Boeing/union extortion package complete.

So, the machinist vote passed. Folks are giddy that this company, which unlike every other company in the state has an exemption from paying sales tax on the aircraft they build here (Who else has that?) got the vote they claimed they wanted.

Me?

Not so much.

Boeing has been a huge influence in Washington state ever since Bill ditched furniture for areoplanes in the mid 1915's or so.

They've stuck it to us in a variety of ways for decades, because as bad as we are, other states will screw their own people sideways to get Boeing to locate in their state.

That is, after all, how the game is played, I suppose.

My gut told me that Boeing never intended to build the 777 here: they always intended to use us as leverage to get what they wanted somewhere else.

I get that's how the game is played. But my question is this: what happens when Boeing bends this state over again? How far and how many advantages are we willing to offer to them that we don't also offer to the little guy small business?

Is Boeing paying the hated B&O tax? Sales tax on the planes they build? Or any of the many other taxes that we stick to the small manufacturers in this state?

Whatever our deal is, a right to work state could offer a better one.

It's a fine line between "incentive" and "bribery" and "extortion." This package obliterates it, because we are "afraid," a fear that Boeing counts on and uses to manipulate us as the willing "victim."

When is enough... enough? Big business is fine... until they hold the state hostage. At that point, don't let the drawbridge hit you in the butt on the way out, and good riddance.