Is "Radical Socialism" good or bad? If the government takes money out of your pocket (taxation, fees, etc.) and gives it to undeserving others, is that what you think of when a Pol cries "Radical Socialism" about his opponent?
Who are those "undeserving others?" Welfare queens, right?
Like, the welfare moms targeted by Ronald Reagan's political campaign? How about business folks who click on government giveaway websites like this -- to get some of those same dollars plucked (taxed) out of your pocket and redeposited into theirs? Remember when folks at least conceptualized "free market capitalism" as a system in which private individuals studied a market sector and invested (risked) their own money (called "capital") to try and make a profit filling some good/service need?
Yet nowadays, it seems stupid to even contemplate risking your money without also mixing in some taxpayer dollars -- authorized by Pol-Crats (Politicians and their Bureaucrats) who feel no pain gambling Other People's Money (tax dollars). Pol-Crats powered by the "everyone's doing it so now we gotta" ethos that State after State has embraced (a gambit that can be nuked instantly with a 100% Federal Excise tax on all State-tax-dollar inputs).
Anyway, that's the guiding prism here: Other People's Money (OPM). Most know about it in the simplest of forms: Government officials misspending tax dollars on personal stuff or some other form of graft.
That's "small-ball" politics, is nothing new, and thus is not the focus of this site.
I want to explore seven, eight and even nine and ten-figure "OPM-gazms." You know: When your State takes (taxes) your money and gives it to corporate fat cats -- The Corporate Welfare Queens (CWQs).
What follows, then, is my exploration of a (my) backwater Georgia county's efforts to get on the OPM Gravy Train: Georgia's State government, run by "Radical Socialist Republicans," which is openly taxing us and advertising to business folks on how they can capture oodles of that OPM. I decided to author this while learning how Treutlen County got into the Big OPM Game that'll be explored here.
Focus first on the various ways the government redistributes your money to CWQs: Direct and indirect. Direct -- cash hand-outs, often called "grants" -- in addition to guaranteed loans (so if the the CWQ fails to repay, the taxpayers step up, like with Solyndra), tax abatements, rebates, credits, exemptions, etc.
And indirect: Our tax dollars were spent preparing an industrial site and then our Pols sell or lease it at a discount to CWQs. Click here for an example. Here's one about 20 minutes from my farm, complete with a slick video. And here's how a major GA City is using OPM to benefit itself.
Pause for a moment, by the way, to appreciate how sloppy/lazy government officials can be with our money:
Improper payments—those that should not have been made or were made in the incorrect amount—have consistently been a government-wide issue. Since fiscal year 2003, federal agencies reported about $2.7 trillion in total improper payments. In FY 2023 alone, federal agencies made $236 billion in improper payments, a decrease of about $11 billion from the prior fiscal year.
(Source).
As best I can tell, Georgia taxes us and gives our money to CWQs mostly through (outside of "campaign-contribution-purchased" State tax loopholes) Industrial Development Authorities (IDAs). IDAs exist to combine State-collected tax dollars with County-collected tax dollars, plus some municipal bond debt (which is simply a form of transferred-to-the-future-taxes) and then hand that cash right over to CWQs.
Click here to learn how IDA’s typically take us down GA Senator Kelly Loeffler’s “path of socialism” – but only for Corporate Welfare Queens, not Ronald Reagan’s “single-mother welfare queens.” And click here if you’re wondering whether anyone looks back at those deals to determine whether they were worth it (I’ve found none since that 2021 piece; have you?). Finally, note that the State of Georgia’s revenues have fallen over the past year.
Remember: "Research shows that such handouts accomplish little to nothing. They can harm economic growth, since politicians aren’t well-suited to figure out which companies will succeed or fail. They typically do not create the promised number of jobs, since the economy is constantly shifting and politicians can’t see into the future. Most importantly, corporate welfare is unnecessary, since up to 98 percent of companies would have moved to or stayed in a certain state without the taxpayers’ unwitting help."
(Source).
And yet, every news cycle awaits yet another CWQ "accomplishment," like this new automotive sealant plant some 35 miles from my home near Lyons, GA. Money Quote from that 9/26/24 piece: "Director of Project Implementation and Supplier Strategy Alyce Thornhill represented the Georgia Department of Economic Development’s (GDEcD) Global Commerce team on this project in partnership with the Toombs County Development Authority, Georgia Ports Authority and Georgia Power." Reader assignment: Ask the Toombs County D.A. how many public dollars are being invested in that project.