Thoughts on Occupy Wall Street

On one level, I can identify with the participants of the Occupy Wall Street movement.   In recent years, I have been outraged as companies like Enron, manipulated markets to make a buck, or as companies like AIG, rescued by billions of dollars of taxpayer money paid themselves huge bonuses and went on luxury trips on the taxpayer's dime.    As thousands of people lost work in the recession and thousands of businesses failed, the government didn't offer to bail them out.  Against this background, the arrogance of taking giant bonuses and making snide comments about how they deserve them, is especially bitter.

That said, I want to come to defense of corporations and business in general.   In Louisville, we are very lucky to have the corporate headquarters of Humana, Yum Brands, Papa Johns International, Brown Forman, and Kindred Healthcare, all of which employ thousands of people.   We are also lucky to have UPS, which in addition to employing thousands more also attracted additional jobs to the area as companies like Linens and Things and Amazon built distribution centers in our area because of the proximity to the UPS World Port.    Ford has two plants here and recently announced plans to add approximately 1700 jobs.    These jobs will create additional jobs as Ford Suppliers get to expand along with the new production.    We are also lucky to have GE, which announced a new appliance to be built here in Louisville.   

I am sure that there are some that I have overlooked but the point is that these corporations have invested billions of dollars in our community and have given jobs to tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands people here.   Besides simply providing employment, many of these companies have also contributed to community programs such as Metro United Way, Habitat for Humanity, Project Warm, the Fund for the Arts, the Kentucky Derby Festival, and Thunder over Louisville just to name a few.  They also made it possible for us to build some community projects such as the KFC Yum Center and Papa John's Stadium.

I know that a corporation is not a person and certainly corporations are not perfect.  However, I for one would like to thank them for investing on our community and giving our friends, neighbors, and family members jobs.   

Have a great day. 

David

David W. McCoy
Associate Broker
Commonwealth Commercial Real Estate
10444 Bluegrass Pkwy
Louisville, KY  40299

I specialize in Commercial Real Estate and am licensed in Kentucky and Indiana.  I work with Office, Industrial, Retail, Investment, and Land Properties.   I work with Buyers, Sellers, Landlords, Tenants and Investors.    If you would like some help with Commercial Real Estate, let me know.  I would love to help.