It's the liberals, what can I say. One party rule.

/not submitter

Yeah, they gave Hynix huge tax breaks so they'd open a production plant in Eugene. It was open for awhile, closed & then reopened. In July, 2008 Hynix closed the production plant leaving over 1,000 people unemployed. One of our close friends was working at Hynix when they announced it was going to close.

Corporate subsidies are a political thing, not a liberal thing. Who these idiots are giving the money to is the difference...

But regardless, it's idiotic in this economic environment to be a dickweasel like Uncle Ted.

puffy999: But regardless, it's idiotic in this economic environment to be a dickweasel like Uncle Ted.

Amen, preach it brother.

I live in New Mexico, where the film industry is highly subsidized. Some local investigators determined that New Mexico was getting back about 14 cents on the dollar for these subsidies. Wonder how Oregon is doing.


GaryPDX

It's the liberals, what can I say. One party rule.

I have read a lot of your posts, but this is the silliest one I have ever come across. Liberals subsidizing Big Business? Right.

More like the stupid and/or corrupt subsidizing anything they got ahold of, with the public snoozing through anything resembling accountability.

Gary, you live there, and for all your farking, you could have been starting a citizens watchdog group. I'm sure you did and just didn't tell anyone.

Don't whine if you don't act. You get the government you deserve.

Do I get anything if I make it to the Willamette Valley from Independence, Missouri?

GAT_00: Do I get anything if I make it to the Willamette Valley from Independence, Missouri?

No and you still may die of dysentery once you get here.

GAT_00: Do I get anything if I make it to the Willamette Valley from Independence, Missouri?

You lose everything except two oxen, two sets of clothes, and a box of bullets.

GaryPDX: It's the liberals, what can I say. One party rule.

/not submitter

Yeah heaven forbid that the state return the tax money to the workers who paid it in the first place. The deserving workers, you know, the ones who are morally forthright enough to have done the work anyhow. This rewards ethical citizens, that's all there is to it.

Corporate welfare never goes out of fashion.

Bathia_Mapes: Yeah, they gave Hynix huge tax breaks so they'd open a production plant in Eugene. It was open for awhile, closed & then reopened. In July, 2008 Hynix closed the production plant leaving over 1,000 people unemployed. One of our close friends was working at Hynix when they announced it was going to close.

Not exactly Hynix's fault there. Just look at the only American-operated DRAM company: Micron Technologies. Their stock as gone from a humble $20 or so a few years ago to hovering around $2.50 over the last 6 months. Not only that, but they've fired thousands of employees (3-4,000) out of the 11,000 employees when I worked there back in 2006, closing down their entire NAND Flash line and laying off many DRAM employees as well. Volatile commodity markets like computer memory do that. I guess Oregon gambled and everyone lost.

GaryPDX: It's the liberals, what can I say. One party rule.

GaryPDX: It's the liberals, what can I say. One party rule.

But wait, these are tax breaks, you like tax breaks don't you?

Anyhow, $70 million per year works out to less than 0.5% of the Oregon budget. That hardly seems overwhelmingly generous on the tax breaks.

Sum Dum Gai: GaryPDX: It's the liberals, what can I say. One party rule.

But wait, these are tax breaks, you like tax breaks don't you?

Anyhow, $70 million per year works out to less than 0.5% of the Oregon budget. That hardly seems overwhelmingly generous on the tax breaks.

Going by how much things cost as a percent of the budget seems rather retarded.

If I somehow convinced Oregon to pay me 0.1% of the yearly budget for waking up every morning, would that be a good use of funds? Hell, the bastards would be stiffing me, it's just 0.1% of the budget. Cheapskates.

/Has little opinion about the original issue, just making a point.

Welcome to local politics. In the city I grew up in, one of the city councilmen was pushing for the city to throw millions at Nordstroms as an "enticement" to set up a store in the city. Turned out that a few members of the city council had already chosen the land which Nordstroms would be using. Fancy that, three members of the city council (who pushed for this) owned that land.

So, as you can tell, I'm shocked that something like this would ever happen.

Abner Doon: Going by how much things cost as a percent of the budget seems rather retarded.

The article implies that this is a major revenue loss for Oregon. My point was that the effect on the budget is minuscule.

Never thought I would see GaryPDX argue against "God given tax cuts"

Sum Dum Gai: Abner Doon: Going by how much things cost as a percent of the budget seems rather retarded.

The article implies that this is a major revenue loss for Oregon. My point was that the effect on the budget is minuscule.

And mine was that changing dollar amounts into percents of the total Oregon budget lets you rationalize (or at least discount the importance of) a huge amount of waste, little by little. If there is waste here, then it's waste regardless of what percent of the budget it is.

Regarding Hynix, it's truly not the govt's fault. The plant brought a lot of jobs, and a lot of money, into the area. This in turn led to a lot of taxes being paid (personal property, income, etc) by these employees, most likely a net gain in taxes brought in.

One of the reasons the plant closed down is that the building was simply not built to the standards required to support the heavy-duty equipment they would have needed to have brought in to upgrade their gear to the make wafers for the latest and greatest RAM specs. Could they have built the building stronger to begin with? Yeah. Should they have? Probably not. More upgradeable, yes. But if it had been much more expensive, it may not have been built.

WxAxGxS: Volatile commodity markets like computer memory do that. I guess Oregon gambled and everyone lost.

Computer memory is a commodity market? like, I can buy RAM the way I can buy bushels of corn or barrels of oil? I hope so. That would be amazing. I mean, how do you even know it is memory if nothing is being remembered by it yet? That is such a spiritual commodity! Like speculating on barrels of souls.

Hiro's Protagonist
Never thought I would see GaryPDX argue against "God given tax cuts"


Tax credits to subsidize green energy cannot be compared to across the board tax cuts.

tomhath: Hiro's Protagonist
Never thought I would see GaryPDX argue against "God given tax cuts"


Tax credits to subsidize green energy cannot be compared to across the board tax cuts.

That's OK, across the board tax cuts can't be compared to tax cuts only for the ultra-wealthy, either.

I work at SolarWorld in Hillsboro, so I'm really getting a kick out of these replies.

How about Alaska? We'll spend 40B taxdollars for a pipeline because the oil companies won't, then they'll have no excuse not to extract that oil, except for 'we still don't feel like it.' Then we'll go ahead and kill the project and we'll call that "Standing Up To Big Oil."

hyperspacemonkey: WxAxGxS: Volatile commodity markets like computer memory do that. I guess Oregon gambled and everyone lost.

Computer memory is a commodity market? like, I can buy RAM the way I can buy bushels of corn or barrels of oil? I hope so. That would be amazing. I mean, how do you even know it is memory if nothing is being remembered by it yet? That is such a spiritual commodity! Like speculating on barrels of souls.

Forgot about this and came back.

Actually yes, DRAM and NAND Flash operate exactly like corn and like oil. There are a large number of manufacturers who sell (for the most part) entirely interchangable products. As a result, the big shots (Dell, IBM, HP, etc) name a price and whichever manufacturer is willing to sell ends up with the contract (which the Dell's of the world have the right to end at any time). That's why DRAM and NAND Flash prices are superficially low and have been for quite some time. it also is reflected in the cyclical memory markets.

The performance memory market is incredibly small, while it supports a high profit margin. If I remember (from 3 years ago while I still worked at Micron) performance memory made up someting like 0.3% of their entire revenue. Most people just want the standard "grade A large egg" of the memory world to get the job done.

It's also why Micron shut down its entire NAND Flash line in Boise (about 35,000 wafer starts per month) and left it to their joint venture, IM Flash. Every wafer they sold actually COST Micron money. They were hoping prices would swing up again, but the Dell's will have none of it.