How the U.S. Government Steals from the Poor and Gives to the Rich
As stated in my other blogs, The Illusion of Freedom, and Four out of Five Chinese Citizens Agree; the United States of America is no longer a representative republic. Instead, our elected officials serve an invisible government of big money and special interests. In so doing, our government has declared war on the poor and the working man. According to The American Thinker, since the war on poverty started 58 years ago, the poor continue to get poorer and, as a result, the rich continue to get richer. Consequently, income inequality in the United States has risen to levels not seen since the Great Depression. If you have not noticed this disparity, it is because the government cleverly uses misdirection to have you look the other way. This is accomplished by preaching partisan division and class warfare while our elected officials and the super-rich laugh all the way to the bank.
Credit Cards
Did you know that the poor pay for your credit card? “But I pay American Express $200 a year,” you may say. Sadly, that $200 is just the tip of the iceberg. All consumers (including the poor) pay credit card processing fees, which are worked into the cost of goods. Not only do the poor pay your processing fee, their hard earned money also pays for your reward dollars. Credit card companies (a.k.a. banks) know that if they charged card holders 2.5% for each transaction, then people would use credit cards less often, and the banks would lose a fortune in profits. So, they got the Government, which claims to care about the poor, to pass legislation that prohibits merchants from charging credit card fees only to those who use credit cards. As a result, our government enables the super-rich bankers to pick the pockets of the poor to the tune of tens of billions of dollars each year.
The truth is that the super-rich bankers do not even need processing fees. According to The Ascend, if you remove processing fees, then the credit card industry still generates an obscene profit, as shown below.
Interest: $ 63.4 Billion
Cash Advance Fees: $ 26.6 Billion
Annual Fees: $ 12.5 Billion
Enhancement: $ 6.3 Billion
Total: $108 Billion
Inflation
Put simply, inflation, is having too much money in public circulation, which – due to the principals of supply and demand – increases the cost of goods and services (see my blog post The Coming Inflationary Depression).
Before we can understand how inflation benefits the rich, we must take a look at the American income tax system. The United States uses a progressive income tax. In other words, the rich pay a higher percentage of taxes than do the poor. At the time of this writing, those with an annual income of $10,000 or less incur a 0% tax, those with an annual income of $40,000 or less incur a 12% tax, and those making an annual income of $500,000 or more incur a 37% tax.
Annual Income | Tax Rate | Taxes Paid |
$10,000 | 0% | $0.00 |
$40,000 | 12% | $4,800 |
$500,000 | 37% | $185,000 |
If, due to inflation, the cost of a product goes from $1.00 to $1.10, then everyone pays what equates to a 10% tax - regardless of income. Do you see where this is going? Thanks to inflation, those making $10,000 pay 10% more, those making $40,000 pay 10% more, and those making $500,000 pay 10% more. For all intents and purposes, inflation is a linear tax that hurts those who can afford it least – poor and working class families. The super-rich, who control the means of production, simply raise prices to match the rate of inflation. Hence, charging 10% more for the products they sell nullifies the 10% increase in the products they buy. Therefore, the super-rich are not affected by inflation at all. Worse yet, since the wealthy own more assets, and inflation causes the value of assets to rise, the wealthy (especially the super-rich) profit from inflation. Conversely, the poor, who own few assets and live from paycheck to paycheck are those who are hurt most by inflation.
As of this writing, the U.S. Government is pushing an unimaginable amount of money into public circulation. In so doing, they are literally robbing the poor and giving to the rich.
Corporate Welfare
Corporate Welfare is one of the biggest methods used by our government to steal from the poor and give to the rich. Corporate welfare is when government spending and/or regulation subsidizes and/or supports rich individuals, rich corporations, and wealthy special interest groups.
In 2012, The American Thinker reported, "Two decades of record federal spending and expanding regulation have fostered a growing upper class of federal contractors, lobbyists and lawyers in the District of Columbia area. The federal government funneled $83.5 billion their way in defense and other work in 2010 - an increase of more than 300 percent since 1989, even after adjusting for inflation. Private industry poured more than $3 billion into lobbying to influence the government, nearly double what it spent a decade ago. Like spokes on a wheel, the high-rise offices of this elite radiate out from Capitol Hill along major arteries deep into suburban Maryland and Virginia. The latest Census figures placed 10 of the capital's surrounding counties in the top 20 nationwide for median household income - up from six in 1990." More recently, the Cato Institute estimates that federal subsidies to corporations cost taxpayers almost $100 billion each year. This does not include the $200 billion dollar windfall that corporations receive thanks 'special tax breaks' given only to big, rich, corporations that, oddly enough, use big powerful lobbying firms.
Federal subsidies to corporations cost taxpayers almost $100 billion each year
Sadly, when it comes to corporate welfare, our local politicians are no better than those we elect to federal office. According to Louise Story of the New York Times, state and local governments provide an additional $80 billion in subsidies to corporations. Over 48 big corporations received over $100 million each. GM was the biggest, at a total of $1.7 billion extracted from 16 different states, but Shell, Ford and Chrysler all received over $1 billion each. Additionally, Amazon, Microsoft, Prudential, Boeing and casino companies in Colorado and New Jersey received well over $200 million each.
On July 11, 2021, Sir Richard Branson made history when he flew to space in Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity spacecraft. According to Sir Richard Branson, this was the culmination of 17 years of development and over a billion dollars of investment. "I have dreamt of this moment since I was a kid, and honestly nothing could prepare you for the view of Earth from space," he said. What Sir Branson failed to mention is that, thanks to corporate welfare, the citizens of New Mexico (the poorest state in the nation) paid $1.5 million dollars in advertising expenses for his Virgin Galactic flight.
It is time to wake up folks. Stop the partisan bickering. Stop voting for the lesser of two evils. And start holding your elected officials (and especially the political parties that support them) accountable.
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