Trickle-up economics: Bernero robs Main Street to pay Wall Street (The Michigan View.com 10.06.10)

Posted by hpayne on October 6, 2010

Virg Bernero likes to say his campaign is “about Main Street, not Wall Street.” But the dirty little secret about the Democratic model of market socialism is that it marshaling the biggest transfer of wealth from the middle to upper classes in modern times. Berneronomics, like Obamanomics, is trickle-up economics where the rich and connected get the spoils of a system where government controls the purse.

Governor Granholm’s attempt — back by Bernero — to move Michigan to an alternative energy marketplace is a perfect example of Wall Street-friendly economics.

When Big Government makes economic decisions — such as Governor Granholm’s goal that Michigan become a center of the new Green Economy — government access is at a premium. More government control means more lobbyists, more campaign contributions, more opportunities for the well-connected. It favors Big Business over small business. Wall Street over Main Street. Not surprisingly, a new book by Fox Business Channel’s Charlie Gasperino finds that Wall Street has given 35 percent more money to Democrats than Republicans during the Obama years.

As Granholm pushes Michigan to go green, she and Obama are funneling billions in taxpayer dollars to Big Utility to pay for smart grids, billions to Big Auto to make expensive electric cars and billions more to America’s rich gentry who buy these expensive products. Much of this money is coming through state and federal tax breaks, but billions more are coming from the U.S stimulus bill.

“Detroit-based DTE Energy Co. and other utilities have been developing a smarter electrical grid to accommodate an expected surge in consumers charging electric vehicles,” reports The Detroit News.

DTE’s development money is coming straight from taxpayer pockets in the form an $83 million stimulus grant by the U.S. Department of Energy to install “green” electronic power meters to remotely monitor residential power use.

In turn, the cars that will draw power from this new “smart grid” are being produced by either giant, taxpayer-funded corporations or millionaire boutique automakers like Elon Musk. Ford has received $5.9 billion to retool plants to make “green” cars, Nissan $1.6 billion, and Musk’s Tesla $465 million to finance its $60,000 Model S luxury electric car.

As the Model S or the $40,000 Chevy Volt indicate, most of the vehicles plugging into the grid will only be owned by wealthy Americans. To entice this Wall Street crowd to buy their favored cars, Democrats have sweetened the offer with $7,500 in tax breaks. And in order to make it easier for these jet setters to charge their cars, Main Street is also financing fancy electric chargers for their homes.

“While charging plug-ins should not affect the overall grid, transformers could overload in neighborhoods where plug-ins are popular. Initially, plug-in vehicle owners are expected to be higher middle-income families, so multiple plug-ins could end up on the same block,” reports The News.

So Big Utility is working to “anticipate where clustering of potential” electric vehicle owners might occur. That is, in the ritzy Michigan zip codes of Bloomfield Township or Okemos or Gross Pointe. You know, “Wall Street” addresses. Virg Bernero’s kind of folks.

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