Was Carrier a Bad Deal?

Was Carrier a Bad Deal?

A way too long cranky opinion

For Cranky Opinion Saturday

The following is the opinion of a cranky old man with little knowledge on the topic opined.  Opposing opinions are welcome, but they are wrong, and please, as always, no name calling, and that means you, you big stupid head.

The Carrier Deal to save 1100 jobs has been lambasted in the media as a bad deal for America by Liberals and some Conservatives, including Sara Palin.  This is either bad reporting, disingenuous reporting or just stupid people reporting.

The deal is said to have been made after giving Carrier 6 million dollars in tax incentives and 1 million in job training grants over 10 years.  The report I read is not clear if it is total over ten years or each year.  I will assume it is each year.

It is a good deal even if Sara Palin, who previously has been universally regarded by the media as a total air head idiot, says it is not.  Here is the way this C- student majoring in economics 55 years ago, sees the deal.

For seven million government dollars a year, 1100 jobs have been saved and not sent to Mexico.  With family members that probably translates into at least 3300 people spared the indignities of unemployment, missed mortgage payments, and going on Medicaid, welfare and food stamps for at least 4-6 months.   It probably means several people will not get depressed and blow their brains out.  Oh yes, that does happen, it is one of the social expenses of unemployment…suicide and alcoholism.

It is just a nice thing for 3300 people.

In addition to being a nice thing, 1100 people earning about $50,000 a year will get to pay about 15% in income tax or about $7,500,000 a year.  Additionally, there is the multiplier factor which existed in economics 55 years ago, and probably still exists today.  This means the $35,000 a year after taxes of these 1100 people gets spent in the community and puts more taxable income in the pockets of non-Carrier workers and these non-Carrier workers spend their extra income and so on and so on…a multiplier effect of let’s say another $3,000,000 in taxes collected…I don’t know if that’s what it would be, I was just a C- student remember. 

Anyway, I’m saying that for a cost to the government of $7,000,000 the government will receive back $10,500,000 in taxes and save the financial and social costs inherent from the effects of unemployment.   

So, this bad deal is bringing in an extra $3,500,000 dollars to the government, saving costs of unemployment, welfare, food stamps and the medical/social costs associated with unemployment such as depression, alcoholism, suicide and crime.  It also just makes many people in the whole country feel good.

Nice thing, feel good, decreased costs, better mental health, less crime and $3,500,000 a year extra in tax revenue.  Sounds like a good deal to me, or you can side with that liberal poster child for a conservative lame brain, Sara Palin.

Who do you believe, a C- student, or Sara Palin?

Of course, there are those that will say “Now every business will blackmail the Government and threaten to leave unless they are given the same breaks.”

That is the cry of a doomsday loser.  I say we will cross that bridge when we come to it.  Hell, these companies are leaving anyway, we just need for it to make sense for them to stay.

The new administration has a simple goal.  Make America great (or even greater) again.

I think it is good to have goals that make the country stronger and safer.  Those that offer nothing but reasons why such goals are impossible are fatalists.  I say there is nothing wrong with setting goals and then working toward them.

I am reminded of when Rudolph Giuliani became Mayor of New York City.  The city was racing downhill.  It was in debt, it was a cesspool, Times Square was not safe.  Prostitutes waited at the end of the Holland Tunnel for Jersey Johns.  You could not drive through any borough without having some bum wash your windshield at every stop light…you gave them a quarter or they peed on your car.  Homeless were begging and sleeping on the streets.  Crime was rampant.

Rudy promised to clean the mess up.  Experts pontificated every day on why it was an impossible goal.  The ACLU threatened to sue the city for every effort he promised to use to clean up the mess.  Whatever Rudy proposed, there were experts to explain why his proposals couldn't work.

A wise man once told me that the secret to many peoples success is they are too stupid to know why their dreams are impossible, so they go out and make their dreams come true.

Rudy ignored the experts.  He told the ACLU to go ahead and sue.  Within six months, the homeless were forced off the streets and taken to shelters.  Bums, beggars and windshield cleaners disappeared, crime was down, Times Square became a major tourist attraction, in fact the city was flooded with tourists from around the world.  The city flourished and the increase in revenue to the city paid off the debt and avoided bankruptcy.  He even cleaned up the disgusting graffiti from the subways and the subways no longer smelled like urinals.  I saw all this happen in New York City.  The ACLU saw all this and shut the heck up.  One man with vision and determination and a set of balls made the city great again.

It could happen on a larger scale.  It may not, but it might.

I for one am hoping for the best, because there is nothing else to root for.

The preceding was the opinion of a cranky old man and a C- student.  It is not necessarily the opinion of management…Mrs. Cranky.