Corporate Welfare (???)

[Eric S. Ford]

Forgive my ignorance, and gross political incorrectness, but these posts
regarding so called corporate welfare baffle me. "Welfare", in my experience,
consists of payments to individuals (or families) solely to support
continued consumption. On the other hand, tax breaks to corporate entities
are intended to 1) increase overall revenues to the corporation stimulating
growth and thus an increased tax base; or 2) encourage behavior viewed by
the government as desirable, i.e. investing in development of alternative
energy sources, etc. Other payments, such as farm subsidies, are meant to
stabilize market environments so the rest of the population isn't faced with
wild fluctuations in the availability or cost of staple goods.

Having said that, and being a consummate capitalist, I agree that all such
payments should probably be stopped. That would more quickly achieve the
recognized goal of liberalism, that being redistribution of wealth, since
the loss of subsidies would cause failures in overly large enterprises and
the resultant breakup would encourage greater entrepreneurial activity as
smaller interests are able to feed on the bones of the fallen. However, it
would also lead to dramatic and wildly fluctuating unemployment and large
swings in pay scales all of which would destabilize our economy, lower the
overall standard of living in this country, while relieving us of the burden
of being a superpower.

--
Eric S. Ford "Life is a crap sandwich. The more bread
ag...@yfn.ysu.edu you have, the less crap you have to take."
E.F...@genie.geis.com - Tom Servo