Deforest City Blues: Is corporate welfare fair?

Is corporate welfare real? Is it fair?

London resident Shawn Lewis makes it clear in a letter to the editor of the London Free Press that he doesn’t think local corporations or businesses deserve more tax money.

Hey, I’ve been concerned about that too recently, because rescuing our city, province and country from growing debt and high unemployment figures shouldn’t all fall to the public sector.

Shawn responds to the same news article that I cited in the recent past, i.e., ‘(Mayor) Fontana floats a new tax’ (Dec. 16, Free Press)


["All hands needed on deck": photo GH]

Our Mayor expressed a wish to impose a special levy (for an economic development fund) on local taxpayers so that monies can be collected and used to encourage local economic development.

I wrote about it in my blog here.

I wrote about it in my weekly column here.

Shawn writes, “Corporate welfare is what Mayor Joe Fontana is proposing with the new “economic development” tax for 2012... we already subsidize development and industry in London at ridiculous rates. We repeatedly hear claims from the corporate sector and its right-wing political friends that the private sector can do things much more efficiently than the public sector, so why should the public shell out more tax dollars for corporate welfare?”

(What I can the big waive, Shawn calls welfare).

Shawn concludes, “The taxpayers need to understand that, by and large, it is not the public sector costs that keep driving up our cost of living; it is corporate welfare run amok.... we need political leadership that puts people - not corporate profits - first.” (Dec. 24, 2010)

Good luck with that one, Shawn.

Lest you get the feeling I think the private sector is made up of only bad guys who wear black hats and ride black horses, let me say that it does much good.

But with editorialists and letter writers proclaiming that it’s time for the public sector (with no mention of the heavily subsidized private sector) to step up, accept wage freezes, reduce pensions, etc. in order to rid the region of debt and unemployment, I thought it was only fair to share this letter, you know, for balance.


["Full Dilbert cartoon here"]

Is corporate welfare real? Is it fair given the circumstances?

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Some Lite News here, you know, for balance.

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