>>> I for one am tired of welfare for the rich.
>>
>>Hey! Without all that free help it would "hurt business" don't ya know? The magic hand of the market has a really limp wrist it seems. (But I agree, you are bringing up "welfare as we *don't* know it". ;-)
>>
>>What was that term used to describe a close and reciprocal relationship between government and corporation? Does anyone know?
>
>According to IRS data for 2004, the most recent year available:
>Total number of tax returns: 130 million
>Number of Tax Returns for the Bottom 50%: 65 million
>Adjusted Gross Income for the Bottom 50%: $922 billion
>Total Income Tax Paid by the Bottom 50%: $27.4 billion
>Conclusion: In other words, just one corporation (Exxon Mobil) pays as much in taxes ($27 billion) annually as the entire bottom 50% of individual taxpayers, which is 65,000,000 people!
>
http://seekingalpha.com/article/63131-exxon-s-2007-tax-bill-30-billion>
>ExxonMobile employs over 100000 people, many of which are US taxpayers.
>
>Exxon Mobile subsidizes the government not the other way around.
And that is not even mentioning how many Americans either own Exxon stock directly or through mutuals and pension plans.
Charles Hankey
Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.
- Thomas Hardy
Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.
-- T. S. Eliot
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
- Ben Franklin
Pardon him, Theodotus. He is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
