Out of the Mouths of Babes

By Dolores M. Klein

Peoria, IL

A young actor created a furor recently by telling his young church-going friends not to watch “Two and a Half Men,” his TV show, calling it trash! By now, that TV prime time show is notorious for its main actor, Charlie Sheen, and his headline personal life. I recall very well that when the initial promos came out, they gave every indication that this young child was being sexually exploited and that, at the time, I decided not to even begin to watch it.

Looking back now I have to ask, where were his parents? Did reviewers express any concern about it? Prime Time was, for a while, designated as “family hour.” But now, so-called family comedies are known mainly for competing in pushing the envelope!

Why have we come so complacent about the over-sexualization of our children? Times have changed, and families don’t always watch TV together, and children have access to TVs of their own, and virtually everywhere.

Are we over-sensitive to being labeled “prudish,” or being accused of wanting to violate free speech rights? Let’s acquire the kind of discernment that can see the DIFFERENCE!

Is Corporate Welfare an Entitlement?

By Ed Klein

Peoria, IL

Does anyone remember when – sometime during the late ‘30s I believe it was, when there was a rumor floating about that the Ford Motor Company was looking at a site along the river to build an auto plant? The word was that, one way or another, Caterpillar put the kibosh on that undertaking, presumably concerned that Ford would try to pirate their trained workforce. Whether or not that actually was the case (memory grows dim at my age), it provides us with a contrast of how things were back then and how much they have changed today. As I recall, in those days, when a company planned to locate facilities in an area, it would have been almost unthinkable to put the onus on the community for a big package of budget-busting concessions in the form of years of freedom-from-taxes, the construction of rail and road access, sewage, water, gas and electric facilities, not to mention an oft-times sizeable investment on the part of the local government, i.e. – the taxpayers. Those kinds of concessions, we now are told, will provide the community with a brand new company hiring a lot of people and spreading largess throughout the region. On the surface, that can sound might good. But it’s what lies below that should concern commercial and industrial development organizations. Too often a company uses such demands as blackmail. Hand over the package I want or we’ll look elsewhere and you’ll be the loser. Corporate welfare at its most blatant!

A Peoria Journal Star editorial cited a corporation’s fiduciary responsibility – to its stockholders, which means trying to get the best economic deal they can. That’s fine, the editorial pointed out, but why should that be on the taxpayers backs? Especially in a capitalist system that decidedly is not defined by socializing the risk as to privatize the gain?

A columnist in the New York Times interviewed former Illinois Governor Jim Edgar, who back in the 1900s, challenged those incentives on free market fairness grounds and expressed the concern about where all this might be going. Needless to say, Illinois was in much better shape under Edgar then, but 20 years later, things started unraveling when, in a moment of panic, the state pour lavish tax benefits on Sears, who let it be known that Indiana, I believe it was, would welcome them with a bag full of presents. In another case of “gimmie or I’ll git,” a fertilizer plant was the issue. It apparently liked Iowa’s package of concessions better than ours, for which we can be thankful, because it cost that state more than $1.5 million per job. Of course, there’s always the danger of a company that was paid to locate in the desired area could go bankrupt, or move away – overseas, perhaps, leaving the community holding the bag.

There is hope, however. The Journal Star reports that a local effort is underway to re-think the way we go about economic development. We gripe about people on food stamps, but praise business for its ability to hit us up for corporate welfare. Maybe it would be a good idea to get in touch with former Governor Edgar and see if we can talk him into running again.