🚀 go-pugleaf

The weird thing about this rant is that it appeared in UK, French and
Australian newsgroups, though it was clearly American in context.
The frightening thing is that it probably applies equally in those countries
as well !
Kevin.

jonas@votenader.org wrote:
| Hey, Corporate America! Show Taxpayers Some Appreciation!
| By Ralph Nader
|
| If you work for a corporation, ask your own employer to support
| Taxpayer Appreciation Day. (We?ve included contact information at the
| end of the article.)
|
| Take Action Now! April 15 is just around the corner. Please let us
| know
| what action you?ve taken and what type of response you receive at
| taxday@votenader.org
|
| I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that April 15th of each
| year be designated Taxpayer Appreciation Day, a day when corporations
| receiving taxpayer subsidies, bailouts, and other forms of corporate
| welfare can express their thanks to the citizens who provide them.
|
| Though it may not be evident, quite a few industries -- and the
| profits
| they generate -- can be traced back to taxpayer-financed programs
| whose
| fruits have been given away to (mostly) larger businesses.
|
| Taxpayer dollars have often funded discoveries made by NASA, the
| Department of Defense, and the National Institutes of Health and other
| federal agencies. In many instances the rights to those discoveries
| were
| later given away to companies that brag about them as though they were
| the fruits of their own investments. Taxpayer dollars have played a
| major role in the growth of the aviation and aerospace, biotechnology,
| pharmaceutical, and telecommunications industries -- to name only a
| few.
|
| Though corporate America insists it must file yearly income taxes just
| like everyone else, it is responsible for a sharply decreasing portion
| of federal tax dollars -- despite record profits. Despite record
| profits, corporate tax contributions to the federal budget have been
| steadily declining for fifty years and now stand at a mere 7.4% of the
| federal government income because of the loopholes they driven into
| our
| tax laws. The average citizen pays more than four to five times that
| in
| federal income tax revenues (with the single exception of payroll
| taxes).
|
| Clearly corporations that believe they are self-reliant are often, in
| fact, dependent on taxpayer funds to maintain their financial
| viability.
| The least they could do is thank us. Which is why we need something
| like
| Taxpayer Appreciation Day. Consider the following:
|
| General Electric bought RCA (which owned NBC) in the mid-1980s with
| funds it was able to save by using an outrageous tax loophole passed
| by
| Congress in 1981. That loophole allowed GE to pay no federal taxes on
| three years of profits, totaling more than $6 billion dollars. It also
| gave them a $125 million refund! That gave GE the money to buy RCA. GE
| should arrange a media extravaganzas on NBC to say "Thank you,
| taxpayers.? Pharmaceutical companies constantly ballyhoo their
| discoveries in advertisements. What they don't tell us is that many of
| the important nonredundant therapeutic drugs -- including most
| anticancer drugs -- were developed, in whole or in part, with taxpayer
| money and then given to them by the NIH and the Defense Department.
| Bristol-Meyers Squibb, for example, controls the rights to Taxol, an
| anticancer drug developed all the way through human clinical trials at
| the National Institutes of Health with $31 million of taxpayer moneys.
|
| Pharmaceutical companies spend billions on advertisements each year.
| Perhaps they should consider a big "Thank You, Taxpayers" ad campaign
| every April 15, if only to remind them where their drug research and
| development subsidies come from.
|
| Mining companies often receive vast sweetheart deals from taxpayers.
| Under the 1872 Mining Act hard rock mining companies are allowed to
| purchase mining rights to public land for only $5 an acre, no matter
| how
| valuable the minerals on (or in) that land might be. A Canadian
| company
| recently mined $9 billion in gold on federal land in Nevada after
| using
| the Mining Act to purchase the mining rights to it for about $30,000.
| Mining companies owe the taxpayers their gratitude.
|
| Television broadcasters were given free license to use public airwaves
| (worth around $70 billion) by a supine Congress in 1997. They too
| should
| thank us. What about all those professional sports corporations that
| play and profit in taxpayer-funded stadiums and arenas? The owners and
| players should thank the fans/taxpayers who -- in spite of their
| largess -- still must pay through the nose for tickets. For years
| McDonalds
| received taxpayer subsidies to promote its products overseas as part
| of
| a foreign market access program. Now McDonalds is a ubiquitous brand
| name worldwide, but has it ever thanked the taxpayers who underwrote
| its
| efforts? Then there are the HMOs, hospitals, and defense contractors
| that have had their legal fees reimbursed by the taxpayers when our
| government prosecutes them for fraud or cost overruns. Those companies
| have great public relations firms that can help them show us their
| gratitude. Corporate America has taken too much from us for too long.
| It's time it shows us a little bit of appreciation.
|
| Corporate Contacts:
|
| General Electric (NBC):
|    David Frail
|    Financial Communications
|    1--203-373-3387
|    david.frail@corporate.ge.com
|
| Bristol-Meyers Squibb:
|    Peter R. Dolan, CEO
|    345 Park Avenue
|    New York, New York, USA 10154-0037
|    1-212-546-4000
|    peter.dolan@bms.com
|
| Viacom (CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, VH1, BET, Paramount Pictures, Viacom
|    Outdoor, Infinity, UPN, Spike TV, TV Land, CMT: Country Music
|    Television, Comedy Central, Showtime, Blockbuster, and Simon &
|    Schuster): Sumner M. Redstone , Chairman and CEO 1515 Broadway New
|    York, NY 10036 1-212-258-6000
|    (refused to provide email addresses)
|
| Walt Disney Co. (ABC):
|    David Eisner, CEO
|    500 S. Buena Vista Street
|    Burbank, CA 91521 ABC, Inc.
|    1-818-460-7477
|    netaudr@abc.com
|
| McDonalds USA:
|    Jim Cantalupo, Chairman and CEO
|    McDonald?s Plaza
|    Oak Brook, IL 60523
|    1-800-244-6227
|    Email on-line form.
|
| Halliburton (Kellogg Brown & Root):
|    David J. Lesar, Chairman, President & CEO
|    5 Houston Center
|    1401 McKinney, Suite 2400
|    Houston, TX 77010
|    1-713-759-2600
|    communityrelations@halliburton.com
|
| In addition to these, pursue your favorite and let us know what they
| say!