We see it all over Greensboro. Currently Downtown Greensboro Incorporated is in the midst of a giant scandal because they've failed to maintain open records, given public monies to their own board members, grants to ineligible non profits and double billed the City of Greensboro. And now we learn that the actions of Goodwill Industries are being called into question.
It's not that all non profits are bad, they're really not, but recently when I looked into starting my own business, certain business advisers suggested I start it as a non profit even though my intention was to make a profit for myself. They were even happy to teach me how to do so for a fee, of course.
The problem is, that while non profits sometimes do good, sometimes they have no positive impact whatsoever. But all non profits take away from the tax pool-- the total amount of tax dollars available to governments to provide government services to all of us. Which means the rest of us are forced to pay more.
This was my major concern when the Bush Administration pushed to privatize government services through for profit and non profit businesses. Each and every new business that sprang up was a potential new hole to leak tax dollars through. And of course it has become so profitable and so porous the Obama administration has done nothing to change it.
And the same is true in local government. The City of Greensboro formed DGI, Action Greensboro, the Greensboro Partnership and a host of other non profits to take over for the City so that the City wouldn't be responsible for certain city services and in every instance money flows out like water into a city storm drain. What didn't the City outsource the actual maintenance of storm drains too? Because only water and not money flows through concrete pipes.
Yes, non profits have become the new growth industry... at the expense of all the rest.
It's not that all non profits are bad, they're really not, but recently when I looked into starting my own business, certain business advisers suggested I start it as a non profit even though my intention was to make a profit for myself. They were even happy to teach me how to do so for a fee, of course.
The problem is, that while non profits sometimes do good, sometimes they have no positive impact whatsoever. But all non profits take away from the tax pool-- the total amount of tax dollars available to governments to provide government services to all of us. Which means the rest of us are forced to pay more.
This was my major concern when the Bush Administration pushed to privatize government services through for profit and non profit businesses. Each and every new business that sprang up was a potential new hole to leak tax dollars through. And of course it has become so profitable and so porous the Obama administration has done nothing to change it.
And the same is true in local government. The City of Greensboro formed DGI, Action Greensboro, the Greensboro Partnership and a host of other non profits to take over for the City so that the City wouldn't be responsible for certain city services and in every instance money flows out like water into a city storm drain. What didn't the City outsource the actual maintenance of storm drains too? Because only water and not money flows through concrete pipes.
Yes, non profits have become the new growth industry... at the expense of all the rest.
