[CowboyJay]

"In this way, businesses succeed or fail not because of the inherent quality of their goods and services, but due to their ability to successfully lobby elected officials and bureaucrats. That’s not free enterprise."

Most of the country's economic problem in a nutshell right there.

[cripplecreek]

Virtually every state has these agencies and they all throw massive amounts of money down a hole.

More than half of new businesses fail in the first year. Government stepping in to pick winners and losers doesn’t improve those odds. At best, government could break even but they won’t do it overpaying the help.