Our community recently voted in an Economic Development Corporation, four short years after voting out a previous failed EDC. The corporation will pull an extra half cent sales tax from the pockets of shoppers in our community to give to corporations and industries to locate here, under the premise that they will bring jobs to our community.
I believe that job creation should not be the responsibility of the government, but of individuals. While such programs superficially work, they bring in only companies that are economically dependent on entitlements, and as bad as entitlements are for individuals, they are WORSE for corporations.
You see, when a corporation is publicly financed, it is not vested in its own success. The money it stands to lose is not its OWN money, and therefore fiscally sound policies are rarely, if ever, significant in the business plans. If you or I take money from our own pockets and invest in our business, however, we are vested in our own success. Failure to us means a personal loss, and knowing this causes us to work harder and more efficiently. Very few people are fiscally responsible with other people's money.
In short, corporate welfare is bad for the same reason that individual welfare is bad. It robs the corporation of incentive for success and is a pretty sure recipe for failure. A look at businesses funded by EDC's throughout the country shows a track record of few successes, but mostly of failures...and many of the successes are short term successes that terminate once their rich uncle quits ponying up for their operating expenses.