Pulliam Comments on Oscar Mayer Closing
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Dear Editor,
I recently listened to an NPR (National Public Radio) segment on the impending closure of the Oscar Mayer plant in Madison, Wisconsin. Roughly 1,000 jobs will exit Madison, impoverishing the neighborhood around the plant and adding to the already heavy burden shouldered by social services agencies and taxpayers.
This is, in fact, only one of the seven Oscar Mayer plants that parent company Kraft Heinz will soon close, reportedly in an effort to control costs. Interestingly, Kraft Heinz just announced that it’s giving its shareholders (most notably Warren Buffett and his cronies) a substantially increased dividend. It’s not hard to see that this is just another case of thousands of people losing their livelihoods so that a few fat cats can further enrich themselves.
This whole situation got me to thinking about the common practice of “incentivizing” a company (or, for that matter, a sports team) to remain in a given community. It happens all the time and the long-term benefits to the community are rarely worth the outlay.
I was trained as a behavioral psychologist. It has long been known that the most effective way to modify behavior is through the judicious application of both reward and punishment. I’m wondering if instead of merely bribing companies such as Oscar Mayer to stay, communities might find it useful to also levy HEAVY fines on them should they choose to leave. If the fines are stiff enough, these corporations might just choose a different course—and if they still decided to leave, the fines could be used to help defray the social and economic costs that the community would bear.
That, of course, would require elected officials to display courage and to be willing to look out for the common good. In the current political climate, where many if not most of our elected officials are bought off, that’s not likely to happen. Big money pulls strings and our legislators usually dance like marionettes for the same types of people who authorized the closing of the Oscar Mayer plants.
There is, however, a better way. There is a national organization, United to Amend, that seeks to take the big money out of politics and return our democracy to We the People. If you would like more information or are interested in helping with this effort, please call Harry Pulliam, United to Amend Green County Co-chair, at (608) 228-5439.
Harry Pulliam,
New Glarus
