“This is a dilemma for Dems and the cities they trashed; they were accustomed to forcing employers to hire their unemployable denizens,”
I worked for two companies who were given wonderful buildings by Tallahassee in exchange for hiring 350/each people off the welfare roles. For the most part, these (mostly men) did not want to work. They used and sold drugs at work. They brought guns into the plants. And, they sabotaged military hardware. They even peed inside hardware before they attached the watertight covers. (I wanted to do a genetics test and nail them but the management did not want to confront any individuals...cowards.)
So, we were employing 700 off the welfare roles. The local university greens regularly protested in front of the GD plant because they were anti-war. But they used GD’s South African plant as the excuse. Then GD discovered the university had a bigger investment via their pension fund in SA then GD did. The other company was located in the USF/FAMU industrial park. At an open meeting the university decided to offer the pre-bubble collapse price for the plant because “we don’t want that awful military business in our nice, clean ‘academic’ industrial park.” The company said, “Damn! We have several underutilized plants.” They grabbed the money and fled. They laid off all those people who went back on welfare. Only the valuable employees got a move package.
Oh, here’s the best part. When I last went by that plant it was still empty and it’s been five years. The taxpayers sure got a bargain.
Sad story; here in the northeast our liberals are probably ready to farm baby seals for fur coats just for the tax revenues. Many of our former employers’ properties are lying idle as well...