the hell you say?
Razzie just sent me this story on how local governments throw money at corporations to bring in jobs (that frequently) never materialize. I've been thinking about this phenomenon for a long while, always wondering why taxpayers don't get upset when you give a giant corporation millions of our dollars to create a dozen jobs, but go ape-shit if you try to spend that money on helping the homeless (most of whom have jobs, at least in Minnesota) or building better public transit. It is the same phenomenon that sees us throwing billions of dollars at the war in Iraq while some 20 million Americans don't have health insurance (half of them are children) and college tuitions are pricing poor/working class kids out of higher education. Why do we allow this to happen?One reason is that all of this mis-spending of tax money really only affects those lower down in the wealth/power scale. I mean, who is working at that call center that gets built with millions of local dollars and huge tax breaks only to have the company move it to India within a couple of years? Who needs to take the bus/train to their poor paying job? For most Americans, if they are not directly impacted they don't give a shit, and the people adversely affected by these spending patterns are too busy trying to scrape by to fight. When your job leaves town you need to find another one ASAP, you don't have time to get mad about it.
Another reason this happens is that we are constantly told this is benefiting us, and the government wouldn't lie to us would it? The must really be trying to bring in jobs or protect us from evil abroad, it couldn't possible just all be thinly veiled corporate welfare given to their campaign donors could it?
Here are some things to think of next time your local government is talking about 'growing the tax base' or 'creating jobs.' 1) Northwest Airlines has taken millions and millions of dollars from MN in the name of creating jobs, which it has never delivered on, and now it is on the verge of bankruptcy, which could cost the state thousands of jobs. Oops! 2) WalMart moves into your town after the town gives them free land and tax breaks because it will create jobs. Great, everyone who owned a store or worked downtown is now unemployed, so they have to go work for half the money they used to make and no benefits at WalMart. The locals can shop for less, but they have less income and there town is dead. Great! 3) Most of the money given to the military ends up in the hands of private corporations for 'research,' or for no-bid service contracts, or for grossly over-priced equipment. It does not go paying soldiers better or giving them better benefits when they leave the service. Who knew?! 4) If your city gives a big corporation huge tax breaks to build there, how is that growing the tax base? And where do those millions thrown at said corporation come from? Oh yeah, out of your pocket! Well, let's just build some luxury condos so we have more property tax revenue to through at more developers
and corporations! Who cares about schools, transportation, the fire dept, etc.!
posted by AngryYoungMan @ 8:12 AM
1 Comments:
in keeping with the theme of "don't worry, it's okay anyway" here is a quote from an article covering a possible upcoming strike at Qwest.
"A Qwest spokesman said Qwest customers should not see any interruptions in phone service if a strike occurs."
""The public may experience longer waits to have the phones at Qwest answered. They may also experience longer waits to have telephone lines installed and to get any necessary repair work done," Oberlander says."
so don't worry, because it really won't affect you that much anyway! unless of course you work for the huge-ass company that has the leverage to screw you over.
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/08/12_scheckt_qwest/
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