Look, you can’t blame the executives of Ocean State Job Lot for trying to make the best deals that are available to their company given the current state of Rhode Island law, but the “iconic” Rhode Island company is providing Rhode Islanders with a fantastic example of why they shouldn’t consent to their government’s getting involved in economic development with multiple multi-million-dollar slush funds to buy off opposition and bribe companies:

In the meantime, Perlman and Job Lot CFO John Conforti said they expect the Commerce Corporation to vote next Monday on a package of tax credits and other incentives worth up to $7.5 million to their company over the next 10 years.

Conforti said there are three key pieces in the financial incentive package, headed for a vote by a board chaired by Raimondo, that the Commerce Corporation negotiated with his company.

All are contingent on the start of construction by Dec. 31, 2016, of a new $50 million, 500,000-square-foot warehouse for the Quonset-based company that is currently “on hold.”

During Lent, or any attempt at a diet or other behavioral restraint, the best strategy is usually not to buy the foregone product in the first place.  It’s easier to uphold principle while passing through a store than it is to resist temptation around the clock in your home.  Top-down, centralized, big-government approaches to organizing society inevitably lead to corruption and abuse.  We can’t afford to dabble in them; we have to refuse them at the point of implementation.