, a vocal critic of corporate incentives. Among the sweeping policy questions the nonprofit researcher raises: Why should states subsidize EVs when consumer demand is clearly taking off?
Also complicating matters: the notion that electric vehicles may end up being job killers, more so than job creators, if you net out all the losses linked to internal combustion drivetrain components that no longer will be needed. Good Jobs First does a detailed analysis of some of the deals states have cut with car companies and battery manufacturers. Georgia’s $1.5 billion incentive package for, for example, prominently touts average annual wages of $56,000. One needs to scroll down 130 pages to find that the wage floor is $20 an hour, which works out to about $36,000 a year.
People on the left and the right of the U.S. political spectrum say corporate incentives can be wasteful and unnecessary. Even state officials who participate in the “tax-break industrial complex,” as the Good Jobs First report calls this phenomenon, acknowledge that it’s an unsavory game. But the feeling is they have little choice if they want to compete for these new jobs.
Corporate welfare is what we used to call it.