George Will in his diatribe (“Good news awkward for all,” The Columbian, March 29) blathers on about “transfer payments.” That as if transfer payments are welfare. Social Security is a transfer payment, plus Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment.
Transfer payments are defined as something given with nothing in return. Social Security is paid into by those who get it, in other words it doesn’t fit the definition. Not surprisingly, corporate bailouts are not defined as transfer payments. A corporate bailout or taxpayer money for a corporate project (think waterfront here) should be a transfer payment. Something for nothing.
Corporations and the government that supports them think providing a job is some kind of charitable welfare. Without workers both would be standing in a mud puddle on a bare lot.
