The Militant Libertarian

I'm pissed off and I'm a libertarian. What else you wanna know?

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

$2.7 Billion for Captain Morgan?

John Stossel's Take

It looks like the company that makes Captain Morgan rum is going to open a new state-of-the-art distillery in the Virgin Islands, and the entire $165 million cost of construction will be paid for with US tax dollars. In total, $2.7 billion in tax credits and other benefits will go to British company Diageo PLC, the world's largest liquor producer, so that they can start up operations on the Virgin Islands.

The U.S. Virgin Island officials who arranged the deal with the rum-producers say that this new distillery will create 40-70 new jobs.

Wow! 40-70 jobs for the bargain price of nearly $3 billion?

Of course government doesn't really create jobs. Even if the politicians could magically create jobs, this deal still stinks. Turns out Diageo currently makes rum in Puerto Rico, so jobs there will be lost if the company relocates to the Virgin Islands.

"It's insulting that the money we give is essentially paying for a foreign corporation to move from one U.S. location to another, while cutting jobs," said Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

Yes, it is.

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