Virtually all corporate welfare is premised on the idea it will trickle down to the public, but most of it is just a taxpayer giveaway. As I like to point out, the very phrase "trickle down theory" was coined by Herbert Hoover when he attempted to prevent the Depression in 1930, and we all know how that worked out (which is to say, it didn't). Supply side economics was a colossal catastrophe that plunged the entire planet into a depression that culminated in desperate starving people latching onto anything and anyone that promised salvation from and punishment for rapacious greed, even a fascist lunatics who plunged the planet into the bloodiest war in history. How anyone could support something with such a cataclysmic track record is beyond my comprehension.

So, yeah, if we tangibly connected corporate welfare to job creation, innovation and general public service so largesse taxpayers can ill afford at present was earned, I'd be all for it, if only because it would be a drastic improvement on the status quo. Getting out of the most recent supply side depression is the ultimate no brainer; it was caused by decades of successful demands we repeal New Deal regulations (e.g. Glass Steagalls repeal creating the subprime mortgage disaster), and infrastructure the WPA built is now overdue for replacement, so I fully support not only the return of much needed regulation but deficit spending on public works projects to repair and restore that infrastructure. If we get the return out of it that we have from the TVA and LCRA it'll pay for itself in no time, and get the economy moving again by putting money in the pockets of working class people who spend it on food and shelter that's increasingly hard for them to afford now, rather that just putting that money in the pockets of corporate execs who either stash it or spend it in firesales on bankrupt competitors and/or foreclosed former employees. There's no reason those public works can't be done by private companies on government contracts (with close oversight), and real reason to believe that would be more cost effective; we'd simply have to make sure companies hired an employee for every $x they received and the companies would make darn sure those employees earned every penny rather than just propping up brooms.

Don't hold your breath though; this economy may be kicking the hell out of the rest of the country and the world (deja vu all over again...) but corporate America is doing fine. When they aren't paying $0 in income tax while shattering global profit records they're spending taxpayer bailouts on bonuses to the executives who bankrupted them. Either way they turn around and demand a "one time" tax holiday every five years, in between the constant demands for lower corporate income taxes. The present system is working great for the 1% of America with representation in DC. The real "legal fiction" isn't mere "corporate personhood", but the conceit that American government does anything more than the codify the dictates of its corporate masters, who thus have no incentive to change policies they designed. The 1984 comparison really isn't valid: In 1984 the party elite were 2% of the total populace, so George Orwells society was actually TWICE as democratic and enfranchised than ours. Lovely thought, eh?