Ripoffs Capitalists Don't Want you To Know - How J.P. Morgan Profits From Food Stamps

 

Seven Ripoffs That Capitalists Would Like to Keep out of the Media

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 In an article by Common Dreams - Seven Ripoffs That Capitalists Would Like to Keep Out of the Media by Paul Buchheit on December 16, 2013he explains how "Tax-avoiding, consumer-exploiting big business leaders are largely responsible for these abuses. Congress just lets it happen. Corporate heads and members of Congress seem incapable of relating to the people that are being victimized, and the mainstream media seems to have lost the ability to express the views of lower-income Americans."
  

Corporations Profit from Food Stamps

 

It's odd to think about billion-dollar financial institutions objecting to cuts in the SNAP program, but some of them are administrators of the program, collecting fees from a benefit meant for children and other needy Americans, and enjoying subsidies of state tax money for services that could be performed by the states themselves. They want more people on food stamps, not less. Three corporations have cornered the market: JP Morgan, Xerox, and eFunds Corp.

According to a JP Morgan spokesman, the food stamp program "is a very important business to JP Morgan. It's an important business in terms of its size and scale...The good news from JP Morgan's perspective is the infrastructure that we built has been able to cope with that increase in volume.."

 Furthermore;

•  Crash the Economy, Get Your Money Back. Die with a Student Loan, Stay in Debt. The financial industry has manipulated the bankruptcy laws to ensure that high-risk derivatives, which devastated the market in 2008, have FIRST CLAIM over savings deposit insurance, pension funds, and everything else. 

•  Almost 70% of Corporations Are Not Required to Pay ANY Federal Taxes. And that's even before tax avoidance kicks in. The 'nontaxable' designation exempts 69% of U.S. corporations from taxes, thus sparing them the expense of hiring tax lawyers to contrive tax avoidance strategies.

•  Lotteries Pay for Corporate Tax Avoidance. This means revenue comes from the poorest residents of a community rather than from billion-dollar corporations. Many of the lottery players don't realize how bad the odds are. Fill out $2 tickets for 12 hours a day for 50 years and you'll have half a chance of winning.

•  The National Football League Pays No Federal Taxes. One of the most profitable organizations in America, with billions in tickets, TV rights, and merchandise sales, and with an NFL Commissioner who earned more money than the CEOs of Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, and AT&T, is considered a non-profit. It has a tax-exempt status. 

•    Live on Park Avenue, Get a Farm Subsidy. A disturbing but fascinating report called "Farm Subsidies and the Big Dogs" lists Washington, DC, Chicago, and New York City, in that order, as the worst offenders.

• In New York, "Many entities receive the federal subsidies at their downtown office buildings, such as 30 Rockefeller Plaza, or at their million dollar residential condos."

• In Chicago, "Nearly every neighborhood in the city receives federal farm subsidy payments - including the Gold Coast, Downtown-Loop, Lincoln Park, and even the President's neighbors in Hyde Park."

• In Washington, "Even U.S. Senators are receiving farm subsidy checks." 

• Profit Margin Magic: Turning a dollar into $100,000. Which costs the consumer more, printer ink or bottled water? Calculations by DataGenetics reveal that the ink in a $16.99 cartridge comes to almost $3,400 per gallon. The cost of a gallon of cartridge ink would buy enough gasoline to run the average car for over two years.

 

What They Don't Want You To Know About

 Capitalism and Socialism 

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stevensonfinancialmarketing.wordpress.com

In an article by David Gruder in The NewIQ.com David asks; "Do you know the real difference between socialism and capitalism?" He explains that quite a number of politicians and pundits today are counting on you NOT knowing, so they can manipulate you into believing whatever serves them and their ideology for you to believe. Here, in the spirit of spin-busting, are the secrets about capitalism and socialism that those particular pundits and politicians don't want you to know.

Capitalism has each person pay only for the cost of whatever they choose to purchase. Not more, not less. In contrast, socialism spreads among financially capable citizens the cost of projects or services that a society (or a group) needs in order to function.
Capitalism works best with purchases you alone are free to make as an exercise of your personal freedom. Socialism works best with costs connected with infrastructures deemed necessary for the common good.

Do you believe in emergency services like police, fire, paramedics, military? Emergency services are forms of socialism.

Do you believe in epidemic prevention infrastructures like sewers, garbage removal, water purification, etc? Public health strategies are forms of socialism.

Do you believe in the importance of transportation infrastructure, such as properly maintained roadways, public transportation, and air traffic control? Transportation infrastructure maintenance is a form of socialism.

Do you believe in insurance? Yes, even health insurance, and in fact all insurance, is a form of socialism. Why? Because it spreads costs evenly among everyone in an insurance category even though each individual uses uneven amounts of their health coverage.

So What Does All This Mean To Me?

Well, it goes back to realizing how much power and influence that the ultra-rich and corporations have over our lives. It was made much worse when the Supreme Court, on January 21, 2010 made the Citizens United v FEC (Federal Election Commission) decision. Removing limits on how much corporations could contribute to campaigns gave the corporations a tremendous amount of influence over politicians and corrupted our Republic, our elections, and our politicians. Top donors in the fossil fuel industry donated $11,504,213 in campaign contributions in the 2012 election cycle.

  The Supreme Court heard another case McCutcheon v FEC on October 8, 2013 in which an Alabama businessman, shaun McCutcheon has sued to have aggregate limits removed from individuals, which would allow those same individuals to contribute 27x more, or $312,455,200. That's only the top donors in the fossil fuel industry.

What Can I Do?

Photo by corporationsarenotpeople.com

 The information below was compiled by Democracy is For People, a Public Citizen project. See www.democracyisforpeople.org for more information. Also see NY 4 Democracy for additional information.

There is a grass-roots movement underway to get the 2010 Supreme Court Citizens United decision overturned through getting states to get resolutions to get the Congress to pass a Constitutional Amendment to overturn the decision. This will not be easy but so far, 16 states have passed resolutions, and in New York, 16 municipalities have passed local resolutions. More than 120 national organizations have endorsed the United For The People collaborative's unified Call to Action for a Constitutional Amendment. Contact them and get involved at www.United4ThePeople.org 

Polling has long indicated robust popular support for an amendment, across party lines. For example, a 2010/2011 Peter Hart poll found that 79% of Americans, including 68% of Republicans, 82% of Independents, and 87% of Democrats "support a Constitutional Amendment that would overturn the Citizens United decision and make clear that corporations do not have the same rights as people."

Further, a 2012 Associated Press poll found that 83% of Americans, including 81% of Republicans, 78% of Independents, and 85% of Democrats believe "there should be limits on the amount of money corporations, unions, and other organizations can contribute to outside organizations trying to influence campaigns for President, Senate, and U.S. House."

The use of so-called Super PACS by wealthy individuals has driven up the cost of elections (altogether, Super PACS spent $609 million during the 2012 election cycle) to over $6B in the federal elections alone and reduced local voices in the democratic process. 

A March poll conducted by ABC News/Washington Post showed that over two-thirds of Americans (69%) felt Supers PACS should be illegal - over half of these people (52%) said they strongly supported such a move.  Among Tea Party supporters the number was the same: 69% of Tea Party supporters felt that Super PACS should be outlawed.

Get involved, contact your State Senators, Congressmen/women, and Assemblymen/women. Go to Vote Smart to your STATE Senator and Assembly members.