Boeing, Boeing
Part of the meme we’re building here at Salon must include some thoughts on redefining the relationship between corporations and the government. Specifically, corporate extortion needs to be made explicitly illegal.
Perhaps the most common misuse of corporate power can be seen in the world of professional sports. Nearly everyone is familiar with the high-handed franchise owner who threatens to move the team to Costa Rica unless the local municipality builds him a new stadium. Government nearly always knuckles under to this extortion “because it means jobs.” And government is right. It does mean jobs; jobs that are subsidized by the rest of the taxpaying public. Corporate welfare.
One of the biggest con jobs currently under way is being conducted by Boeing, the world’s largest manufacturer of airplanes. Boeing was founded in Seattle in 1907 and was headquartered there until just a couple of years ago. Then, the company HQ suddenly departed for Chicago where there is a more “business-friendly” environment. Allow me to translate this statement. The state of Illinois lay down, spread its legs, and said “Sock it to me, Big Boy!”
So Seattle took another big hit from the hometown firm that will have laid off 35,000 workers by the end of this year. Boeing’s latest project is the 7E7, a super efficient long-range aircraft designed to carry 200-250 passengers. The logical place to build it would be in Everett, just north of Seattle. The existing plant, which occupies the world’s largest building, has been building other models for years. There is a trained and capable workforce ready to go.
But wait! A project this size, costing bazillions of dollars and creating thousands of jobs, can’t just be awarded based on logic. This is a great opportunity for Boeing to extort all kinds of tax breaks and other favors from the state of Washington. Of course, like all the other states, Washington is dead broke and can’t even afford to fund voter mandated pay raises for teachers and class size reductions. But there is a giant sucking sound emanating from the state capital as our legislators, without exception, fasten their lips to Boeing’s ass.
Boeing, for its part, is making some thinly veiled threats about building the 7E7 in Texas, a right to work state where the word “union” is considered an expletive. In order to keep all those unionized workers in Washington building planes, Boeing wants some serious cumshaw.
Those unionized workers held a big rally in Everett yesterday, urging the state to bend over and get what’s coming. Everybody seemed generally supportive. What most taxpayers don’t seem to realize, and what the media has not even mentioned, is that if the state bribes Boeing to build the 7E7 here, John Q. Public is going to foot the bill.
This may take the form of increased taxes or reduced services or both. But you can be sure that most of us Washingtonians are going to take it in the shorts. The puzzling thing is that we’ll probably smile while we’re being raped. Perhaps if we could learn to think things through rather than swallowing the Rohypnol of “more jobs,” we might be a little less enthusiastic about keeping Boeing here. We might also start considering legislation criminalizing corporate extortion.
9:52:01 PM 
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