In the 1989 movie, Field of Dreams, Terrance Mann, a reclusive civil rights hero played by James Earl Jones, gave a passionate speech in the climax of the movie in which he described the love-affair Americans have with baseball, our national pastime. "The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again,” Mann said.

Corporate handouts are easily seen when it comes to national politics and legislation with huge subsidies going to large corporations such as Solyndra, General Electric and General Motors.  In the case of General Motors the government actually nationalized it!   But the handouts are more difficult to see at the local level.