Welfare for the Rich
The book details how the wealthy use the power of the state to snatch your money for their farms, stadiums, banks, real estate developments, and more.

Sometimes you just want a speedy, informative rage read—a book where you can learn a little something and also get your heart rate up. For people of nearly every political stripe, Welfare for the Rich should fit the bill. The subtitle is "How Your Tax Dollars End Up in Millionaires' Pockets—and What You Can Do About It," but the first bit is the most compelling and attention-grabbing.
Longtime friend of Reason Phil Harvey and his co-author Lisa Conyers lay out in absolutely infuriating detail how the wealthy use the power of the state to snatch your money for their farms, stadiums, banks, real estate developments, and more. The topic is timely, but sadly most of Harvey's and Conyers' examples are both evergreen and bipartisan.
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Crickets....
Yes- because libertarians defend these things...you are clueless...
Yes. We should talk about billionaires supporting Biden in overwhelming numbers. Where do you want to start? Foreign welfare or domestic billionaire welfare?
Also we should talk about The Donald paying LOTS of taxes to China, but shaving His taxes to the bone in the USA!
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/21/donald-trump-china-bank-account-nearly-200000-taxes-report
Donald Trump paid nearly $200,000 in taxes to China, report claims
New York Times says records reveal company bank account in China, and documents show he paid more tax there than at home
But let's not get TOO harsh on The Donald! He has SOME love in His Blessed Heart! See his Love Letter to Leona Helmsley, for example!
Mash Letter from The Donald to Leona Helmsley
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Won’t you come here,
And join my crew?
I like to collect babes, as if they were Cocker Spaniels,
You’d look quite nice, right next to Stormy Daniels!
“Taxes are for the little people”
For a campaign slogan, it sounds GREAT!
Won’t you help me fool the greedy sheeple?
To their suffering, you and I, we could masturbate!
Brad Parscale, my old campaign pal,
Wants to kill himself, what style!
Won’t you stay with me a while,
And be my campaign gal?
You failed to list a problem.
Hey. Look at the dumbfuck. He also doesn't understand what AMT is or why real estate people pay quarterly taxes. He laid 750 only due to his pre payments retard. Even the NYT said he paid 7.5 million due to AMT dummy.
Alexandria Brown dug deep into the New York Times‘ story to see if there was any truth to the shrieking headlines:
Trump Paid Millions in Taxes
As Brown further noted, “Trump PAID, as in transferred to the US Treasury, $1 million in 2016 and $4.2 million in 2017. Note also that most of the overpayment was rolled forward, not refunded.”
The 750 is after he applied is prepaid taxes.
https://pjmedia.com/columns/stephen-kruiser/2020/10/23/the-morning-briefing-trump-overcomes-horrid-biased-moderator-to-ko-biden-in-2nd-debate-n1079286
If you weren't a shit eating idiot you'd have made it past the NYT headline.
If this is all true, then WHY did The Donald (unlike SOOO many other recent POTUS candidates and other top-ranking politician wannabes) NOT release his tax returns for the public to see?
Perhaps because such releases would enable further digging, to find things like this?
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/biggest-bombshells-trump-deutsche-bank-lending-new-york-times-report-2020-2-1028908722#same-bank-different-teams2
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I'm still laughing --- Trump accuses Biden of *receiving* massive amounts of foreign bribes. Biden accuses Trump of *paying* massive amounts of taxes in China...
Seriously? lol....
Government spending is only a problem if it helps the poors or the blacks or, especially, the poor blacks. Libertinism 101
Or is government spending a problem when it hurts the poor or the blacks or, especially, the poor blacks?
Because it certainly ain't helping anyone.
Any UN-Constitutional spending is a problem.
Meh. If socialism is the way for a noble society, then why shouldn't the rich get some?
So this is an ad?
It's incredible that the rich and powerful would use their wealth and power to enrich themselves by gaming the system. If only there were some way for the poor and powerless to game the system to enrich themselves.
Or maybe - don't laugh - what if there were no system to game? What if government didn't have so goddamn much wealth and power, what if it wasn't worthwhile to figure out a way to siphon off some of the government's wealth and power?
No no no- we just need to put the right people in charge...
As long as you're stupidly wishing for things that will never come to pass, you should wish to be interesting and worth paying attention to.
Has anyone mentioned how awful the ActBlue employees have become?
What??? Unpossible!!!
There must always be a system, with comprehensive rules and controls and vested power. How else would most people know what to think and do? The only decision is which tribe to join and promote.
You know what I've noticed? Nobody panics when things go "according to plan." Even if the plan is horrifying!
Imagine if government didn't auction off its excess power to the highest bidder.
It's easy if you try.
Shocked. Shocked, I tell you, that everyone is walking around with his or her hands in another's pockets. Libertarians have been railing against this like forever, but the vast majority of folks aren't foolish enough to give up their dole as long as they are being robbed to pay dole to another.
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That's true. Being a libertarian is a fools errand.
But at least we are moral fools.
"The book details how the wealthy use the power of the state to snatch your money"
As a libertarian, I usually defend the wealthy. But not the ones who made their money in such an unethical way. I prefer rich people who started with nothing and built a successful business from the ground up. Like Reason.com's benefactor Charles Koch.
I have no idea what goes on in a mind that thinks this, and I don't want to know.
Of course, leave it to Reason to point the finger at farms, stadiums etc., but ignore the biggest welfare queen of them all...oil. But heck, I’ll let a true libertarian, Jo Jorgensen, spell it out for you:
“The federal government gives about $15 billion annually to oil and coal companies. And this doesn’t even include the cheap public land leases that disproportionately go to these companies. This is nothing but corporate welfare. I will work with Congress to end all energy SUBSIDIES and level the playing field.“ Caps mine, so that all you oil toadies can complain to the Libertarian for President candidate.
Three things you can count on...death, taxes, and Reason giving a pass to big oil. They know how their bread gets buttered.
And she’s right
She didn’t mention the billions that go to renewable energy, either.
WTF, reason toadies?
We've been down this road a million times before. The oil industry DOESN'T GET subsidies and the deceitful way "business tax write offs" that EVERY business gets were used to paint the B.S. narrative should make any person on the left re-evaluate their parties methods.
But hey; If you think that's wrong; show us the legislation that does "subsidize oil".
And this includes major league ball and hockey players. I not for all the stadium deals and exemptions they would be paid far less.
I don't really care who the money goes to.
I care about where the money comes from.
Is it coming out of my paycheck?
It isn't stealing my money to give it to rich people that makes me mad, and there isn't anything about stealing my money to give it to poor people that makes me less mad.
It's the stealing my money part that makes me mad.
P.S. Joe Biden is a crook.
^EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!! In other Reason Article, "Trump plans to steal less of other people’s cash." The left has zero argument with that "plan".
Define "stealing"?
If it wasn't for Secular Liberalism, you probably wouldn't even be alive.
Life is like a licensing agreement, not an outright purchase - You were born owing civilization a debt.
"You were born owing civilization a debt." -- like slavery?
Not that your post makes any sense anyways; but it sounds a lot like you're promoting the re-enactment of slavery.
This is what the Left doesn't understand. In their haste to punish the rich while expanding the size and scope of government. Without a bloated government power up for auction to the highest bidder, the rich are no longer a problem. The problems they see with wealth accumulation are invariably tied to the application of political power. Limit that power and the problems diminish. Couple that limited government with a Rule of Law and the protection of actual property rights (not the protection of emoluments and privileges and grants), and there is literally nothing to fear from someone who has more money than you.
The idea that putting different people in charge of the government will fix things is ludicrous. The problem is not the people running things, the problem is that people are running things they should not be running. Government is too big at all levels. Big in size and big in scope. That both the Left and the Right think everything can be fixed by putting the right people in charge is sad. They don't understand the core of the problems they claim to be solving.
The more power the government has to pick economic winners and losers, the higher the stakes are, and the more critical it becomes to bribe politicos into favoring one's own ox, instead of letting it be gored.
And yet, as you say, almost no one seems to grasp this.
^Well Said!
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Lampposts and piano wire?
Works for me - Payback needs to be a mother fucker.
Big business loves big government. They have the influence to get such favorable treatment. Get a say in regulations that crush smaller competition like the Obamacare, most banking regulations. Also bailouts, Big Banks got them, Airlines, Automakers have gotten them. For those that believe the government should bailout companies would it have been more beneficial to bailout 1000 smaller companies or just the few large politically connected ones.
Of course the correct answer is none of the above.
Don't listen to cheap whores like bokie -- I make $60,000,000 a year in government subsidies from a very small investment in crony-socialist elected officials.
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