Why POPE's objectives would be good for business bottom lines

Lest these proposals be construed as pushing yet one more unfunded mandate upon a beleagured public, let me repeat that I do not think that this should be a mandatory program. In fact, the incentives of easy access to extremely cheap government financing are compelling enough, on their own, to merit making this program one that companies would have to qualify for.
In fact, I'd go one further. I don't think a company ought to be allowed to participate in the POPE system unless it has put the matter to a company-wide vote and shown that a majority of over 60% of its workers want the company to enlist. This will promote internal debate among employees - a good thing from my point of view.
I think that people are astute enough to recognize that having a silent partner in Uncle Sam makes for better job security and making a show of taking the high road can be very good PR for a business, more especially if the government were to take the time and the effort to recognize POPE participants over publicly-supported media, radio and television and in the progress-oriented periodicals that have become so popular of late.
Any sensible management team under the scrutiny of shareholders would be on thin ice if they were to reject the option of federal backing. It would leave them looking as if they were more intent on lining their own pockets than doing right by the company, its workers, its shareholders and the public interest.
The upfront task facing the People's representatives in government would be to convince a sufficient number of companies that the cost/benefit ratio of participating constituted a compelling case for them to sign on. To achieve that, implementation could start with those already known to be headed by people with strong leanings toward improving social equity. Though currently a definite minority, they exist in numbers sufficient to forge an excellent beginning that would make others stand up and take notice.
One thing is for certain: an astute government, intent on improving social equity, would not overlook the potential strategic advantage offered by the real-world existence of some companies that already try a lot harder than others to promote social equity in the way they treat their employees. Costco is a notable example of one such company - and a very profitable one, at that.
These companies are headed by executives who willingly accept whatever relative financial disadvantages that doing so may levy on them personally, compared with what executives burdened by no such scruples in other companies face, because they believe in building a better society through right use of will in business. In so doing, these pioneers have taken it upon themselves to create an opening for social conscience in the corporate world and are now waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak - namely, for society to meet them halfway. As things stand, the only thing they get now for their commitment to right action is knowing God (or Good) is on their side. With POPE, we can add a little public muscle to God's approval.
Let's face it; the long track record of government being all but indifferent to matters of social conscience in the free market has got to end. Without government leading the way and clearly delineating what living up to the social contract of our conclave actually requires of them, millions of Americans simply drift along in a haphazard way, each trying to secure his or her daily bread, often working at cross purposes to one another and the Greater Good. We can do better. The time has come for the People's representatives in government to help, in a substantive way, the leaders of the emergent social equity movement who strive to do right by their social contemporaries.
Accordingly, it would be entirely consistent with the spirit of the social contract if those who signed up to play by the rules of the POPE system were to get whatever preferential treatment from the People is both lawful and fiscally prudent. By the same measure, those who consciously opt to continue doing business in the discredited isolated-interest mode of old that created the conditions we are now so challenged to fix must be denied such help. Constructive reciprocity works.