corporate welfare bum

English

Etymology

Coined in 1972 by Canadian labor leader and politician David Lewis (1909-1981).[1]

Pronunciation

Audio (AU) (file)

Noun

corporate welfare bum (plural corporate welfare bums)

(chiefly Canada, idiomatic, derogatory) A business corporation or business executive receiving significant financial assistance from government sources.
- 1983 April 29, "End welfare dithering," Montreal Gazette (Canada), p. B-2 (retrieved 9 Nov 2015):
  [A]nother $8 million went to keep alive Quebecair, a corporate welfare bum if ever there was one.
- 2011, Cory Doctorow, Context, →ISBN, p. 113 (Google preview):
  Meanwhile: every telecomm company is as big a corporate welfare bum as you could ask for.
- 2015 May 11, David Booth, "The Tesla secret Elon Musk doesn’t want you to know," Driving (Canada) (retrieved 9 Nov 2015):
  Elon Musk . . . is also — and this you read less about — a serial, almost kleptomaniacal, corporate welfare bum whose greatest talent seems to be sucking at the U.S. government’s teat for personal gain and glory.
- 2015 Nov. 4, Ezra Levant, "Liberal conundrum: Side with their anti-airport Toronto MPs? Or “corporate welfare bum” Bombardier?," ezralevant.com (Canada), (retrieved 9 Nov 2015):
  Corporate welfare bum Bombardier is already demanding a billion more dollars in corporate bailouts from Trudeau’s Liberals.

References

"The campaign: Interesting, eventful and influential" by Peter Desbarats, Montreal Gazette, Oct. 28, 1972, p. 7:
NDP Leader Lewis has campaigned more effectively than any of the others. His "corporate welfare bum" slogan became the only memorable one of the campaign.

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