[wenc]

You're thinking a tax break which is an unconditional subsidy. That relies on the business passing savings through which folks are right to be skeptical about.

But that's not all subsidy mechanisms. The best ones are where pass-through is enforced, not assumed.

You already know of one that works: WIC. It lowers the effective price for customer, which the store receives as reimbursement.

It's not about trickle-down -- that's ideology. It's more about designing the right mechanism.