It is a fact of life in this modern world -- it probably has been true throughout history -- that legislative strategies that aim to tackle a specific problem or address a specific issue almost always are gamed or hijacked by the moneyed interests. It doesn't matter how noble the idea is; if there is a way to suckle from the public tit, the well-to-do will figure out what it is!
Back in the 1970s and 1980s, it was realized that there were a lot of long-term unemployed adults in this country. As we are finding out these days, far too many employers tended not to hire individuals without a proven steady employment history. What to do? What to do?
Some enterprising folks hit upon an idea (CETA and JTPA). Why not provide employers with subsidies and tax incentives to hire the long-term unemployed and those on welfare? Such a program would benefit the chronically unemployed by providing them with job skills AND income. It would benefit employers by helping to pad the bottom line. It represented a classic win-win scenario.
So, federal legislation was enacted that provided benefits to companies who would join the program. As I recall, the idea was that a company would receive the benefits for the first 90 days. After the employee had received adequate on-the-job training, the employer would continue to benefit beyond the 90 days by having a first rate employee!
Unfortunately, the intended aim of the program was subverted by big corporations! An investigation I read several years ago found that major companies were firing or laying off the workers once the federal benefits they received stopped. This meant that a) the workers themselves were quickly unemployed again, b) the work they did for the gain of the company was subsidized by taxpayers, and c) the problem of long-term unemployment continued unabated.
In essence, these lofty programs amounted to little more than a way to funnel public dollars to corporations that were already making money hand over fist!
A more recent example has to do with farm subsidies. The way farm subsidies are discussed by our elected leaders in Washington and throughout the mainstream press, one might think that most farmers in this country are propped up by taxpayer dollars. It seems that anytime it is suggested that farm subsidies should be pared back -- you know, the deficit problem -- several lawmakers will decry the effort as a mechanism to attack the millions of small-time farmers across the country.
As it turns out, according to the Environmental Working Group, "62 percent of farmers" across this country do not collect as much as one penny in such subsidies. Even more eye-opening is that a mere 10 percent of the recipients collect almost 75 percent of the cash giveaway and the vast majority of these enterprises are, you guessed it, already bursting-to-the-seams wealthy corporations!
Yet another example of a laudatory idea that has been compromised by the power brokers and oligarchs of this land.
Back in the 1970s and 1980s, it was realized that there were a lot of long-term unemployed adults in this country. As we are finding out these days, far too many employers tended not to hire individuals without a proven steady employment history. What to do? What to do?
Some enterprising folks hit upon an idea (CETA and JTPA). Why not provide employers with subsidies and tax incentives to hire the long-term unemployed and those on welfare? Such a program would benefit the chronically unemployed by providing them with job skills AND income. It would benefit employers by helping to pad the bottom line. It represented a classic win-win scenario.
So, federal legislation was enacted that provided benefits to companies who would join the program. As I recall, the idea was that a company would receive the benefits for the first 90 days. After the employee had received adequate on-the-job training, the employer would continue to benefit beyond the 90 days by having a first rate employee!
Unfortunately, the intended aim of the program was subverted by big corporations! An investigation I read several years ago found that major companies were firing or laying off the workers once the federal benefits they received stopped. This meant that a) the workers themselves were quickly unemployed again, b) the work they did for the gain of the company was subsidized by taxpayers, and c) the problem of long-term unemployment continued unabated.
In essence, these lofty programs amounted to little more than a way to funnel public dollars to corporations that were already making money hand over fist!
A more recent example has to do with farm subsidies. The way farm subsidies are discussed by our elected leaders in Washington and throughout the mainstream press, one might think that most farmers in this country are propped up by taxpayer dollars. It seems that anytime it is suggested that farm subsidies should be pared back -- you know, the deficit problem -- several lawmakers will decry the effort as a mechanism to attack the millions of small-time farmers across the country.
As it turns out, according to the Environmental Working Group, "62 percent of farmers" across this country do not collect as much as one penny in such subsidies. Even more eye-opening is that a mere 10 percent of the recipients collect almost 75 percent of the cash giveaway and the vast majority of these enterprises are, you guessed it, already bursting-to-the-seams wealthy corporations!
Yet another example of a laudatory idea that has been compromised by the power brokers and oligarchs of this land.
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