The air travel community is hoping for financial support from the governments where major airlines are based in the form of subsidies, research grants and tax benefits.

BBC: Cooking oil powers transatlantic flights

Collectively, these grants and subsidies finance a large portion of American higher education.

FORBES: Government Should Exit Higher Ed

The on-going transformation in microfinance means grants and subsidies are a thing of the past and commercial sources of funding will continue to be the major source of funding.

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They are entitled to subsidies, state jobs, land grants, and free university education, the latter part of an effort to reinvest gas wealth in human capital, not just in shiny buildings.

BBC: Qatar's delicate balancing act

It would cut farm subsidies, Medicare, student aid, housing subsidies for the poor, and funding for community development grants.

FORBES: Solve The Big Problems: Let The U.S. Government Default

Apologists for big government make the point, for instance, that in the 19th century U.S. railroads received massive subsidies from the federal government in the way of land grants and federal loans.

FORBES: Capitalism: A True Love Story

Iran has begun to overhaul their subsidies (and they are by far the largest) by replacing below market price gas and petrol with cash grants to poor families.

FORBES: Cutting Climate Change is Simple: Just Stop Subsidising Fossil Fuels

In other countries subsidies helped to kick-start demand, but Britain's system of conversion grants was badly run, and eventually fell foul of European state-aid rules.

ECONOMIST: Alternative fuels