Roughly half of all fast food workers use some form of
public assistance, Medicaid, food stamps or housing assistance. 68 percent of
fast-food workers are single or married adults who aren’t in school, 26 percent
are raising children. Big companies that pay minimum or near minimum wage to
their mostly adult employees are responsible for a high percentage of people on
government assistance.
If you’re one of the 49 percent of Americans who pay federal
income taxes then you are being taken advantage of by Mike Duke, CEO of
Walmart, and other top executives because you’re subsidizing their profits to
the tune of $7 billion every year. That’s what it takes to pay for the public
assistance relied upon by their employees. McDonald's subsidy alone is worth
$1.2 billion a year, which equates to more than a fifth of its 2012 profits.
If you think you pay too much in federal taxes ask
Congressman Lamar Smith why he allows your tax dollars to subsidize the profits
of big corporations like McDonald’s, Walmart and Papa John’s. If you think your
state taxes are too high ask Senator Donna Campbell why she isn’t working to
make highly profitable companies pay their employees enough that they don’t
qualify for public assistance.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to stop subsidizing their
profitability by raising the minimum wage so that anyone working a full time
job didn’t need our tax dollars to pay for health care, food and rent?
Posts
Exactly! And why are we still subsidizing the highly profitable oil industry. These same people complain that renewable energies are relying on subsidies while they continue to vote the Exxon, Shell, BP subsidies every term. They are trying to take away food stamps from the very people who desperately need the little they do get, but continue to pay corporate farmers. Family farmers are having more and more trouble competing with the corporate farms when many of them are actually providing much healthier food to local populations. There's something very upside down and wrong with this picture. As the man said; "If you want to drive backwards pull the R lever, if you want to go forward, pull the D lever."
ReplyDeletePublished in the NB Herald-Zeitung Jan 14, 2014
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Published in the Seguin Gazette Jan 14, 2014
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