Purdue to State Senate: “Hands Off My Corporate Welfare!”

Big surprise – the Governor doesn’t want to cede control over millions of taxpayer dollars she uses to bribe corporations so that her office can issue a press release declaring she is “doing something to create jobs.”  I’ve written before about this practice of crony capitalism, and how it consolidates more power into the hands of the ruling elite and away from consumers. Moreover, political meddling in the market process hampers growth and the net result is actually fewer jobs.

Moreover, the objections over diverting some money away from Golden LEAF is highly uninformed. Golden LEAF offers nothing unique, and is extremely redundant in its efforts.  It is also an unaccountable organization headed by a group of political cronies. You can see a list of some of Golden LEAF’s “economic development” efforts here– which include funds for the Randy Parton Theatre, Teapot Dome Museum and bee trainers. 

The practice of corporate welfare, which involves politicians handing out special privileges to politically-connected firms, is widely despised by members of the public and policy shops spanning all ends of the political spectrum. The one group of people still quite fond of the practice is politicians (and of course the recipients of the goodies). Politicians love the ribbon-cutting ceremony and taking credit for “creating jobs,” but are nowhere to be seen when their chosen projects go belly-up. More importantly, they fail to see damaging effects inflicted on those firms forced to compete against companies that have been granted political privilege, and therefore an unfair advantage.