(#194-1) April 15 2015. Why do we put up with such an extraordinarily unfair economic system? It is blatantly biased to favor the ultra-rich and the corporations they control.

AN EXAMPLE OF THE AMERICAN BUSINESS MODEL IN ACTION—CORPORATE WELFARE

WE NEGLECT THE TRULY NEEDY BUT SUBSIDIZE CORPORATIONS TO THE TUNE OF $153 BILLION A YEAR—AND THAT IS ONLY THROUGH SUBSIDIZING INADEQUATE PAY.

CORPORATIONS ARE HELPED IN COUNTLESS OTHER WAYS. TAX HAVENS ALONE SAVE THEM ANOTHER $110 BILLION A YEAR—AND IT DOESN’T STOP THERE.

We talk about—and practically worship—the free enterprise system, but we don’t practice it. Again and again, if you look, you find that major corporations are subsidized in some way—frequently, a wide variety of ways. Tax breaks and waivers are only part of it.

The U.S. economic system is, indeed, rigged.

Congress—given that elections are increasingly funded by corporate interests—pays its donors back through cutting special deals. At the heart of it all lies the Federal Reserve which pumps vast sums of money into financial corporations.

The following extract is from a Huffington Post story.

Poverty wages cost U.S. taxpayers about $153 billion each year, according to a recent report from the University of California, Berkeley. That's because, when families depend on low-wage jobs to survive, they're forced to rely on government programs like Medicaid and food stamps to make ends meet.

The Berkeley report looks at how much states and the federal government are spending on programs like Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the Temporary Aid to Needy Families program, the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps. The report found that the federal government spends about $127.8 billion per year, and states collectively spend about $25 billion per year, on public assistance programs for working families.

Currently, the federal minimum wage is stalled at a paltry $7.25 an hour. A parent working full-time at that rate over the course of the year won't bring in enough money to live above the poverty line for a family of two, which means leaning on government assistance.

So when a company like McDonald's, for instance, pays a worker the minimum wage, you, the taypayer, end up subsidizing her pay. A 2013analysis from the National Employment Law Project found that the 10 largest fast food companies cost taxpayers about $3.8 billion per year.