I think Airbus still manages to lose some money every year. But if you look at how many other industries it supports, and how many of these make some money then it looks like a slightly more intelligent form of welfare. Or at least Krugman thinks so. Some people say that we have reached the end of history with Democracy. I guess that they also mean this in the broadest sense to entail a sort of mix between Socialism and Capitalism. Did the inevitability of Marx’s system get trumped by his master Hegel’s Auflaughben approach? Is a purer form of Capitalism such as Austrian Economics even compatible with any understanding of democracy that allows citizens to presure governments into protecting certain industries and subsidizing certain goods? The Chicago school has some answers but they are really nothing but good utilitarians...maybe if I had studied Mathmatics I would be a better economist...