Killing Corporate America

By Alan Caruba

All those morons who are forever going on about the evil corporations never notice that it is corporations, great and small, that employ millions of Americans and the best of them do everything they can to ensure their workers are happy, if for no other reason than that it increases productivity. People don’t work just for money. They work for a sense of dignity and self-worth.

The Obama administration appears to be intent on destroying or driving out one corporation after another by any means possible. This amounts to punishing success and crushing it in the meat-grinder of government regulation. The latest victim is Fedex.

A June 9 Washington Times editorial noted that, “Led by Rep. James L. Oberstar, Minnesota Democrat, the House on May 21 passed legislation that contains an almost hidden provision—a mere 230 words—that would hobble FedEx Express. It would do so by completely changing the labor laws under which the company operates.”

“A mere dozen or so workers in just one city could hamstring much of the nation’s overnight delivery service.” The difference between FedEx and United Parcel Service (UPS) is that UPS is unionized. As such it is governed by the National Labor Relations Act, the terms of which “favor unions such as the Teamsters (and) both have an interest in kneecapping FedEx Express.”

The fact is, however, FedEx Express ships 85 percent of its goods by air. UPS moves 85 percent of its goods by truck.

This means that Americans who are accustomed to overnight delivery face the prospect of losing that remarkable service and, if they are looking to the U.S. Postal Service to provide it, they can forget about it because the USPS contracts with FedEx to carry almost all of its Express Mail and a significant portion of its Priority Mail.

The bad news doesn’t stop there. The Wall Street Journal reported recently that the Postal Service has announced that, by October 1, it will decide whether to close or consolidate 3,100 post offices and retail outlets out of 36,700. It is also contemplating eliminating “tens of thousands” of jobs from its work force of 636,000.

The Postal Service, in every respect a government entity, lost nearly $2 billion in the three months that ended March 31. Mail volume is down nearly 15 percent from the previous year.

I wonder why? Could it have anything to do with email? Could it have anything to do with a 42-cent First Class stamp for a service that hasn’t essentially changed since the post office was first organized by Benjamin Franklin?

Now consider what happens if FedEx, the private corporation that moves most of the USPS Express and Priority mail is forced out of business in order to ensure that some useless union can cripple its operation? Who will move your mail swiftly then? Not USPS and not UPS.

This is what your government is doing to you and to the nation.

This is your government that currently owns General Motors in partnership with the United Auto Workers and to hell with the bondholders who lent it money in the belief that they would be first in line to get their money if it went bankrupt. Their contract said so, but a gangster government has little interest in honoring the sanctity of contracts. The new GM ads say it is “leaner and greener” which is another way of saying “smaller and slower.”

Meanwhile, Microsoft Corporation’s Chief Executive Officer, Steven Ballmer, has told the Obama administration that the world’s largest software company would, according to Bloomberg News, “move some employees offshore if Congress enacts President Obama’s plans to impose higher taxes on U.S. companies’ foreign profits.” The U.S. imposes some of the highest taxes on corporations of any nation in the world.

Microsoft which employs more than 95,000 people worldwide draws the bulk of its workers from the United States where 56,552 are based. Higher taxes would reduce its profits by an estimated 10 to 15 percent. One option would be to shed jobs. Another would be to move as many employees as possible to a nation like Ireland or to hire foreign workers to replace them.

Mind you, Obama cannot do this by himself. He needs the help of a Democrat-controlled Congress and he is getting it.

This President and this Congress, minus the powerless Republican minority, are doing everything they can to destroy major elements of the nation’s business and industrial base. Energy producers and providers of oil, natural gas and coal are facing obstacles alongside of those in the nuclear industry. A massive, totally bogus “Cap and Trade” tax will drive up the cost of electricity and cost consumers thousands is in the works.

This is a purposefully induced Depression when the present Recession shows signs of giving way to improving economic forces.

Your Senators and your Representative need to hear from you daily, warning them they will not be reelected if this continues. Get their email address. Use it every day.