5 Industries That Are Mercilessly Robbing the American People

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/5-industries-are-mercilessly-robbing-american-people



***SNIP

1. The Retail Industry (Walmart): Building Owner Fortunes with Public Tax Money

A study in Wisconsin by the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce determined that a typical Walmart store costs taxpayers over $1.7 million per year, or about $5,815 per employee. A 2004 study in California put the cost per employee at $2,103.

***SNIP

2. The Financial Industry: Printing Their Own Money

Thanks in good part to the derivatives market, the world's wealth has doubled in ten years. Estimates of the speculative value of the financial derivatives market vary, from $708 trillion to $1.2 quadrillion. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange alone reported a 2011 trading volume of over $1 quadrillion on 3.4 billion annual contracts.

***SNIP

3. The Private Prison Industry: Billing Taxpayers for Empty Cells, then Selling Inmate Labor and Paying Them Sub-Minimum Wages

Almost two-thirds of the private prison contracts analyzed by In the Public Interest "included occupancy guarantees in the form of quotas or required payments for empty prison cells (a 'low-crime tax')."

***SNIP

4. The Telecommunications Industry: Low Quality at High Prices

In the 1990s the FCC deregulated phone and cable and Internet companies, with the intention of promoting competition. But just a few companies -- Verizon and AT&T and Comcast and Time Warner -- have divided up the market, reducing competition as they remain poorly regulated.

[KG]

1. 5. The Drug Industry: Buy American...But Tax Us Like We're Foreigners

Bernie Sanders notes that pharmaceutical companies like Eli Lilly and Pfizer have lobbied to keep Americans from buying cheaper prescription drugs from Canada and Europe, but then they their shift drug patents and profits to offshore tax havens to avoid paying U.S. taxes.

[xchrom]

2. +1

[pa28]

21. This one.

[annabanana]

3. yep . . . .kick. . .n/t

[Rain Mcloud]

4. 6.Oil Industry

Subsidized to the tune of $6B annually with every fiscal quarter more profitable than the last.
In 2007 the USA Hemorrhaged over $450B in imported oil helping usher in the Great Recession.

[Laelth]

5. k&r for the truth, however depressing it may be. n/t

-Laelth

[Egalitarian Thug]

6. K&R Only 5?

[fasttense]

7. I would add

Oil and Gas corporations and the Health care insurance industry.

But monopolies, higher and higher prices (and profits for corporations) and substandard services/products are just the way capitalism rolls.

If your only concern is to make a profit for shareholders then what do you care if you're selling a crappy product as long as you are making money on it. In capitalism, there is no concern for quality. It's all about profit.

[lonestarnot]

8. K & R. My yogurt cup has a dent in it!

[truebluegreen]

9. Wouldn't it be easier to list the ones that aren't robbing us blind?

Null set.

[PA Democrat]

12. Bingo!

[uponit7771]

24. +1

[fadedrose]

10. Medical apparatus makers

Try buying a brace for knees or other parts of your body. They fit so poorly that you end up not being able to use them, and you or your insurance company is stuck with a piece of junk that costs well over $100 . . .

[marmar]

11. k/r

[Paper Roses]

13. This list is too short. I bet we could find hundreds more.

I'm too old to start the another list. It is not only those who are ripping us off with prices but also those who are ripping us with poor quality.

Life used to be much more simple, .....

[kelliekat44]

14. There's really six. They forgot the food industry. nt

[Romulox]

15. What, no healthcare industry? nt

[One_Life_To_Give]

16. Eyeglasses

You forgot the outrageous prices we pay for Eyeglasses. (Can buy a mechanical watch for less than a pair of frames. Really?)

[awoke_in_2003]

17. And now that I am 45...

I find myself needing glasses . Just 3 years ago I was 20/15

[CrispyQ]

18. They all piss me off, including the other ones mentioned in this thread,

but the one that really chaps me is the for profit prison industry. We are a country that actually lets someone profit by locking up our citizens. Couple it with the fact that they lobby for draconian laws & demand occupancy rates. What kind of fucked up country allows this to happen?

~kick.

[bvar22]

19. DURec, but this Alternet Article missed one of the worst offenders:

#6. The Health Insurance Industry:

*Manufactures NO product

*Provides NO Useful Service

*Creates NO Wealth (Value Added)

The Health Insurance Industry is worse than useless.
It diverts $BILLIONS$ from actual Health Care into private pockets,
and now it will be subsidized from the Public Treasury.

The Health Insurance Industry has found the Corporate Holy Grail.
They get Money for Nothing,
and their PROFITS are now guaranteed by the US Government.

Nice work if you can find it.



You will know them by their [font size=3]WORKS[/font]

[Blanks]

29. Insurance period. I don't think the auto, home and life insurance industries...

Are any different. They don't make anything except commercials.

[DirkGently]

20. Yes. Where's health insurance though?

Seems like it belongs on the list.

[Comrade Grumpy]

23. Health insurance is a pernicious racket. We need national health care. Period.

[Comrade Grumpy]

22. I try to make them as irrelevant to my life as possible.

We grow a lot of our own food and barter for more.

Who needs Walmart when you have thrift stores?

I don't use a credit card, just a debit card.

My vehicle has 100,000 miles on it and is probably good for 100,000 more.

I know, I'm probably not creating many jobs, but I'm not locked in to decades of debt, either.

[bvar22]

25. Hi Grumpy!

In 2006, my Wife & I moved to The Woods and started producing our own food.

If we can avoid it, we don't buy anything NEW.
We'll buy 2nd Hand or salvage and make it work,...or do without.
We prefer doing business with the original owners whenever possible,
and will always offer trade, barter, or other means of exchange.

Wall Street can live or die without our money or concern.

--bvar22 & Starkraven
living well on a low Taxable income
and stuff we learned in the 60s.
So far, so good.

[Blanks]

30. I bought the 'whole earth catalog' in 1982. It changed my perspective entirely. eom

[trublu992]

26. I'd also add the "healthcare" industry

[progressoid]

27. ...

[KurtNYC]

28. Credit industry -- major benefactors of the gap between stagnant wages and rising costs