Economy
In reply to the discussion: Weekend Economists' Harvest Ball September 21-23, 2012 [View all]DemReadingDU
(16,000 posts)1/3/08 David Cay Johnston: How the Rich Get Richer
Investigative reporter David Cay Johnston explores in his new book how in recent years, government subsidies and new regulations have quietly funneled money from the poor and the middle class to the rich and politically connected.
audio at link...
http://www.npr.org/2008/01/03/17808622/david-cay-johnston-on-how-the-rich-get-richer
1/18/08 Bill Moyers talks with David Cay Johnston
DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: Well, you know, if you walk into many of the big box retailers today, you have to pay sales tax at the cash register on whatever you buy. Well, in many of those stores, the government never gets the money. The owners of the stores get to keep it. And who are the big beneficiaries of that? The Walton family that owns Wal-Mart and the Cabela family who own Cabela's, which is a fin, feather, and fur outfitting club for fishermen and hunters. And in this little town in the Poconos, 4,100 people they came and said, "We want to build the world's largest outdoor store. $32 million dollars. And the local town fathers went for it because they said all these jobs it'll create and all this economic benefit. And Jim Weaknecht who runs this little tiny store that makes enough money that his wife can stay home and raise their children.
DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: He's outraged. He goes, "Nobody gave me a subsidy. If I had gone to City Hall and said, 'Give me a million dollars,' they would have laughed at me." And, you know, he charged lower prices than Cabela's. They still ran him out of business. This little town gave the Cabela family the equivalent of about 11 years of the entire city budget for police and fixing the streets and everything else. And this is going on all across America.
BILL MOYERS: Cabela promised jobs and more money flowing through the economy but that hasn't happened--
DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: No, it hasn't happened. And, in fact, that's the argument made everywhere. What you're really doing is using this government subsidy to draw business away from the existing local merchants who are effectively being taxed to subsidize the newcomer.
http://www.fourwinds10.net/siterun_data/business/corporate_fraud/news.php?q=1200959886
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01182008/watch.html
edit to add another paragraph