Labor Day weekend — what better time to examine the concept of working in the United States than the day dedicated to the American worker? Here are two books that take critical looks at the jobs industry and the institution of work.
"The Great American Jobs Scam: Corporate Tax Dodging and the Myth of Job Creation" by Greg LeRoy (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2005). If you want to spend Labor Day being good and mad at just about everything corporate or political, this is the book for you.
Greg LeRoy, the president and founder of the Washington, D.C., think tank Good Jobs First (www.goodjobsfirst.org), knows how to conduct an educated rant. His primary target: the tax-financed subsidies given to corporations in hopes of creating more jobs. With examples from nearly every state, LeRoy builds the case that the jobs don't materialize and the subsidies drain resources from other sectors of the community.
Whether the tax subsidies he studied were used to build stadiums, convention centers, manufacturing plants or retail centers, LeRoy can tell you that their main political objective — the creation of jobs — rarely fulfilled its promise.
Even when the number of jobs created exceeded expectations, LeRoy found the burden to the state was still overwhelming. For example, when lumber giant Willamette Industries received $132.3 million in tax credits from Kentucky, it was required to create only 15 jobs. The company instead created 105 jobs, with pay averaging $17.50 an hour. This should look like an enormous success, except that the state essentially paid $1.26 million per new job. Ouch.
In addition to such examples, you'll see the usual arguments, such as that most corporations choose their sites first, then play communities against one another to get incentives for an already-made decision. Or that corporations often lay off workers after receiving the subsidies but get to keep the money.
One argument I don't hear often enough, which LeRoy presents convincingly, is this: The money a community spends enticing a corporation is money not spent on infrastructure, such as bridges and schools. Because an educated work force and a well-maintained transportation system are the real draws for corporate relocations, communities playing the tax-subsidy game often trade short-term gains for future job losses.
Corey Donaldson, author of "Liberating Volunteer Slaves in a Free Nation" (The Freedom Academy, 2007), probably would find LeRoy's argument moot.
Donaldson's writing style has all of the passion of the previous book but none of the structured arguments. It also features an unfortunate number of credibility-smashing typos and misplaced apostrophes.
Even so, it's worth a read, particularly if you can find a copy in your library. Published by his own Freedom Academy (www.thefreedomacademy.com), the book presents the theory that entrepreneurship is the only cure for our job woes.
While that sentiment has been argued before, Donaldson's reversal of the usual formula for these books is interesting. Normally, the argument goes like this: "The corporation is using you to get rich. Work for yourself so you can get rich. Stick it to the Man."
Instead of blaming the boss for workers' problems or focusing on the carrot of financial success as the incentive to start a business, Donaldson piles on the shame for the sense of entitlement and slave mentality that he says workers nourish in themselves. He assures the reader that independence is the better, nobler choice because of the self-reliance that it requires. You'll have to read his arguments to decide whether you agree.
So there you have your light reading for the Labor Day holiday. Just don't forget to save a thought for the workers of 70 years ago, whose struggles won you the right to the 40-hour workweek — and this holiday. Happy Labor Day!
- Amy Lindgren owns Prototype Career Service, a career consulting firm in St. Paul, Minn. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecare rservice.com or at 1071 W. Seventh St., St. Paul, MN 55102.