December 31, 2014

The True Costs of Corporate Welfare

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/28293-the-true-costs-of-corporate-welfare
"the nation's biggest welfare recipients - rich people and big corporations - are making out like bandits, because the welfare they take isn't for food or housing - it's to increase their profits and wealth.
As Paul Bucheit points out over at Common Dreams, the average US family pays a staggering $6,000 each year in subsidies to big business.
Think about that for a second.
Each year, you're forking over around $6,000 of your hard-earned money to big banks, fossil fuel giants and massive transnational corporations that already rake in billions and billions of dollars in profits.
But you don't see conservatives arguing against that.
So, where is all of that money going?
Of that $6,000, $870 goes to direct subsidies for corporations, including the likes of Exxon, Shell, BP and other fossil fuel giants that are taking our money and destroying our environment at the same time.
Meanwhile, hundreds more go to corporations as indirect subsidies.
Researchers at the University of Illinois and University of California-Berkeley found that US taxpayers pay a staggering $243 billion each year in indirect subsidies to the fast food industry alone."