Submitted by Deirdre Purdy
A Few Things We Might All Agree On
If ordinary people on the right and the left could unite on things like breaking up corporate power, our world would look very different than it does.
In the last 40 years, American business has become corporate business. Three major airlines dominate the skies. 70% of beer is sold by two conglomerates.
We shop at Walmart or Amazon or Lowes. We Google for information and it’s hard to avoid Microsoft unless you choose Apple.
Republicans oppose interfering with corporations through increased taxes or antitrust actions or unionization. If consumer prices are going down, they say, the system is working.
In fact, consumer prices haven’t gone down, in part, because large corporations took advantage of inflation as an excuse to raise their prices even higher, resulting in bigger profits.
But this wave of corporate consolidation has had powerful effects on things besides prices. It has depressed wages, increased inequality, and slowed small business creation.
Take Walmart as an example of a large corporate monopoly we are all familiar with. (Full disclosure – I shop at Walmart and I’m not saying you shouldn’t.)
Walmart has a monopoly in most rural communities, and as a monopoly, Walmart can pay what it wishes, usually as little as the market will bear. (Depressed wages.) Low wages for workers mean more for corporate bosses and owners. (Increased inequality.) When Walmart comes in, small businesses close and new ones don’t open unless it’s another large corporation like Tractor Supply. (Slowed small business creation.)
Corporate CEOs now make $400 for every dollar a corporate worker makes. (Depressed wages, increased inequality.)
Keeping hands off corporations fits neatly with Republican trickle-down economics. Don’t tamper with rich people or corporations because they provide(low wage) jobs for everyone else.
Thanks to that hands-off approach in 2021, AT&T earned $29.6 billion and paid $0 in federal taxes. (Only one outrageous example of many.)
Amazon earned $35.1 billion and its federal tax rate was 6.1% What was yours?
The Biden administration is taking a different approach. The Inflation Reduction Act imposed a 15% corporate minimum tax on large corporations.
To increase worker power, Democrats support labor unions. Union members make higher wages and are more likely to earn critical benefits like retirement, health care, childcare, and sick leave.
With Democrats and Republicans working together much more could be done to rein in corporations in favor of workers.
We don’t need to be enemies, R vs D. Making Woke or immigrants or libs or gays the enemy just distracts from real economic issues that affect us all.
Let’s choose sides where we can join together. Workers or corporations.
Which side are you on?
100% agree Diedre….and I would further add…..the movement of corporate domiciles off shore to avoid taxes is disgusting and should be pulled back…….pay ur taxes corporate American like the rest of us.
You make some good points Diedre. The truth of the matter is that the problem lies in the fact that the Dems. want corporate America and its workers to pay for all the free and or subsidized programs that the non contributing members of society, for whatever reason, are told to get as their entitlement. The Biden administration released data that said that it is 45 per cent of the population that is paying for the other 55 percent. That 55 percent is being supported by the taxes paid by corporations and its workers. And now you say it is not enough. As far as Walmart and Amazon. I agree. I also shop at both.By default. Under the guise of Covid, the Biden Administration was able to shut down most of the country thereby forcing the small business mom and pop shops out of business. You speak of unions. As I write this some auto workers are on strike. One off their demands is to be paid for 40 hours of work while working only 32. Who pays for that. The consumer. Also, speaking of corporations, the ones who are losing money, in the billions for some, were the ones pushing the “woke” agenda. Budweiser, Disney, etc. Speaking of Disney, what was their response? Raise the prices of Hulu etc. Who pays for that? Ask their subscribers. What is left of them.Dems open the borders and provide those entering illegally better living conditions and treatment than most of our own citizens. The Dems crusade for them. But a down on their luck veteran, nothing but lip service . Billions to Ukraine, pennies to those in Hawaii. It is easy to give when it is not yours to give. Another to earn it. Iagree both sides need to work together to solve the problems facing us. Hostility and hatred only breed more hostility and hatred. And contempt. Both sides have people with who are capable of working the intangibles of these issues out. The question is, can they put their personal bias aside for the common good of all, or do we keep the divide that is growing ever wider on the same path it is on until the wall that divides collapses and crushes us all underneath its massive weight. The choice is ours. Kill the head of the hand that feeds you, and the hand dies too. ×e need to remember ×ho is actually paying the bills.
oops except for the 15% min corporate tax by Biden as a solution……that is a joke when the rest of us pay between 20 and 40%.
You make some good points Diedre. The truth of the matter is that the problem lies in the fact that the Dems. want corporate America and its workers to pay for all the free and or subsidized programs that the non contributing members of society, for whatever reason, are told to get as their entitlement. The Biden administration released data that said that it is 45 per cent of the population that is paying for the other 55 percent. That 55 percent is being supported by the taxes paid by corporations and its workers. And now you say it is not enough. As far as Walmart and Amazon. I agree. I also shop at both.By default. Under the guise of Covid, the Biden Administration was able to shut down most of the country thereby forcing the small business mom and pop shops out of business. You speak of unions. As I write this some auto workers are on strike. One off their demands is to be paid for 40 hours of work while working only 32. Who pays for that. The consumer. Also, speaking of corporations, the ones who are losing money, in the billions for some, were the ones pushing the “woke” agenda. Budweiser, Disney, etc. Speaking of Disney, what was their response? Raise the prices of Hulu etc. Who pays for that? Ask their subscribers. What is left of them.Dems open the borders and provide those entering illegally better living conditions and treatment than most of our own citizens. The Dems crusade for them. But a down on their luck veteran, nothing but lip service . Billions to Ukraine, pennies to those in Hawaii. It is easy to give when it is not yours to give. Another to earn it. Iagree both sides need to work together to solve the problems facing us. Hostility and hatred only breed more hostility and hatred. And contempt. Both sides have people with who are capable of working the intangibles of these issues out. The question is, can they put their personal bias aside for the common good of all, or do we keep the divide that is growing ever wider on the same path it is on until the wall that divides collapses and crushes us all underneath its massive weight. The choice is ours. Kill the head of the hand that feeds you, and the hand dies too. ×e need to remember ×ho is actually paying the bills.