Corporate Abandonment

Once again the subject of corporations that take their businesses off shore, abandoning their workers for the sake of profits has come the forefront. The Carrier corporation is about the exit Indianapolis and move to Mexico, leaving thousands of long standing workers behind. The impact on the community will most certainly be felt, but more importantly it sends a reminder to workers to never trust their companies or their management. So many politicians claim that “once elected, I’ll fix that” only to suddenly forget once they are in office. There are obvious ways and means of dealing with this on a one by one basis without causing mass hysteria in the corporate world.

Tariffs. Often a dirty word in the realm of “free trade”, but there is no reason that is should be. Rather than punish all companies, only tariff the departing company and do so at a high enough rate that those tariff dollars can be used to subsidize the displaced workers for the remainder of their working lives. Companies must be allowed to take certain actions to cut costs, but that doesn’t mean we should give them a totally free ride, especially on the backs of our own citizens. Certain stipulations would have to be made so the person displaced after only one year of employment doesn’t deserve a lifetime free ride, but they certainly should be retrained at all expenses paid and payments until they are able to find another job equal to or better than the one that was lost.

Political Promises. It has long been suggested that politicians be required, by law, to sign off on a contract that any promise made must be kept. This would certainly cut down on the wild promises and outright lies that politicians tell in order to get elected and the penalties should be stiff, very stiff. There also should be certain provisions that if the politician makes a good faith effort that is met with insurmountable odds against him, he not be penalized because he has indeed tried (can’t hold someone to a promise they have little to no control over completion). And the alternative would be that any politician making a promise they know cannot be met, be treated the same as having lied to begin with.

Balance. Simply put, any country that trades with the US must buy an equal amount of goods in order to eliminate trade imbalance. Obviously there will need to be some exceptions like when we are trying to help an underdeveloped country or the goods and services we are buying are so critical we must have them at all costs. But in countries were trade is on the scale of say, China vs. the US, the rule should be held, particularly when that country is not behaving in a civil fashion against their benefactor.

Legal Description. This one is simple; any organization, product, service, etc that is given a misleading name for the purpose of preying on others shall be deemed illegal. We have all seen them; “The Patriot Act”, “Self Cleaning …”, or any number of similar items that attempt to get your hard earned money by simple deception should be treated as illegal. Frankly, if a service, product, or act cannot be sold through honest means, it should not be sold. Why should sneaky marketers be given a pass? Why should anyone need such an advantage? Only to prey on the young, old, poorly educated and just plain stupid is not a reasonable expectation and as a nation, we should protect every citizen from falling victim to this kind of behavior.

All of these are just plain common sense. Only those that have something to gain by breaking the rules will actively do so and they should be targeted for investigation and perhaps even public ridicule. As the old saying goes “Just follow the money” and you’ll have your reason; none of which is beneficial to everyone.