Manager's journal: America's corporations should swear off pork
Earlier this month an ad appeared in this newspaper entitled "Declaration of Independence: End Corporate Welfare." It was signed by 61 top Silicon Valley executives, including me. In calling for government to end corporate pork-barrel politics, we were taking a moral stand.</br></br>The first Americans hated taxes; the Constitution limited government and, originally, banned levies on personal income. For the first two centuries of our nation, the common man became better off more quickly than any other time in history. Per capita U.S. gross domestic product grew to $28,540 in 1996 from just $919 (in 1996 dollars) in 1776. Mankind took 30,000 years to get to $919, but only 220 more years to reach $28,540. But today the American Dream is being eroded. Since 1976 annual GDP growth per capita (expressed as a 20-year rolling average) has steadily declined, to 1.5% from 2.5%. Why? In part because federal, state and local taxes now consume a whopping 35% of our national output. Current peacetime spending is higher than the 29% peak during World War I; the all-time record was 49% during World War II.</br></br>American companies should lead in the reduction of destructive government spending. Eliminating corporate welfare is a moral imperative: We should not be asking senior citizens and the poor to tighten their belts while our government is, actually subsidizes the sale of American chardonnay to the French.</br></br>Taxing and spending to support U.S. industry creates a vicious circle. With corporate taxes high, companies lobby for give-backs to remain competitive. Congress faces extreme pressure to "bring home the pork" to home-state corporations. That requires even higher taxes -- and the circle continues.</br></br>Corporate subsidies are often known by euphemisms such as "government investments" or "government-industry partnerships." Such Washington-speak notwithstanding, Americans are compelled to pay for silly programs like the proposal by the Commerce Department's Advanced Technology Program to genetically re-engineer cotton, making its fibers more like polyester. Technology subsidies to corporations are sold using technobabble to camouflage unjustifiable investments, which typically fall into four categories: