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Thom's blog
The Real Cost of Corporate Power...
When I say that it's time to make corporations pay their fair share, you're probably thinking taxes. But, if corporations paid back their full debt to society, they'd be paying each of us about $10,000 bucks a year.
That figure comes from Paul Buchheit over at Alternet, and he says, "That estimate is based on facts, not the conservative-style emotion that might deny the responsibility for any debt to the American people."
Using data from the National Science Foundation, Paul calculated that about half of that yearly stipend would be our return for all the public money invested in research. About 30 percent of all development, applied, and basic research is paid for by the tax payers, and thirty percent of $2 trillion in annual corporate profit works out to $5,000 bucks a year for each of us.
Another two grand would be payment for pollution and other disaster relief costs paid for by John Q. Taxpayer, and it would reimburse the American public for things like drilling for oil on public lands and cleaning up toxic chemical spills. In addition to the $2 trillion dollars stashed in offshore tax havens, corporations rake in tons of cash in direct and indirect subsidies.
So, the remaining $3,000 dollars would reimburse us for corporate welfare and tax dodging, like overseas tax havens and government subsidies to giant, corporate industries.
When we add all that up, it comes to $10,000 dollars per person, per year - and it's a pretty "small-c" conservative estimate. That's the real price of corporate power in the U.S., and that's a cost being paid by the American public.
Corporations used to return these public investments in the form of larger paychecks and pensions and benefits. Today, they simply buy back their own stocks and call workers greedy for demanding a living wage.
We give them the opportunity to do business in our great nation, so if the corporations won't pay up the way they used to, perhaps it's time they simply cut each of us a $10,000 dollar check.
-Thom
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Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... Professor Eric Foner, Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)
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Wednesday's Daily Stack 
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Article: " 14th Amendment, July 9, 1868 (citizenship, representatives, public debt)
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Watch & Listen to Thom
BUSTED...Koch Brothers caught funding climate deniers
Rumble: Could Bernie Sanders Run for Prez as a Democrat?
Rumble: Why Obama Really Vetoed Keystone
Today's Supreme Court Has Turned its Guns On "We the People"
Green report: Will Arctic oil exploration be restricted?
Why the President Won't Say 'Islamic Extremists'
Are Bill O'Reilly's Days Numbered at Fox-So-Called-News?
Is Greece Embracing Radical Reform?
Debunking the Latest Smear Campaign Against Marijuana
Malcolm X Remembered 50 Years Later
Scientists vs Feminists - The Fight Over Female Viagra
The Conservative Attempt to Re-Write Our Progressive History
Or watch the Full "Big Picture" Show...
Full Show 2/24/2015: Supreme Court of the Rich
The Politics Panel debates Pres. Obama's Keystone XL pipeline veto, the looming King vs. Burwell supreme court decision, the DHS funding showdown, Bernie Sanders looking towards 2016, and legalized marijuana in Alaska. Hughey Newsome of Project 21 Black Leadership Network, Progressive Commentator Nate Sweet, and Jennifer Kerns, contributor for The Washington Times and The Blaze join Thom on set.
Arctic Campaigner for Greenpeace John Deans talks about newly proposed drilling regulations in the arctic. Kert Davies of the Climate Investigations Center talks the Koch brothers and Big Oil funding climate change denier Willie Soon. Conservative commentator and contribution to the Washington Times Rusty Humphries debates the war on terror and President Obama's ISIS rhetoric.
Thom gives his Daily Take - Supreme Court of the Rich, plus The Good, The Bad, and the Very Very Ugly.
Scott Walker more 'Nixonian' than Nixon?
A Day in the Life of a Fox So-Called News Producer...
Brunch with Bernie: February 25, 2015
The Thom Hartmann Program Live - February 25, 2015
Caller: Zoning Laws Screw Minorities and the Poor
An Open Letter to the King of Saudi Arabia...
Caller: Our High Fat Diets are Causing Autism |
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