What do you mean Anti-Corporation?
There are numerous "incentives" to corporations to employ people, or to have
offices close to mass transportation hubs, but why? Why should a corporation,
that through the magic of laws has no legal ties to an individual, receive
better incentives that the individual tax payer? I live about a mile from a
train station, I don't get a tax break of any kind for living close to the
train station. Suppose that since I live so close, I take mass transit every
day to work, reducing one more car from the highway system, polluting a little
bit less, and I have the sounds of a train passing by my house every 15-20
minutes. I don't add to the cost of "wear and tear" on the roads/bridges so
where is my tax break? If you want to encourage people to take public/mass
transportation, then you need to encourage them to live near transportation
hubs, just as you encourage corporations to open offices near such hubs. This
also gives people an incentive/reason to support new/additional/expanded
public transportation systems. In this part of NJ, the "MOM line" (Monmouth,
Ocean Middlesex NJ Transit rail line) has been a pipe dream of the majority
for over 30 years. A small minority protests it because "of the environment"
or "the impact on my quality of life from a train passing by". But I assure
you, give these people a few dollar tax break for letting a train pass by
their house and the complaints of this minority will not only go away, but
the silent majority who realizes that they could not only get their train
service, but save some money, will DEMAND the line they've wanted for 30
years, be built, yesterday. Instead, our current policies are for politicians
to tie up the efforts in courts, where the tax-payer pays for the "prosecution"
side, which represents the minority of the people at the expense of the
majority, and then we also pay for the "defense" side, which represents the
public transportation corporation, indirectly by being hit with higher costs
per ride. There is clearly a middle-ground where the lawyers and politicians
are eliminated from the process, the tax payers save money, and services are
increased.
As a second example, many corporations get tax breaks just for building an
office in some state/city. But you as a worker don't get a tax break just for
buying a house in some state/city even though you as the worker will:
1) pay income tax in the state/city
2) pay property tax in the state/city
3) pay sales taxes on goods you buy (mostly in the local state/city)
Again, my dad takes mass transit to work everyday, drives a few miles to the
bus station, meaning his car is running, using the highways, then he takes up
a spot in a parking lot, which means some trees needed to be knocked down and
wildlife displaced, meaning that tax money was spent to acquire the land and
do an "environmental impact study", all to make a parking lot, then he sits on
a bus for an hour, crosses some bridges/tunnels, then he rides the subway, and
another bus, and a short walk later, he's at work, BUT wouldn't it be ideal if
there was a tax incentive for my dad to move, lets say even 2 miles from his
office? At 2 miles, even maybe at 10 miles, he would be using a lot less
resources, less pollution, less wear and tear on the roads/infrastructure, BUT
there is no incentive for him to move close to work because:
1) Harlem NY (Columbia University) is generally a crappy area to live
and
2) it's too expensive of an area in the "good parts" (ie, where Bill Clinton
has his office)
BUT, if my dad had some significant tax credit for living so close, MAYBE,
just maybe, it would be worth his while. I personally work 4.1 miles from
home. I don't use many resources to go to work every day, where is my tax
incentive for not using so much of the highway system? Not to mention, that
since I live and work so close to one another, most all of my spending is
local so I really contribute a lot to the local economy (eating lunch locally
every day, only buying gas locally, shopping for food/goods locally). If I
worked in the city, I would probably join a gym in the city taking away local
business in my area, I might buy lunch every day in the city, I might do some
clothes/goods shopping out of my area. So again, where is my incentive, the
one that corporations get?
So anti-corporation, you bet, because a "representative" is supposed to
represent "the people". Corporations aren't "people", I don't intend to
represent "legal entities", I intend to represent people. If corporations or
"neo-cons" want to complain, so be it.... they can complain to people, and
hopefully people will recognize that these legal entities are not people, and
deserve no special treatment or incentives over people.