South Carolina sums up liberal progressivism vs conservatism

[bucs90]

I wanted to ask opinions on this issue. In South Carolina, the state gov't basically gave Boeing $170 million in grants, and a massive deal on tax cuts to choose SC as the home to their new Dreamliner plant over Seattle. Boeing chose b/c of this deal, along with lower taxes and non-union labor state. It'll bring 7,000 high paying jobs, plus the boost and opening of related businesses near the plant itself. Probably total 10,000 jobs eventually with additional related growth.

The question is this: South Carolina COULD have spent that grant money on more handout checks for it's poorer and unemployed citizens. They could've put their efforts into entitlement programs, more welfare, more unemployment money, etc, etc. But they didn't.

Now, SC's unemployed missed out on that $170 million in grants. That could've been more checks to them. SC instead chose to entice Boeing here. The debate I ponder is:

Would you rather the government spend it's time and money bringing you a handout, or trying to bring opportunities???


SC could have gone the handout route. Instead they succeeded in providing opportunity. Did they make the right or wrong choice?

 

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

The money sounds like a corporate handout to me, corporate welfare if you will.

I think they should just make the operating expenses in their state as low as possible by taxing business at a very low rate to entice companies to come and provide opportunities.

 

[bucs90]

The money sounds like a corporate handout to me, corporate welfare if you will.

I think they should just make the operating expenses in their state as low as possible by taxing business at a very low rate to entice companies to come and provide opportunities.

Thats basically what they did. They gave Boeing a tax break deal that was just super-sweet. Some businesses kind of got pissed, b/c they wanted the same break. And SC did grant them $170 million to come. BUT, the fallout from that deal will be 7,000 direct high paying Boeing jobs, and probably another 3,000 related jobs from other business springing up around the plant.

Either way, at the end of the day, 10,000 South Carolinians will be going to work at 8 am when they otherwise may not have.

 

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

The money sounds like a corporate handout to me, corporate welfare if you will.

I think they should just make the operating expenses in their state as low as possible by taxing business at a very low rate to entice companies to come and provide opportunities.

Thats basically what they did. They gave Boeing a tax break deal that was just super-sweet. Some businesses kind of got pissed, b/c they wanted the same break. And SC did grant them $170 million to come. BUT, the fallout from that deal will be 7,000 direct high paying Boeing jobs, and probably another 3,000 related jobs from other business springing up around the plant.

Either way, at the end of the day, 10,000 South Carolinians will be going to work at 8 am when they otherwise may not have.

lets say they were low paying jobs even.

10,000 jobs @ 30,000/year = 300,000,000 Sounds like a good return on investment to me

 

[bucs90]

The money sounds like a corporate handout to me, corporate welfare if you will.

I think they should just make the operating expenses in their state as low as possible by taxing business at a very low rate to entice companies to come and provide opportunities.

Thats basically what they did. They gave Boeing a tax break deal that was just super-sweet. Some businesses kind of got pissed, b/c they wanted the same break. And SC did grant them $170 million to come. BUT, the fallout from that deal will be 7,000 direct high paying Boeing jobs, and probably another 3,000 related jobs from other business springing up around the plant.

Either way, at the end of the day, 10,000 South Carolinians will be going to work at 8 am when they otherwise may not have.

lets say they were low paying jobs even.

10,000 jobs @ 30,000/year = 300,000,000 Sounds like a good return on investment to me

Yes it does.

As a native South Carolinian, I admit, our politicians are a circus sometimes. And Gov. Mark Sanford really screwed up. He was a potential presidential candidate until that Argentina fiasco.

But, that said, he hit a grand slam in landing Boeing. The mayors of Charleston and North Charleston are also to be credited, as it was a group effort 10 years in the making. In fact, I believe the initial talk was when the mayor of North Charleston casually spoke with a Boeing CEO at some charity dinner and just brought up the issue. It grew from there, and now within a couple years 10,000 workers will have jobs. Reportedly most of those jobs Boeing will bring are the 50K and up variety actually assembling the Dreamliner.

One of the spinoff stories, which the state newspaper is saying will be BIGGER than Boeings impact, is the Department of Energy is going to build a wind turbine testing plant near the Boeing facility in Charleston since that area now has the Charleston Air Force Base, Charleston International Airport, Marine Corp Air Base, and now Boeing's Dreamliner plant all within 30 minutes drive. The DOE facility they say will be a bigger economic impact than Boeing, so if anyone needs a job and wants to live in a gorgeous beach city, you may want to look into Charleston!!!!