Continue The Bleed

Here's another example of Interstate Job Transfer.  As states continue to struggle to find the revenue necessary to provide services, company execs see great opportunities to leverage their positions to get somebody else to pay the bills.

From The Agonist this morning:

In the business of “let someone else pay for government services”, corporations are the hands-down winners. Corporations use the same roads as everyone else, fly out of airports, enjoy the services of the water, electric, and gas utilities, clog up the courts, get police and fire protection, and if necessary have their overseas interests secured by the military and the diplomatic corps. They just don’t want to pay for it. Fifty years ago corporate income taxes at the federal level generated about 6% of GDP; today the amount is less than 2% of GDP. The difference has been made up in increased taxes on individuals, and dramatically increased federal government borrowing.

It's a free lunch for Corp Execs and Wealthy Investors, because the workin' slobs always pick up the check.

For 30 years, American companies have been exporting jobs to countries willing to offer major concessions in Labor Regulation, Environmental Law, Tax Abatements, etc.  Now the states have learned how to play that game as well, so we should be able to look forward to a new era of fucked-up-ed-ness as one state raids another in search of a few extra taxpayers.

Companies are always going to push down on their costs, and everything a company has to spend on people adds up to every company's biggest cost.  I get it; I understand; it's normal and expected and the way it has to be in business. I grock the situation.

The thing that really gripes me is that we accept this style of hard-ass management as necessary.  It isn't.  We think they have to be strong leaders and they have to make these difficult choices.  They don't.

A strong and able manager almost never has to pull rank or try to dictate terms to his workers.  In my experience, it's always the weakling (or the workplace politician) who is the most authoritarian.

We're headed back to the 18th century, and it's gonna be a really shitty ride.