farmdoc's blog post number 62

When I was a lad, private was private, public was public, and never the twain shall meet. But these days things are different. Recently Prime Minister Rudd pledged A$35m of taxpayers’ funds for Toyota to build cars – Camry hybrids – it was going to build anyway. This is corporate welfare, and it blurs the line between private and public. Try as I have, I can’t think of a cogent reason to justify the subsidies, bailouts, giveaways, tax loopholes, debt holidays and other benefits conferred by government on businesses. All enterprises should formulate business plans, and I think that if they can’t make a profit and a reasonable return on investment without government handouts, then they should cease trading and disappear. Welfare is for the truly needy. Indeed my dictionary defines it as governmental economic assistance to those in need. In our society, regrettably, there are many people in genuine need. If corporate welfare deprives them of assistance then the process of government is genuinely dysfunctional, probably morally deficient, and maybe corrupt because donations to political parties are not totally transparent. I work hard earning my income, I discharge my civic responsibility by paying all of my due taxes, but I don’t want my tax dollars funnelled to Toyota and their ilk. That these corporations tout for, and willingly accept, corporate welfare is rank. It stinks.