DCHP-2

corporate welfare bum DCHP-2 (October 2016)

• n. — slang, derogatory, Economy

  a company using, or lobbying for, government subsidies or tax incentives.

  Type: 1. Origin — The term is most frequently used in Canada (see Chart 1). Attributed to former NDP Leader David Lewis (1909-1981), whose 1972 book entitled Louder Voices: The Corporate Welfare Bums popularized the term (see both the 1972 and 1991 quotations). A similar discussion, recycling Lewis's terms, flared up again in the mid-1990s (see the 1996 quotation), this time more focused on how to tax multinational companies without making Canada unattractive for investment. In the US, Ralph Nader is frequently cited as using the term, at times even of having coined it. The textual evidence points towards Mr. Lewis as perhaps the inventor, but certainly as the popularizer of the term that has become a Canadianism on frequency grounds.