For your business to succeed you have to take more money out of it than you put in. This is called taking a profit. There is nothing wrong with making money – taking a profit. Money comes in handy when you want to buy food or buy a home. But have you ever asked yourself why Maine people would want a Chinese corporation or a Spanish corporation or a New York City corporation to set up shop in Maine?

If they are successful, they are going to take more out of Maine than they put in. And you might have noticed that no one ever accused billionaires (those who pay their bills) of being foolish. Corporate entities are not coming to Maine out of an altruistic desire to help you live better. They have spent a lot of time and money looking for a town that will let them put the least amount of money in and take the most amount of money out.

In other words, the winner is the biggest loser.

Some folks will tell you that companies that move to Maine provide jobs for Maine people. That sounds good until you think about it. Wouldn’t a business owned by you or other Maine people also provide jobs? And wouldn’t any profit generated by that business circulate in your state and not be immediately siphoned off to China, Spain or New York City?

Years ago, before superstores and superhotels moved into Maine, we bought our goods from our neighbors who owned small local stores. You might not remember that, but I do. In the 1940s and perhaps 1950s, there were countless little stores in every Maine town and two or three on each rural crossroad. The dollars we spent there were circulated back among our neighbors who shopped there.

Now, when we spend our dollar in a chain-owned hotel or chain business, the profit from that dollar is immediately sucked off, never to be seen in Maine again – unless it is a mooring fee paid by the owner of a yacht that anchors in your local harbor.

So why do so many people – so many chambers of commerce, which were originally formed to promote local business – work to bring in cutthroat corporations from away? Is it the same mindset that enables so many millions of Americans to vote against their own economic interest in elections?

To rub salt in an already smarting wound, a few Maine people have been conned into thinking that by coming here, these out-of-state businesses are doing us a favor – so they give them tax breaks. These companies’ property taxes are less, so yours are more.

Would you give tax breaks to a Chinese or NYC corporation with hopes of luring them to your town? When the only purpose of that corporation is to take as much money out of your pocket as they can? This is called “good business.”

At present, there is nothing more popular in the United States than socialism. We’re talking, of course, about corporate socialism, which consumes billions of your tax dollars in the form of these corporate tax breaks and the inevitable big-bank bailouts. Without government-imposed regulations, financial crashes caused by the greedy gremlins who profit by the bailouts are inevitable.

Have you ever wondered how much your electric bill would drop if you and your Maine friends owned Central Maine Power Co.?

I can’t be the one to talk about the cost of electricity because years ago I installed 30 photovoltaic panels on my henhouse, where no one could see them. Did you realize that not buying your electricity from a corporate entity is not only unpatriotic here in St. George but also blatantly un-American? Paying an out-of-state corporation for the privilege of running your electric heat and clothes dryer is something that is tacitly expected of a patriot. I hid my panels out back.

By the same token, you might have asked yourself why we don’t have a state bank owned by Maine people. There is nothing wrong with making a profit. Why don’t we set up our own Maine state bank and use the profit to repair our roads? Or to improve hospitals and schools?

Where would you have your mortgage and checking account if you knew that any profit that institution generated was going right back into your pocket?

Is there a law that says that only extremely clever people from away have a right to move in, elbow us aside and make the really big bucks in Maine? Or is it like chewing tobacco – an expensive old habit that is hard to break?

The humble Farmer can be heard Friday nights at 7 on WHPW (97.3 FM) and visited at:

www.thehumblefarmer.com/MainePrivateRadio.html