Business and Jobs

The specter of two U.S. cities trying to out-grovel each other in an attempt to bribe a small group of greedy executives to build weapons of mass destruction in their locale should be recognized as a nightmarish signpost on the road to our future “Arizona Tax Plan Could Cost S.D. Jobs,” (May 14). The tremendous increase in the mobility of corporate capital over the last several decades has begun increasingly to pit community against community, state against state, and nation against nation in an Orwellian race to see who can offer national and multinational firms the lowest wages and benefits, least taxes, best anti-union climate and most minimal environmental regulations.

The message from the business community is abundantly clear: We want to maximize profits. Our loyalty to you and gratitude for your past efforts is zero. If you try to interfere with our power and profits by doing anything to help your population and community, we will relocate our businesses elsewhere, and you and your families can starve, become homeless, or whatever.

Business people are fond of claiming that business is what keeps this country going. This is not true. What keeps this country going is 150 million people getting up every morning and working their butts off all day. If and when we find, as we are beginning to, that the current laissez-faire business climate being pushed on us cannot provide a decent life for us and our families, then we need to look at the alternatives.

RANDALL SMITH, Del Mar