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Oct

6

GE shutters plants in Ohio, imagine if we required divestment


This is how much GE is doing for Ohio, without forcing the state’s pension plans to divest from the company because of its work with Iran:

On Thursday, General Electric, citing the fact that sales of incandescent bulbs are declining by about 10 percent a year, announced that it was closing seven lighting manufacturing facilities in North and South America.

Six of those plants are in Ohio. The vast majority of the compact fluorescent light bulbs that are replacing incandescents are manufactured in China. A union-led campaign launched in March argues that GE should invest in new lighting technologies in the United States, but GE claims that to manufacture CFLs in the U.S. would require adding 50 cents to the price of each bulb.

Can you imagine how much better Ohio would be doing if the Ohio legislature passed State Rep. Josh Mandel and Shannon Jones’ HB 151?

How that bill jives with his campaign intimations has always bothered me:

Republicans’ and Democrats’ working together across the aisle is essential to getting things done, says Mandel, a member of Congregation Bethaynu. Social issues like gay marriage, abortion, and posting the Ten Commandments in public places, which have been important concerns in the Republican-dominated legislature, won’t be his priority.

 
 

“Politicians in Columbus are not focused on the right issues,” says Mandel. “I’m a strong believer in the separation of church and state. But the first and foremost issue is reversing the exodus of jobs and people from Cleveland and Ohio.”

Of course, he’s not a politician in Columbus right now. He is a Marine in Iraq or somewhere thereabouts (by now I assume). Or, he’s both. Or something.

Gee, all these assertions must mean that Jill believes in profits over pressure on foreign policy hot points.

Oh gee – no, they don’t. They mean that Jill believes that elected officials should remember what their jobs are and who elected them and engage in work consistent with both. Leveling sanctions against multinational corporations that address geopolitical issues is for our federal government and international agencies to pursue, not state legislators.

Sanctions are an important moral statement – no question. But balancing the making of such a statement into a legal requirement on a state’s pension plans only, versus the less than desirable economic impact on Ohio of making that statement, when we don’t have to and there does not appear to be any benefit for Ohioans whatsoever – except for some ephemeral sense of moral superiority that, in day to day life, will not matter to the Iranians or the Sudanese but only the souls of the legislators pushing the effort – is a waste of Ohioan’s time.

Hattip Ed Morrison at Brewed Fresh Daily.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:28 am October 6th, 2007 in Foreign Affairs, OH17, Ohio, Politics, Statehouse 

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