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How to Steal from the Taxpayers While Blaming the Poor
Jun 15, 2015
It's a vicious circle of hypocrisy: Americans dependent on the safety net are urged to "get a job" by the same free-market system that pays them too little to avoid being dependent on the safety net.
Theft, Part 1: The Average U.S. Household Pays About $400 for Safety Net Programs for Low-Wage Workers
According to the Economic Policy Institute, $45 billion per year in federal, state, and other safety net support is paid to workers in the bottom 20 percent of wage earners. Thus the average U.S. household is paying almost $400 to employees in low-wage industries such as food service, retail, and personal care.
Blame: Accusing the Poor
Paul Ryan said that social programs "turn the safety net into a hammock that lulls able-bodied people to lives of dependency and complacency." But 63 percent of eligible working-age poor Americans are employed, and 73 percent are members of working families. Yet in a show of hypocrisy by some of the leading safety net critics, Congress has killed or blocked or ignored numerous attempts to create better jobs for underemployed Americans.
Greed: Profits for Stockholders, Poverty Wages for Workers
A Demos study found that raising wages to $25,000 per year (about $12.50 per hour) for full-time retail workers would lift 734,075 people out of poverty.
It would probably help a lot more. An analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data reveals that about 22 million workers are underpaid (about a sixth of the total), over half of them in food service, cashiering, personal care, and housekeeping.
Paying everyone $12.50 (assuming full-time) would cost an extra $80 billion. That's about 3 percent of total 2014 corporate profits. Three percent, compared to the 95 percent spent by S&P 500 companies on investor-enriching stock buybacks and dividend payouts.
Outrage: The Walmart Numbers
About two-thirds of low-wage workers are employed by large corporations with over 100 employees. The very worst offender is probably Walmart, which pays its estimated 1.4 million U.S. employees so little that the average Walmart worker depends on about $4,400 per year in taxpayer assistance, for food stamps and other safety net programs.
As Walmart was depending on us, the taxpayers, to pay $4,400 a year to each of its employees, the company was spending the equivalent of $5,000 per U.S. employee for price-boosting stock buybacks.
Theft, Part 2: More Taxpayer Money for the Big Corporations
Corporate tax avoidance costs us anywhere from $870 to $1,600 per family.
Incredibly, even though every hour worked by an IRS auditor uncovers over $9,000 in misreported tax dollars among large corporations, IRS auditing for those firms has been cut back by one-third. Meanwhile, communities around the nation are relying on regressive property and sales taxes to make up the difference.
This is a second theft from the taxpayers, executed quietly for the benefit of the most powerful corporations, as poor Americans continue to get blamed for being poor.
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Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
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Paul Buchheit
Paul Buchheit is an advocate for social and economic justice, and the author of numerous papers on economic inequality and cognitive science. He was recently named one of 300 Living Peace and Justice Leaders and Models. He is the author of "American Wars: Illusions and Realities" (2008) and "Disposable Americans: Extreme Capitalism and the Case for a Guaranteed Income" (2017). Contact email: paul (at) youdeservefacts.org.
corporate powercorporate profitsdemoseconomic policy institutegreedinequalityminimum wagepovertytax avoidancewalmartsafety net
It's a vicious circle of hypocrisy: Americans dependent on the safety net are urged to "get a job" by the same free-market system that pays them too little to avoid being dependent on the safety net.
Theft, Part 1: The Average U.S. Household Pays About $400 for Safety Net Programs for Low-Wage Workers
According to the Economic Policy Institute, $45 billion per year in federal, state, and other safety net support is paid to workers in the bottom 20 percent of wage earners. Thus the average U.S. household is paying almost $400 to employees in low-wage industries such as food service, retail, and personal care.
Blame: Accusing the Poor
Paul Ryan said that social programs "turn the safety net into a hammock that lulls able-bodied people to lives of dependency and complacency." But 63 percent of eligible working-age poor Americans are employed, and 73 percent are members of working families. Yet in a show of hypocrisy by some of the leading safety net critics, Congress has killed or blocked or ignored numerous attempts to create better jobs for underemployed Americans.
Greed: Profits for Stockholders, Poverty Wages for Workers
A Demos study found that raising wages to $25,000 per year (about $12.50 per hour) for full-time retail workers would lift 734,075 people out of poverty.
It would probably help a lot more. An analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data reveals that about 22 million workers are underpaid (about a sixth of the total), over half of them in food service, cashiering, personal care, and housekeeping.
Paying everyone $12.50 (assuming full-time) would cost an extra $80 billion. That's about 3 percent of total 2014 corporate profits. Three percent, compared to the 95 percent spent by S&P 500 companies on investor-enriching stock buybacks and dividend payouts.
Outrage: The Walmart Numbers
About two-thirds of low-wage workers are employed by large corporations with over 100 employees. The very worst offender is probably Walmart, which pays its estimated 1.4 million U.S. employees so little that the average Walmart worker depends on about $4,400 per year in taxpayer assistance, for food stamps and other safety net programs.
As Walmart was depending on us, the taxpayers, to pay $4,400 a year to each of its employees, the company was spending the equivalent of $5,000 per U.S. employee for price-boosting stock buybacks.
Theft, Part 2: More Taxpayer Money for the Big Corporations
Corporate tax avoidance costs us anywhere from $870 to $1,600 per family.
Incredibly, even though every hour worked by an IRS auditor uncovers over $9,000 in misreported tax dollars among large corporations, IRS auditing for those firms has been cut back by one-third. Meanwhile, communities around the nation are relying on regressive property and sales taxes to make up the difference.
This is a second theft from the taxpayers, executed quietly for the benefit of the most powerful corporations, as poor Americans continue to get blamed for being poor.
Paul Buchheit
Paul Buchheit is an advocate for social and economic justice, and the author of numerous papers on economic inequality and cognitive science. He was recently named one of 300 Living Peace and Justice Leaders and Models. He is the author of "American Wars: Illusions and Realities" (2008) and "Disposable Americans: Extreme Capitalism and the Case for a Guaranteed Income" (2017). Contact email: paul (at) youdeservefacts.org.
It's a vicious circle of hypocrisy: Americans dependent on the safety net are urged to "get a job" by the same free-market system that pays them too little to avoid being dependent on the safety net.
Theft, Part 1: The Average U.S. Household Pays About $400 for Safety Net Programs for Low-Wage Workers
According to the Economic Policy Institute, $45 billion per year in federal, state, and other safety net support is paid to workers in the bottom 20 percent of wage earners. Thus the average U.S. household is paying almost $400 to employees in low-wage industries such as food service, retail, and personal care.
Blame: Accusing the Poor
Paul Ryan said that social programs "turn the safety net into a hammock that lulls able-bodied people to lives of dependency and complacency." But 63 percent of eligible working-age poor Americans are employed, and 73 percent are members of working families. Yet in a show of hypocrisy by some of the leading safety net critics, Congress has killed or blocked or ignored numerous attempts to create better jobs for underemployed Americans.
Greed: Profits for Stockholders, Poverty Wages for Workers
A Demos study found that raising wages to $25,000 per year (about $12.50 per hour) for full-time retail workers would lift 734,075 people out of poverty.
It would probably help a lot more. An analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data reveals that about 22 million workers are underpaid (about a sixth of the total), over half of them in food service, cashiering, personal care, and housekeeping.
Paying everyone $12.50 (assuming full-time) would cost an extra $80 billion. That's about 3 percent of total 2014 corporate profits. Three percent, compared to the 95 percent spent by S&P 500 companies on investor-enriching stock buybacks and dividend payouts.
Outrage: The Walmart Numbers
About two-thirds of low-wage workers are employed by large corporations with over 100 employees. The very worst offender is probably Walmart, which pays its estimated 1.4 million U.S. employees so little that the average Walmart worker depends on about $4,400 per year in taxpayer assistance, for food stamps and other safety net programs.
As Walmart was depending on us, the taxpayers, to pay $4,400 a year to each of its employees, the company was spending the equivalent of $5,000 per U.S. employee for price-boosting stock buybacks.
Theft, Part 2: More Taxpayer Money for the Big Corporations
Corporate tax avoidance costs us anywhere from $870 to $1,600 per family.
Incredibly, even though every hour worked by an IRS auditor uncovers over $9,000 in misreported tax dollars among large corporations, IRS auditing for those firms has been cut back by one-third. Meanwhile, communities around the nation are relying on regressive property and sales taxes to make up the difference.
This is a second theft from the taxpayers, executed quietly for the benefit of the most powerful corporations, as poor Americans continue to get blamed for being poor.
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