Corporate Greed Is Out Of Control

In this recession (and yes, we are still in a recession regardless of what the economic pundits would have us believe), the only people or entities doing well are the super-rich and the corporations. And while they are making most of the income in the country, they are paying little in taxes. The super-rich pay a smaller percentage of their income in taxes because it is classified as "capital gains" rather than "earned income". This is rather disgusting because it means the people who didn't have to actually work for their income pay a smaller percentage in taxes than the people who had to work for it.

But the corporations are even worse than the super-rich. Although they are making record profits, corporate tax revenues have dropped precipitously. In fact, some of the biggest corporations with the highest profits are paying no taxes at all. If that upsets you, and it should, then the following facts should get you fighting mad -- unless of course, you're a corporate executive or one of their lackeys in the Republican Party.

* Last year corporate profits grew by an amazing 81%.

* Since 2009, corporate profits have made up 88% of the nations real income growth while wages and salaries for workers made up only 1%.

* Last year the pay for corporate executives grew by 27% while wages for workers grew by only 2%.

* 25 of the biggest corporations in America (including General Electric, Boeing, Verizon, Ebay, Bank of New York Mellon, Prudential, and Aon) paid their CEOs more than they paid in income taxes.

* Those 25 CEOs made an average of $16.7 million (while CEOs from the S & P 500 averaged $10.8 million) while their companies paid little in taxes or nothing at all. In fact, these companies actually received an average of $304 million each from the IRS.

* CEOs in 22 of the 25 corporations got a pay raise in 2010, while their tax bill went down or their refund went up.

* 18 of these companies operated subsidiaries in tax-haven countries (where they could hide income from the government). Between them, they had a total of 556 tax-haven subsidiaries.

* 20 of these companies spent more money to lobby lawmakers than they paid in income taxes.

* 18 of these countries gave more in political contributions than they paid to the IRS in taxes.