By fitsnews – April 27, 2012
“IT’S A GREAT DAY FOR CRONY CAPITALISM, TAX SHIFTS AND CORPORATE THUGGERY”
Boeing will roll out its first South Carolina-manufactured airplane this week, an occasion which is sure to be marked by all sorts of corporate ass-kissing and regurgitated rhetoric about how the company stood up to Barack Obama’s big bad National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
Obviously that narrative is complete and total bullshit (Boeing backed down like a little bitch – and may have been in the tank from the get-go) but don’t expect to hear the truth about this scam coming from any of our state’s mainstream media outlets. After all, they’re too busy serving as fluffers for Boeing and the politicians taking credit for bringing its new plant to South Carolina.
Who should be getting patted on the back for this airplane? The taxpayers of South Carolina … who shelled out an estimated $900 million in taxpayer-funded incentives to land this facility.
Where’s there love for them? Seriously?
Oh … and where’s a discussion of how these government-funded incentives make it harder for small businesses to compete by shifting the state’s tax burden onto their shoulders? Riiiiiiight … you won’t hear any of that during the “It’s a great day in South Carolina” panderfest scheduled to take place in North Charleston, S.C.
What else won’t you hear?
A discussion of how Boeing is threatening South Carolina politicians who aren’t on board with its taxpayer-guaranteed slush fund (a.k.a. the U.S. Export-Import Bank) – which in case you haven’t heard makes it harder for American-owned airlines to compete in the global marketplace.
That’s the problem with picking winners and losers in the marketplace – there are always losers.
And while South Carolina’s “Republican” politicians may be keen on celebrating that triumph of crony capitalism (aided and abetted by a lazy, agenda-driven mainstream media), count us out.
We have no problem with Boeing coming to South Carolina and creating jobs, investment and spinoff industry … it’s the $900 million check we had to stroke them in order to do so that we have a problem with.
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