Dan Way has an article in the Carolina Journal announcing the General Assembly, with no shortage of prodding from Governor Pat, will consider beefing up its stash for buying votes from huge, corporate campaign contributors. I’d call it cronyism, but that’s such a harsh word. In return, the corporate leaders, either too incompetent to stay relevant in the market or too dazzled by the smell of government money, promise delusionary ROB’s (returns on bribes) high enough to pave the streets with gold five times over. Explaining the transactions, politicians tell their constituents, presumed brain-dead upon graduating from public schools, the sweetheart deals will, through the trickle-down economics they scoff, make the little people rich. The worst insult, as I mentioned yesterday, is the politicians are acting as if their job is to orchestrate an economy so as to make people richer, rather than to defend justice, as in discouraging confiscations of hard-earned income for nepotistic inner circles.

Asheville City Council has consideration of three economic development incentives on its agenda for Tuesday. Mayor Esther Manheimer will no doubt repeat the routine of belittling me and my small-minded ilk for thinking government is “writing a [dramatic pause] check.” My fantasy is not that these big, fat promises of wealth are actually coming to fruition, only to be negated by the depth of President Bush’s recession. My fantasy is that somebody on council would stand up and say we want to be a community where government seeks justice for all our people. We welcome innovative entrepreneurs who are willing to take risks. We want our economy to be fueled by effort and intent, as each person does his own thing to make the world a better place, thus having a reason to feel good about himself. We therefore tell any corporate moguls who say they can’t stay in town without a special deal on taxes that they’re a bad fit with the Asheville way. Scat! Shoo! Be gone! The flipside, of course, would be that entrepreneurs who want to come here will not be paying taxes to help competitors undermine their honest efforts.

Unfortunately, even if that were to happen, a future city council could pull the rug out from under our heroes. So, the moral of the story might be that we need to resume our eternal vigilance.