Many Americans have lost their jobs, including many within the IT community. In a time when America is struggling financially, when many companies have found themselves in difficulty and government intervention is on the rise – trust is key. Americans are struggling with trusting both their government and the big corporations. The management and actions of both often of questionable judgment.
So when Americans see a company with as deep pockets as Microsoft
Microsoft is building a bridge across the interstate in order to connect their two campuses. In fact, from looking at the picture in the article at CNN, it’s quite a nice bridge. But when nearly half the funds are coming from taxpayers at a cost of tens of millions of dollars. Americans are left with a lot of questions.
1) Why are we paying for a bridge to Microsoft.
2) If the funds are not there, why are they designing a designer bridge? Would not a simple ordinary bridge be suitable?
3) Isn’t this the time for those corporations with deep pockets to be contributing to the community, not taking away.
The claim is that there will be additional traffic from people other than Microsoft employees. According to a study which purports that only 40% of the traffic will be Microsoft employees. Such studies often have questionable track records. Who funded the study? Were there counter-studies done?
With Microsoft struggling with a bad image since Vista. And hoping for a significant turn-a-round come Windows 7. It seems to me this bridge has the potential to turn into really bad publicity. Americans are getting a bit tired of our tax money being handed out like political candy, especially in a time when so many of us are struggling, facing unemployment or worse. Bailing out a company with billions in the bank just seems wrong.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/31/bridge.microsoft/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
UPDATED: Microsoft’s response here…
