U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders introduced legislation that deserves our support. It would require big profitable businesses to EITHER pay their workers a living wage OR pay for the public assistance (welfare, food stamps, public housing, government-funded medical care, etc.) that the employees need.
Bernie Sanders named the bill after the richest man in the history of the world, Jeff Bezos (worth $158 BILLION with wealth increasing by $260 MILLION every day). Sanders calls his bill the Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies (BEZOS) Act.
Jeff Bezos is on welfare! Ordinary people are subsidizing him by making up the difference between what his employees need for living and the skimpy wages he pays.
How many conservatives who complain about taxes are paying attention to this? Taxpayers are paying welfare for billionaires!
This information came from a non-profit organization I trust, but right now I don’t remember which organization provided this information.
And who pays for the public assistance subsidizing Mr. Bezos’ wealth? You do. The middle class subsidizes the wealthiest person in the world, while his workers struggle to put food on the table. That is what the rigged economy is all about.
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (Independent from Vermont) introduced legislation that aims to end corporate welfare by establishing a 100 percent tax on corporations with 500 or more employees equal to the amount of federal benefits received by their low-wage workers. So, if a worker at Amazon receives $1,000 in food stamps, Amazon would be taxed $1,000 to cover that cost.
What a smart strategy to promote economic justice!
The bill gives large, profitable employers a choice: pay your workers a living wage or pay for the public assistance they need to get by. It’s common sense.
Bernie asks us to contact our U.S. Senators and urge them to co-sponsor his bill, the “Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies (BEZOS) Act” and send a message that taxpayers should not have to expend huge sums of money subsidizing profitable corporations owned by some of the wealthiest people in America.
Of course, Jeff Bezos is not alone in this regard. Some of the most profitable businesses in America sustain their wealth through this kind of corporate welfare. Someone else’s research discovered that in 2014, Walmart employees received at least $6.2 billion in public aid every year. Walmart is owned by the Walton family, the wealthiest family in the country.
Also, more than half of employees in the fast food industry rely on some kind of public assistance. McDonald’s workers are actually encouraged to sign up for assistance, and the co-owner of Burger King has a net worth of $25 billion, while his workers receive an estimated $356 million in subsidies each year.
The government has a moral responsibility to make certain that every man, woman and child in this country has a decent standard of living and that we provide for the vulnerable in this country — our kids, the sick, the elderly and the disabled. It is not acceptable, however, that the American taxpayer is being asked to subsidize the wealth of some of the wealthiest people in the history of the world.
