Whose Welfare is the US government serving, the People’s or Corporations’?

Question

Welfare refers to financial or other forms of public -- government -- assistance to people in need. Welfare also means health, happiness, well-being. For many years, welfare programs grew out of a belief that government has a responsibility to meet the needs of the least of these in our society -- needs that the private sector was unwilling or unable to meet adequately.Matthew 25:31-46 offers a framework for the kinds of social welfare enacted in the United States and many other nations -- food to the hungry, health care to the sick, water to the thirsty, welcome to the stranger, clothing to the naked, presence with the imprisoned, shelter to the homeless.
Corporate welfare describes financial or other form of government assistance to a corporation provided free or at a below-market rate. Unlike social welfare, it is rarely need-based.Much of U.S. corporate-welfare policy is embedded in the tax code, which supports certain corporate actions over others through tax expenditures,...

deductions and credits. Unlike budget items, tax expenditures are not approved each year but continue until Congress votes to end them. The largest corporate-welfare payments go to the wealthiest corporations. These corporations are often among the biggest campaign donors to candidates of both major political parties. Corporations easily outspend critics in media and lobbying to convince Congress that programs they support have public benefit. While some argue that public benefits justify corporate subsidies, questions arise:
Do we as a society want to devote significant public resources and revenues to the welfare of large U.S. and foreign corporations?
What alternative uses of public resources should be considered?
Why do politicians grant massive subsidies to Canadian mining companies and other foreign corporations doing business in the United States even as they enact anti-immigrant laws?
What kinds of corporate behavior do subsidies encourage?

What long-term consequences and costs does each corporate- welfare payment have?
For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away (Matthew 25:29).
The biblical parable of the talents depicts the effects of U.S. welfare policies -- social and corporate. Poor welfare recipients, who are predominately women and children, face time limits, workfare requirements and sanctions. At the same time, large corporations -- with directors and executives who are predominately wealthy white men -- receive billions each year in corporate welfare through subsidies, tax breaks and giveaways with little accountability, public scrutiny or time limits.
Is this God's economic distribution plan?
http://gbgm-umc.org/response/articles/corporate_welfare.html

Upon leaving the U.S. presidency in the late 1800s, Rutherford B. Hayes wrote in his diary:
"The real difficulty is with the vast wealth and power in the hands of the few....It is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people no longer. It is a government of corporations, by corporations, and for corporations."

PFO, we pay less at the pump, but MORE in taxes. So what's the difference? Why is the US government interfering in the so-called "free market"? The RICH are paying more for oil? You mean the RICH that only pay 15% in taxes on dividends and capital gains while labor is taxed at or near 35%? If a company is going to succeed and be able to employ people, they should be able to do so on their OWN, not with the help of the US tax payers. If YOU started a business and needed more employees would the government help you out? NO! If your business failed would they help you out? NO! So why are we supporting these Corporations with Millions and Billions of dollars in profits on the backs of the US tax payers? If we can help the most fortunate Americans, why can't we help the Least fortunate?

Answer 1

We need to inforce the passing of bills that serve the Welfare of the masses not the Big Buisness! People receive such disproportionate aid for health when disabled after working a lifetime compared to persons who never worked and collect State Aid And SSI We need to tap the Big Buisness to support the injured workers much more than "workers compensation" another tax needs to be imposed on large Corporations and Companies, these are the ones crippeling the workers with inadequete saftey and inferior pay! Yet the workers stay cause it seems all they have to raise families! We are captive to Corporate rape of our health and happiness! And our Government condones it by accepting bribes for campaignes by turning blind eyes and deaf ears to the workers while they pad their own wallets and lifestyles to assure the profit of Big Buisness, Medical, Pharmecutical, Industrial. Soon workers will no longer care apathy will set in and you won't have your slaves, once you outprice us so much in homes, food, clothing, transportation there is no longer any sence in continuing to serve you as employees and workers. That day is coming. Just like all the empty new homes foreclosed on now, we are learning to live with less because you forced us to and now you will sit with your finances becoming invested in unsellable goods, left to rot! He who has little has little to worry about. Sometimes less is better. Enjoy your golden touch you cant eat it. P.S. to poster PFO those "subsidies" are taxes we the WORKER paid into we are subsidizing ourselves your not kidding anyone the Government uses money that is OURS!

Answer 2

All in the name of power and money! Things have never changed and the greedy will always strive to return to the table of the poor for that last morsel. We have been educated to believe that capital runs things and that without the wealthy we would have no jobs. The truth is that the corporate world through efficiency deprives all of us of the means of providing for ourselves and our nieghbors. Every time we go to work and find our "boss" a new way to do things faster, better, and with less effort or labor all we really do is work another of us out of a job. This is of course unsustainable, and they don't want us to see that so to counter it corporate america has funded a new segment of the economy called the "service" sector, where people that used to do things that really mattered with pride and pay can now serve burritos for minimum wage. We will soon, at this rate, be hiring the "underclass" to wipe our behinds for a small fee just to keep them semi-employed. The worst thing about this is that the so called middle class, that has worked so hard to get there, will always side with the wealthy out of fear of jepordizing their investments. The fear we have of losing what we have worked for paralyzes us and makes us unwilling to try and make things better. I find it scary and disheartening that we will in all likelyhood allow things to continue to decline, which like it or not they are, until the wolves are at our doors too, not just those of the poor. The government and corporate america spout statistics at us all the time telling us the poverty level, the median income of people, etc as if they know what poverty is? They continue to tell us that we all have the opportunity to advance, never mind the math of having one decent paying job for every one hundred applicants. That is the truth, not the statistic we are fed. When the only way to move up is to walk over the next man in line we are left but one choice, survival of the fittest. The truly wealthy love to state that such a method is fair, and even desirable. I believe that if they didn't make the rules they would not like such a philosophy so much, as it would in all likelyhood result in the poor deciding that instead of playing by the rules and laws of the wealthy they would just take them on, man to man, and I do not think the pampered wall street investor will best the poor farmer in most cases. It is only with laws and the police and military to back them that the wealthy are kept safe from what would all to often be the righteous wrath of the not so well off.

Answer 3

Does corporate welfare only help the rich and wealthy? Let's look at a good example: oil. Our oil in this country is subsidized. The cost we pay at the pump is (believe it or not) cheaper than it would be otherwise. Why? Because the government pays a bit for us, based on what it collects in taxes. That means that rich people are paying more for oil, because they are paying for some of yours every time you fill up. If you're following along, you might realize this is somewhat of a socialist policy. It's a redistribution of wealth. Who benefits? Well, oil companies, because they make more money. But what about Joe, who makes minimum wage and drives to work for 15 minutes a day? He saves a little money too.....

By the way, that oil company employs a lot of people, a lot of ordinary citizens that will continue working and making a living because their industry thrives. Had the corporate welfare been taken away, some might have been laid off.

So next time, before you go on a rant generalizing and otherwise miseducating people about what corporate welfare is, maybe you should do some research.

Answer 4

Corporations is the correct answer. They actually run the country from a political standpoint. The people pay the corporate tax imposed on them by increased prices of their products---Our government helps with tax breaks for them to move overseas. The Unions have lost their influence because jobs are gone. Corporations control elections with their profits and control congress with lobby efforts. In fact the---UNITED STATES was a corporation incorporated in Delaware and it really is our government at the present.The help received by the individual from government coffers is a means to keep control over the populance with dependence on handouts---which are taken from some to give to others.

Answer 5

Without a doubt, corporations or wealthy individuals who run these corporations. Greed is rampant as is arrogance and selfishness. If private people and organizations were meeting the needs then government assistance would not even be a consideration. The jobs we have now are subpar meaning that they pay less. So what if unemployment is low, people are earning less for more work. They have less stability and security. God forbid if anyone gets ill. They could lose everything. The housing market is a mess and it's because of greed. Greed is evil. Greed could be what kills human and all animal kind.

Answer 6

Wow! So many questions to address.
First of all, it's hard to separate the needs of a vibrant economy from the needs of the people. Both go hand-in-hand. We need a source of wealth in order for wealth to exist. Without wealth there can be no feeding nor caring for the poor.
Any amount of wealth that is removed from the private sector by the government must be replaced or recovered by the private sector. Surely some subsidies to business are not needed. That doesn't apply to all.

Answer 7

I'm always dismayed when people rant and point at only the poor getting welfare, but they don't complain about big hotshot companies that are "connected" and get so much corporate welfare that also comes from our taxes. Could those who only point at the poor have a bully mentality? Are they really scared to confront the fatcats or just ignorant of their tricks. You surely know about the problem, but I don't know if you'll reach anybody who's got that bully mentality.

Answer 8

yep,
and that monkey f. bush puppet was their sacrificial lamb,
to test the waters, to see if we were ready to concede fully to the almighty corporations!!!

while cheney and tthe ones that were pullin the strings set back safe and sound, watching to see how the tide and attitudes were changin!!!

guess we weren't ready, yet!!!

Answer 9

corporate america's

Answer 10

corporations