Sunday, May 21, 2006

Corporate Welfare for Whirlpool, the world's largest appliance manufacturer

On Tuesday, May 16 the Herald Palladium reported that the state of Michigan is awarding Whirlpool Corporation of Benton Harbor a tax abatement of a whopping 10.4 million dollars. Whirlpool plans to build homes for the new Maytag execs to the tune of $5 million dollars. Giving tax abatements (which is simply handing over money we pay the government in taxes to corporations) is a tool to make the rich get richer. And we know what's happening to the poor. Whirlpool received this enormous gift from the government at about the same time they reported
net sales of $3.5 billion - the best ever for the first quarter and up 10 percent from the year-earlier period. Something is very, very wrong with this picture.