10 Corporations Receiving Massive Public Subsidies From Taxpayers

[ErikJ]

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"Fascism should rightly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power," according to Benito Mussolini. And that guy was a fascist!

But what the good people of the United States may not know is how far this collusion goes: Corporations with billions of dollars obviously lobby governments — both state and federal — for favors regarding laws, regulations and kickbacks. A popular form of these favors are subsidies, which are essentially government-sanctioned monetary grants given to a person, business or group "in support of an enterprise regarded as being in the public interest." But the main thing to know about subsidies is that they are our tax dollars.

This means that at best, the government is trying to help invigorate the economy by injecting capital into businesses and causes it deems worthy. At worst, this means government is picking winners and losers without adequate input from the public, and often government makes the wrong choices — especially when the "winners" are corporations with plenty of money to lobby the government for said subsidies. This is what many folks refer to as "corporate welfare," "crony capitalism" or just "crapitalism."

The surprising thing is how many multi-million dollar (or more) companies are out there that receive your tax dollars in subsidies every year, in addition to their own profits. Here are some highlights of just a few companies that are very high on the list, along with the amounts of their subsidies in recent years, courtesy of Subsidy Tracker:

1. Boeing: $13,174,075,797

Yes, believe it or not, at the very top of the subsidy list is the company that makes the majority of our nation's air force equipment, but this amount doesn’t even include all the major contracts Boeing receives directly from the Department of Defense’s public (or covert) budgets.

Nonetheless, with 137 different subsidies spanning from 1997 to the present, Boeing is crushing the competition across the country from Washington, D.C. to Washington state, with some subsidies just referred to as "MEGADEALS."

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http://www.policymic.com/articles/85101/10-corporations-receiving-massive-public-subsidies-from-taxpayers

[jsr]

2. Good list