G
Guns Guns Guns
Guest
Less than 1% of Americans are getting rich of the backs of the other 99%. And, it isn't just individuals who are reaping millions of dollars from taxpayers...it's also corporations.
- One of the largest baseball teams in the country destroyed a public park for a new stadium, had it paid for by the citizens, and then gave payback to politicians who helped.
- Two major hunting and fishing chains got millions and millions in tax subsidies to build stores based on false and unsustainable promises, and continued to try to rape the treasuries of communities across the country with more false promises.
- A company built a call center in Buffalo using tax subsidies and sold it to the public through a newspaper owned by the same company.
Government at all levels offers break after break which is consistently picked up by Average Joe Taxpayer.
Such "bounties" include:
· Misuse of eminent domain, which is supposed to mean appropriating land for the common good such as a new highway or airport. Now it is used to support developers who wish to profit at the expense of the homeowner.
· Tax breaks. Not only do companies such as Wal-Mart, Cabela, or Bass Pro insist on property tax breaks that decimate the local economy rather than improve it, but they might even insist on keeping the sales tax.
· Government intervention in the form of legislation that may even benefit large companies at the expense of the citizen such as "free-market" energy as espoused by Ken Lay that eventually cost Californians exorbitant charges for no additional electricity generated.
· Kids who take student loans are finding out that what they thought was a loan at six percent suddenly became eighteen percent guaranteeing that they will pay far more than they borrowed for years to come, and the lender is guaranteed no risk.
· Our government is also lavishing subsidies onto for-profit health care companies that consistently look for ways to deny claims. No subsidies go to nonprofit health systems even though studies show they offer superior care. (Adam Smith also said: "What improves the circumstances of the greater part can never be regarded as an inconveniency to the whole").
· The grand prize, in the form of George W. Bush who sponsored a drug plan for seniors that was worked on (behind closed doors) by "representatives of the people" who guaranteed that Adam Smith's dictum of seeking the lowest possible price would be ignored. Their bill guaranteed that our government would not be allowed to negotiate the price of drugs for its citizens, even though it would make purchases in bulk.
http://www.amazon.com/Free-Lunch-Wealthiest-Themselves-Government/dp/1591841917