So let’s check out this NPR story on Illinois battle to try to keep Sears’ jobs in the state, and other states’ battle to get them:
Thousands of jobs are on the line in a competition between states over the corporate headquarters of Sears. Several states are offering tax incentive packages to try to lure the company away from Illinois, including one bid from Ohio that’s worth up to $400 million.
Why would that happen?. Can you spot it?
The Sears Holding Corp., parent company to Sears and Kmart, says it is seriously considering the offer after Illinois lawmakers failed this week to approve a package of tax incentives aimed at keeping Sears and [the Chicago Mercantile Exchange] from leaving.
The story shows the folly of “corporate welfare” – government picking winners and losers with taxpayer money. :
“I think that the proposed help for Sears is more than adequate to keep them here, and I hope we can put the movement together this month to get that job done,” he says.
Of course, corporate subsidies are sort of like narcotics; once you get through the starter drugs, you need more and more powerful stuff to keep the same buzz going.
But – and I’ll say, I was amazed at this – NPR did actually cut to the “root cause” of the issue:
Quinn and his fellow Democrats who control Illinois’ Legislature have been taking heat from the business leaders for raising the state’s income tax rates last January to help close a gaping budget deficit.
Oblique? Of course. But it’s further proof; taxes kill.
Check the Krugster’s column from late November:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/28/opinion/krugman-things-to-tax.html?_r=1&ref=columnists. It’s all about taxes.
Krugman won the Nobel prize for economics, and he is a professor of economics at Princeton, but of course he doesn’t write about economics much. In this column he writes in favor of taxing the wealthy at a higher rate than before the Bush tax cuts. His rationalization? Well, there isn’t one. They’ve got money and he wants the government to get it.
The reason he doesn’t justify his greed for other people’s money in economic terms is that he can’t. Krugman is a keynesian, he knows that government spending comes at the expense of consumer spending and business investment unless it’s deficit spending — so he’s been telling us for three years that deficits don’t matter.
So why did he write this column? It tells you nothing. As usual, reading Herr Doktor-Professor Krugman’s column will decrease your ability to discuss economics in an intelligent way.
So tax hikes kill & corporate welfare is a folly. What’s the answer?
Last winter, with a herniated disk and a driveway full of 26″ of snow, I went to to install the right auger that I damaged a few weeks earlier. I got it from Sears. But it didn’t fit. It was a left auger, stamped as a right auger. When I called they said, “you’ve already installed it so there’s no return allowed.”
This summer I ordered a simple auger belt (hey, it’s an OLD Sears snowblower), they sent two engine pulleys instead. “Our system doesn’t allow for mistakes,” the sneering customer service person said as she announced it would cost me $16 to return the $13 belts. That’s when I decided never to do business with the company ever agan.
But that probably has nothing to do with their current situation in Illinois. (g)
This is exactly what true Tea Party free-market libertarian conservative Republicans like me dislike:
A) You get a Big Government that creates a hostile business enviroment.
Then…
B) You get a government who gives free stuff to certain businesses to try to keep/lure them. And this, my children, is why Big Businesses contribute money to all politicians, left and right. At some point they will need a favor from them.
Illinois should have a pro-business atmosphere that businesses love. Then they wouldn’t have to give millions and millions of free money to hand chosen businesses to try to get them to stay there.
I’ll admit that I’m amazed that the godawful Sears/Kmart amalgam is still surviving at all. The most valuable asset they have is the real estate where their stores are located.
@BobCollins: I have never had problems with Sears parts, but then again I always do their ship-to-store service so that I save money on the shipping (there’s a Sears near my commute route) and so that I can see the part before accepting it. In the last three years I’ve done the 15 year old garage door opener’s gears, the 12 year old dryer’s heater element, the 14 year old dishwasher impeller, and a 14-year old snow blower secondary auger, all without a single problem. To be honest, the stuff I’ve bought has lasted longer than it’s supposed to according to Consumer Reports, so even these little fixes aren’t bad.
Caterpillar is another major corporation that is looking to bail. I believe that they were also the first major corporation to attack Obumblercare publicly by stating how much of a negative impact it would have on their future employment plans.
Of course, SD has been doing this for year! Gov. Moonbat has supported this policy by availing himself of that states favorable tax laws, while wailing that the rich should be taxed more!
As is typical of rich libturds, as long as the money isn’t theirs!
Terry: you gotta love Krugman as the incarnation of the crazy uncle locked in the attic who escapes every once in awhile and runs shrieking through the streets spouting his illogical, paranoid fantasies. My most recent fave is his take on the European debt crisis. His diagnosis/prescription: Europe is in trouble not because they spent more than they took in but because they didn’t borrow MORE! You just can’t make this stuff up.
Q: “What’s the answer?”
A: Government doing only what is necessary/required along with striving to increase efficiencies. The private sector is constantly challenged with increasing productivity!
Earsall wondered So tax hikes kill & corporate welfare is a folly. What’s the answer?
Simple answer. Get out of the way. Corporate taxes are passed on to consumers and reduce their ability to purchase goods and services. Corporate welfare (like subsidizing sports stadiums) is just plain dumb, because we allow a bunch of people who’ve never created a single dollar to dictate how dollars will be created. And the result is almost always massive corruption.
“That government governs best which governs least.”
So tax hikes kill & corporate welfare is a folly. What’s the answer?
Elementary, dear Earwax. Lower taxes for everyone and eliminate all subsidies. See, the solution is not that hard.