Stop lining corporate pockets with communities’ security Corporate welfare is causing a steady, unchecked drain on government revenue, taking away money that if directed at communities, would be much better served. Corporate welfare should really be called a government giveaway. Politicians in New York and across the country routinely dole out billions of taxpayer dollars in tax breaks an incentives to corporations, in the hope of luring a film company to film in a locality outside of Hollywood, or to get promises of job creation from a corporation. The problem is, these giveaways often produce little more than a rise in the bank accounts of the very wealthy. What’s worse, communities across the country, not just here in New York, would greatly benefit from this money for schools, police, bridge repair, food pantries, and any other service meant to create stronger communities. A perfect example is in Poughkeepsie, where IBM recently announced layoffs. The recent round of job losses is part of nearly 4,000 jobs IBM proposed cutting in Poughkeepsie and East Fishkill, while IBM has received nearly $1 billion in state revenue meant to create jobs. (See story, page 6) “Racket” is not an entirely accurate term for IBM Taking state handouts, then proposing job cuts. But where else can you take that much money for a promise, and then walk away from your obligation? As we learned from the housing industry collapse, homeowners unable to make their mortgage payments lose their houses. If you are a major corporation, you can funnel obscene amounts of money into the campaign accounts of the politicians providing such “incentives,” and not always meet your promised obligation. A recent Oxfam report shows that the 85 richest people in the world own as much wealth as 3.5 billion of world’s poorest people. That’s billion, with a “b.” Put into perspective, the entire U.S. population is 311 million, and the entire world’s population is 7.2 billion. That means enough people to fit in fewer than 10 elevators have more wealth than half of the world’s population. With astounding inequality such as that, perhaps it’s time we began demanding more from our elected leaders in saying “no” to corporations looking for a handout and offering false promises in return. Our obligation as a democracy and world leader in the free world should be to those toiling away to make a better world for themselves and others, rather than for an obscenely wealthy elite. March 2014 The Work Force 5
March_14_WF
To see the actual publication please follow the link above