Space, and Security business unit represents about 23% of Boeing's revenue and 13% of their profit. Some portion of the Global Services revenue comes from government contracts as well, though, so the true contribution is higher.

https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/viewer?action=view&cik=12927&acc...

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