Thank you, Bernie.
EDIT: He’s absolutely right: the Carrier deal is a scam. The workers of America are the ones picking up the tab for this deal and any others like it.
Anytime rich business guys come up with a plan to “benefit” the workers, you really need to have the rich guys explain how the workers will “benefit.” The last time rich guys offered me their plan it was to cut my pay by 50%, cut my vacation time by 1/3, cut my healthcare coverage and make me pay more for it, and so on.
And with the Carrier deal, we have the beginnings of the rise of systemic corruption as a hallmark of the Trump administration.
Systemic corruption is not a special category of corrupt practice, but rather a situation in which the major institutions and processes of the state are routinely dominated and used by corrupt individuals and groups, and in which most people have no alternatives to dealing with corrupt officials.
Like Putin’s Russia, oligarchs and corporatists are allowed to negotiate favors as long as it benefits the regime directly or indirectly, by simply making the leader look good. Want government contracts, better be nice to leader or get locked out of negotiations.
I noticed yesterday that the deal hinges on Trump delivering things that he can’t deliver on…so…
Haha. Laughed out loud at that.
Bernie hit the nail on the head here. Today a bunch of executives are considering the following recipe:
(1) Figure out how many jobs you actually want to offshore.
(2) Double that number.
(3) Issue the threat to offshore the inflated number.
(4) “Negotiate” with Trump.
(5) Cut the number of jobs you’ll be offshoring in half, (back to the original number you actually wanted to offshore in the first place).
(6) Credit Trump for “saving” half the jobs that were (allegedly) to be outsourced.
(7) Collect your tax credits and regulatory relief goodies while being showered with praise by Trump,
(8) Offshore all the jobs you originally intended to.
Cairrier Kabuki.
Brilliant post. Wish it could run on the front page of the Times.
EDIT: Added bonus would be the byline “professor poopypants.”
Shorter Carrier Deal: Indiana taxpayers bribe Carrier to stay and Trump gets to look good.
Thanks…feel free to copy and paste to social media, or wherever you like.
The workers are paying for their own jobs, in many states usually local and state payroll taxes are collected but not sent on to the state, the company is the beneficiary.
Remember, these are the same folks who complain about mandatory union dues
Actually I’m going to suggest an improvement: (1) should read, come up with notional number of jobs you want to offshore; (2) Quadruple/triple it. {etc}
I hope everyone sees the fake news dimension to this. I could actually announce that I’m moving 10,000 jobs to Mexico (even though I have no intention of doing so and may not even employ 10,000 people); I could have a fake meeting with Trump; and then we could announce that Trump had persuaded me to cancel the move. My payback wouldn’t even come as a tax cut–it could come as sweet government contract (which is what I’m sure Carrier was promised). It will become a precondition of getting a Government contract to participate in this sort of charade. USA will become as corrupt as Russia within 2 years.
Too bad ThE libTardS were in ThE bag for HitlarY. YoU loserS would probably haVe a BerniE presidency BecaUse he’s wildLy popUlar. He Had rallYs almost As BiG as Trump.
The Carrier deal is the “Boy and the Beached Starfish” story with air conditioners. It’s great PR because it appeals to the press’ sense of sentimentality - a thousand wokers will have a job for xmas. No matter the long term costs or consequences.
United Technologies is a gov’t contractor. So the public is footing the bill for the whole deal that includes the $ that would have enriched the owners by offshoring a cheaper unregulated labor force. Scam. Expect more.
“Instead of a damn tax, the company will be rewarded with a damn tax cut,”
For sure, Bernie has his moments. This is one of them.
Trump gets a victory lap. If Clinton had interfered in the “free market” like this, she would have been called corrupt, crooked, and a socialist. Federal government threatening with contracts sounds fishy to me. The taxpayers of Indiana should be worried. Sounds like this is going to cost them a lot of money.
You go, Bernie!
Thankfully we have 2 Senators (Sanders and Warren) that care about the majority of Americans.
It appears that the other 98 could give a shit less.
Some day…someone is going to ask the avoided question. So let me. If we have to keep doing this what is wrong with American that makes that be the case. If we have to pay American corporations to stay, something that was not necessary when “America was great” whats wrong? Why is America not working like it used to work? The German’s don’t outsource much. Nor do the Japanese. Those countries have almost no natural resources yet they keep their businesses at home. They import the raw materials, the energy but keep the labor at home. Why can’t we.
Outsourcing is a symptom of a much greater problem. It’s convenient to blame it on greed and that may be a part of it but there something else. Big. No one wants to talk about it.