Republicans and their Private Jet Taxpayer Subsidies...
You're Probably Getting Screwed
Welcome to You’re Probably Getting Screwed, a weekly newsletter and video series from J.D. Scholten and Justin Stofferahn about the Second Gilded Age and the ways economic concentration is putting politics and profits over working people.
While Congressional Republicans try to distract you from them kicking 17 million people off of Medicaid, they’re trying to save face by leaning into one of the few good things in their Billionaire Bailout Bill.
They’re trying to bring up No Tax on Tip workers but would you believe it, there’s a catch…
it only applies to the first $25,000
Payroll taxes still apply
IRS approved jobs only
And it expires in 2028
Meanwhile, the bill allows for tax break for buying a private jet…
Just like the Trump tax cuts from 2017, the working class cuts are small and temporary while the billionaires get what they want.
YOU’RE PROBABLY (ALSO) GETTING SCREWED BY:
Artificial Intelligence
Great minds think alike! Last week Justin covered the attempt by Big Tech to jam their utopian vision of AI down our throats. Around the same time More Perfect Union released a new video covering the same topic, with a helpful reminder: much of what states have done to place guardrails around AI is simply ensuring it is subject to the same laws everyone else has to follow.
One of the biggest concerns with AI is the impact it could have on the labor force. In a really disturbing article about the Mayo Clinic’s use of AI the company openly reveals that they give their AI bots birth certificates, names and they are essentially people in the hospital system’s eyes. This is happening all while Mayo, a healthcare monopolist, is union busting, closing hospitals and slashing services.
Mayo is just the tip of the iceberg as New York Times reporter Noam Scheiber dives into (gift link) what AI could mean more broadly for the workforce by analyzing what major tech companies are doing. As the article points out some of the claims of how widespread the employment impact could be, should be taken with a grain of salt. AI’s biggest proponents are the Big Tech companies trying to prop up its value. In the article an investment banker says recent layoffs at Microsoft and Google were a way to cut costs to prop up profit margins so they can continue to dump money into chips and data centers. Who needs a robust workforce when you are a monopolist!
One last thing on AI, building off some of what we covered last week, Jeet Heer has a piece in The Nation appropriately titled, “The Billionaires Are Abandoning Humanity.”
The Big Beautiful Bill
As readers know well, the budget President Trump signed on July 4 shreds our social safety net to give tax breaks to billionaires. It is a massive redistribution of wealth upwards from working people to the economic elite. Here is a really powerful clip from The Dangerous Ones podcast about the importance of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) - also known as food stamps - will mean for everyday people that are already struggling. Warning: Lots of cursing in the clip.
Also the Big Beautiful Bill
The folks over at The American Prospect dug into the language of Trump’s nightmarish budget bill and found 10 bizarre things tucked away in the language. It includes everything from incentives for SNAP fraud to subsidies for Chinese steel companies.
Surprise, the Big Beautiful Bill Again
The Tax Policy Center has a final breakdown of who will benefit from the law’s tax cuts and they say “60 percent of the tax benefits would go to those in the top quintile.”
The US “Healthcare System”
Americans now spend more money on our monopolized healthcare system than they do on groceries and housing, two things that have certainly not gotten any cheaper recently.
Corporate PACs
Some prominent voices in the so-called “Abundance” movement have called for Democrats to have more conflict with labor unions. As the below chart demonstrates (h/t to Lee Hepner at AELP for posting), these folks have picked the wrong enemy. And remember, this data is from before Citizens United!
Illusion of Choice
We have covered the way monopolists trick us into believing we have more choices at the grocery store than we really do, but for a more comedic take on this phenomenon, check out this video from Alex Falcone.
Greedflation
Plenty of analysis has demonstrated that firms, particularly those with pricing power in highly concentrated industries, used the supply chain shocks from COVID-19 to drive up costs even further. Trump’s trade wars appear to be doing the same as economist Isabella Weber has analyzed. All of this hit your wallet hard on July 4th.
BEFORE YOU GO
Before you go, I need two things from you: 1) if you like something, please share it on social media or the next time you have coffee with a friend. 2) Ideas, if you have any ideas for future newsletter content please comment below. Thank you.
Standing Tall for All,
J.D. Scholten
The piece on Mayo giving AI bots birth certificates and embedding this practice in hospital accounting could be considered as the ultimate digital parasite (aka Elon Musk's wet dream). If we aren't screwed already, chances are we're assured of being eff'd royally in the future.
What do you think about running as an independent? Both parties are controlled by big money elites. It seems like Iowa could get behind a socially tolerant, economically prudent, plain sense populist.