>The other side of the coin is that corporate entitlements bring jobs. They REALLY do. Large coporations shop around for the best deal when looking for a location. Those jobs became a necessity here in North Carolina after so many mills moved overseas and auto factories closed down as well. Basically the state is willing to forgo taxes for a limited number of years in exchange for a commitment and jobs. It makes sense at the state level, but at the federal level? I don't see the benefit to the people or I am not sufficiently knowledgable about it...

They do, no doubt about it, but there is a caveat. They'll take whatthey can get out of whoever has something to give (tax breaks and such) UNTIL A BETTER DEAL COMES ALONG or until so corporate MBA says stats say the place needs to be shut down.

In the movie I push a lot - The Corporation - a corporate think-tank executive says bluntly that a business will move into a place that is poor enough to offer "a good investment" and then when things change (and he cited things like wages rise enough or some other place is found) they'll shut up shop and start again in the new place. He stated outright that this was a cycle thatwas "good for everyone involved". Right.....

GM was taken to court because their plant (Willow Run I believe) was to be shut down by corporte fiat after only a few years operation and the town wanted its foregone taxes back due to the premature closure. Never did hear how that worked out.

The main point is that corporate executives are LAW-BOUND to do everything they can to protect and grow shareholders' value. So there is no question of the morality of any decision, only the legality. And when they can get a better deal elsewhere they've 'got to take it, as mandated by law'.


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>>>"Things worked out"? Did you really say that?
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>>>Profit is not evil. It's what makes the engine run. Price gouging IS evil. The multinational oil companies, who basically answer to no one, have been crying poor since Katrina made landfall. And now, miracle of miracles, record profits. Do you feel comfortable bent over with your pants around your ankles every time you fuel up? I don't. For starters we should shut off the federal subsidies for oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, at least to companies above a certain size. It's a giant giveaway that you, me, and every other taxpayer pay for.
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>>And there are lots of other examples of price gouging in many other industries. Banking and telecommunications and agribusiness and (many) power utilities (think the 'Enron tapes') come immediately to mind. Cover most of day-to-day life I'd say.
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>>Your "companies above a certain size" above would be fine but for one thing - corporations generally are very good at having small subsidiaries (often with connections buried to make the connection harder) just to qualify for such things. Corporate duty to shareholders and all that, ya know.
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>>I still say that job #1 of (both) our governments should be to get rid of corporate entitlements before they even think about touching personal entitlements. In Canada 'entitlements' are less talked about than they are there, but your hot-buttons generally make their way here in some form and I'm sure our current government listens much more carefully to what comes up from the south than our prior governments.
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>>>>What, profit is evil? They're in a lucrative industry and things worked out. What's the problem?
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>>>>>http://money.cnn.com/2007/02/01/news/companies/exxon/index.htm?eref=rss_topstories
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>>>>>Exxon Mobil Corp. Thursday reported the biggest annual profit on record for a U.S. corporation - earning more than $75,000 every minute of 2006 on the back of record oil prices.