Corporate welfare doesn't work. It is unnatural. It is to a free market economy what processed synthetic food is to nutrition. It is the creation and manipulation of goods and services that probably could not survive under organic circumstances. This interference creates stresses, strains and harmful burdens.

Today, after 11 years of progressive presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama and enablers in Congress, the fruits of market manipulation are becoming quite clear. The housing and lending markets are shattered because central planners fiddle with them far too much. Banks decline to lend because it's less risky to obtain and trade free cash from the Federal Reserve. Solyndra wasted a half-billion because Obama gave the company — which could not have come to life on its own — an easy loan that made no sense.

Two years ago, Vice President Joe Biden told taxpayers how the Obama administration was pleased to risk $529 million on a startup called Fisker. It would make electric cars right here in the United States, creating jobs.

Fisker hasn't defaulted, at least not yet. But the company learned that market conditions in the United States do not support the production of its cars. The company cannot find a factory and pool of workers to make the cars for less than consumers might pay. So Fisker has outsourced manufacturing to a facility in Finland.

Simply lending money for what some consider a great idea does not undo market instability. It does not fix the problem of a workforce that's inadequate to mass-produce new products at home. Ours has become a culture of educated professionals and skilled laborers, who come at a hefty price, and people who live on entitlement payments.

Immigration reform could pave the way for new manufacturing, without easy money lent by Uncle Sam for pie-in-the-sky startups. If we imported a workforce for startups in the United States, we would be far better off than exporting the jobs to faraway countries. Workers who live here pay for our government, buy houses, buy cars and bring up children right here in the United States. Workers in Finland create more American imports that spend American cash while creating no domestic jobs.

Stop giving away money in a futile effort to create jobs. It does not work. Deregulate markets, and start with immigration reform designed to import labor. Doing so will return manufacturing, jobs and production of wealth to American soil. It will prime production and create good jobs for citizens and our neighbors.

REPRINTED FROM THE KINSTON FREE PRESS