Strings Attached

Spectacular deals almost always come “with strings attached”.

My first mortgage ($329.08 per month) required that I open an account at the grantor (PSFS) and maintain a $1,000 balance. More painfully, the Army was willing to cancel my orders for Vietnam if I signed up for an extra year’s active duty and went to Korea instead. Strings, strings, strings.

Fox News was all bent out of shape this morning about the strings attached to $39 billion allocated by the Federal government to US semiconductor chip manufacturers. “That tyrant Joe Biden is subverting the Free Market by forcing firms receiving these funds to provide “affordable and accessible child care” for their workers! Will the Nanny Government never end?”

Fox News apparently believes that “affordable and accessible child care” is unAmerican. Ronald Reagan (may his holy name be praised) would never have stood for it.

Nearly half the engineering students at Lafayette today are female. Presumably, many of them will be offered positions in the burgeoning semiconductor manufacturing field. Would the “best and brightest” take a position offering “affordable and accessible child care” and save significant day care costs? Even if it pays a little less, they certainly will. Sorry, Ronnie.

That tyrant Joe Biden placed a few more strings on the CHIPs Act:

Recipients must build new facilities in the US. American taxpayers’ dollars used to build workplaces for Chinese child labor is not a great look even if corporate profits will soar.

They cannot use any funds for stock buybacks or executive bonuses. Feathering your personal nest is half the fun of being a CEO.

Excessive profits will be taxed beyond normal tax rates. That’s unfair! Big Oil is seeing record profits and still paying minimal taxes.

Suck it up, Big Semiconductor. I survived “strings” from PSFS and the Army. You can, too.

By Ed Dufton