Mage246 said:
Subsidies are life support; they're not a way to keep a company competitive, but just to keep them alive. Zombie companies.
Yes, but companies, like people, can recover. They can be kept alive on life support for a few years, then recover and come back stronger and more profitable than ever. That's what happened in France and Germany. They subsidized their industrial base during the hard years of unprofitability, and as a result those industries are still alive, and in Germany's case thriving. They utterly dominate the European market in terms of manufacturing and exported goods.
The UK's decision to turn off the life support machines meant that huge sections of industry died out altogether (no more British steel, etc.) leaving entire communities devastated, generational unemployment rampant, and saddling the country with a burgeoning benefits bill. All this left Britain much
less competitive than it's peers, rather than making us leaner, meaner, and more productive.
This kind of self-destructive short-termism is the curse of business all across the Anglosphere, but particularly in the UK.