Corporate America's entitlement culture

You're working hard for Coprorate (sic) America in more ways than one: Not only is Big Business making money off your labor, but your tax dollars are also subsidizing their extravagance and greed.

Media talking heads are always griping about the poor getting government benefits, but corporate welfare and tax evasion are never addressed.

After the discovery that most American corporations haven't paid a nickel in taxes in 10 years (while we pay more taxes than before), we can't keep being suckers by continuing to allow this. But the center of debate has moved so far to the right that there's no political will to remedy this outrage (or that of Bush's tax cuts for the rich).

Guess we can't let big corporations pay taxes when they already have to pay for solid oak desks and prized artwork for executives' offices, right?

Now why again am I working? Why in the holy high shit did I even bother to work at the library all through college? I damn sure can't afford fancy desks and artwork, but Corporate America effectively gets them free from the taxpayers.

The amount of sales tax I pay each year can probably buy a couple of round-trip bus tickets between Cincinnati and, say, Fort Wayne. But instead the government redistributes my money upward like a reverse Robin Hood.

I guess corporations genuinely believe it's their birthright to be supported at our expense. Maybe this is the same philosophy that guided Cincinnati's street name change that appeased powerful developers (which was opposed by most of the public). During the "vote" on this proposal, property owners received one ballot for each parcel they owned. Instead of "one person, one vote", it was "one parcel, one vote."

That's what corporatism has wrought: Money is now more important than people. Those who had the most were making decisions about how those who had the least saw their tax dollars distributed.

We have to break the viselike gag that Big Business's handout culture has on us. Right now there's almost no scrutiny or accountability of how our taxes get spent.

Taxes are like a contract. We pay them, and we expect something in return. But right now, our representatives aren't keeping their end of the barg.