Uncle Sam Can't Count: A History of Failed Government Investments, from Beaver Pelts to Green Energy

Burton W. Folsom · Anita Folsom

apr 2014 · Harper Collins

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An enlightening overview of America’s misadventures in economic investment from the Revolutionary era to the Obama administration.

From the days of George Washington through World War II to today, government subsidies have failed the American people time and again. Draining the Treasury of cash, this doomed attempt to “pick winners” only serves to impede economic growth—and hurt the very companies receiving aid. But why does federal aid seem to have a reverse Midas touch?

In Uncle Sam Can’t Count, Burt and Anita Folsom argue that federal officials don’t have the same abilities or incentives as entrepreneurs. In addition, federal control always leads to politicization. And what works for politicians often doesn’t work in the marketplace.

Filled with examples of government failures and free market triumphs, from John Jacob Astor to the Wright Brothers, World War II amphibious landing craft to Detroit, Uncle Sam Can’t Count is a hard-hitting critique of government investment that demonstrates why business should be left exclusively to private entrepreneurs.

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Burton W. Folsom, Jr. (born 1947) is an American historian and author. He received his doctorate in history from the University of Pittsburgh in 1976 (and as of 2008) is a professor of American history at Hillsdale College. Anita Folsom has pursued a career in both politics and the teaching of history, including teaching American history at Hillsdale College. She served in the Electoral College in 1988. Since 2006 she has directed Hillsdale College's Free Market Forum, a national colloquium for college teachers. She is coauthor of FDR Goes to War and has written for the Wall Street Journal, American Spectator, Human Events, and the Detroit News.