Good Jobs First Blog

Happy nearly summer, Good Jobs First friends. This is Arlene, with a much overdue update on what we at Good Jobs First have been up to this very busy spring.
Let’s start with some huge news out of Texas, where a massive corporate subsidy program is now on track to expire next year. The program is called Chapter 313, and an explosive Houston Chronicle series (paywalled!) found how little Texans get from a program over $1 billion per year.

A new analysis by Good Jobs First has identified 22 companies involved in detention operations and prison contracting that received loans totaling more than $47 million from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The findings suggest that additional federal action and evaluation of the PPP will be necessary to meaningfully curtail government support of the private prison industry.

Good Jobs First is a 23-year-old non-profit research center based in Washington, DC. GJF focuses on government and corporate accountability and now seeks a research analyst to work on its Covid Stimulus Watch project.

In 2004, Joel Bakan wrote a book about the dangerous grip corporations hold over people and institutions, and how government has aided and abetted their dominance. “The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power” was published in over 20 languages and inspired the acclaimed film, “The Corporation."
Now he’s back with a new book, “The New Corporation: How ‘Good’ Corporations are Bad for Democracy.”

Amazon's gotten more than $4 billion in public subsidies, including $855.5 million since the start of 2020, as the pandemic began its devastation. But we don't have to be passive bystanders - we can force Amazon to pay.