Slimy Carrier Deal Is Nothing New

A few months ago, Carrier, the big refrigeration company, said they were closing an Indiana plant and moving it all -- 2100 jobs -- to Mexico.  Which sucked.

But yesterday, Cheeto Jesus staged a yuge event to announce that he had miraculously turned the air conditioner condensation into wine and convinced Carrier to stay in Indiana after all.

Well, sort of.

Carrier is part of United Technologies Corp., a big multinational with $56 billion in 2015 revenues and $4 billion in profits.  Carrier said the move to Mexico would save the company $65 million, or 1.6% of last year's profit. The total savings -- wages, benefits, etc. -- would be $31,000 per employee, some of which would of course need to be spent on the new Mexican workforce.

It's disgusting how little it takes for some companies to throw people under the bus.  For a savings of just 0.12% of revenue, or 1.6% of profit, Carrier/UTC was perfectly willing to discard 2100 American workers for some marginally cheaper Mexican ones.

So the Tangerine Toad just twisted the arm of Indiana Governor Mike Pence (yes, he's still the guv) and convinced him to throw $7 million in tax abatements at Carrier and -- voila! -- the plant will remain open and 800 people will continue to work there.  Which is nice.  But Carrier is still moving 1300 jobs to Mexico.  Hmmm.

Mr. Pixie Fingers, acting as Pence's proxy ("Mike, we're gonna do this, OK?  Believe me, we're gonna look good!"), effectively shook down the State of Indiana for $7 million to preserve 40% of the jobs at one plant, then held a press conference on his way out the door to declare himself a hero, saying "This is so easy!"

Slow down, Yam Face.  Did the Indiana legislature agree to this?  Don't they get a say?  If this is such a wonderful idea, why didn't they do it before?  Why didn't their genius governor think of it before?

There's nothing new here -- greedy corporations, feckless politicians, deals cut with other people's money.  It's all slimy business as usual.  What's unusual is the president-elect's desire to insert himself into the swamp for little more than a PR/photo-op moment.  And the lily-livered media is happy to help him.  Ratings!

Meanwhile, hundreds of other avaricious companies are busy writing their ransom notes and hoping that the Marmalade Man-Baby shows up to help them extort some money from their states and cities.  Like he said, it's so easy.  Stick 'em up!