You're Probably Getting Screwed...

Tyson Closes Perry Plant

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.

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This smug anchor from a New York tv studio doesn’t get it.

Clearly, the guy doesn’t have a clue. Perry isn’t a suburb… And Tyson didn’t open in the 60s and 70s. 

The Iowa Pork Plant was built in 1962. Oscar Meyer bought it in 1965. IBP bought it in 1988 and Tyson took over in 2001.

The suggestion that this plant is closing and moving to New York City is insane! This plant made up 2% of the entire pork production in the United States! That’s 9,000 hogs a day. Do you really think that there’s that many hog farms around NYC to supply even a tenth of that? No.

And this 2020 article from the Perry News mentioned that nearly 60% of the Tyson plant were already refugees!

Here’s three things you won’t hear from Fox News:

1. Tyson Foods’ top 5 execs earn combined $36.5 million in 2023

2. Since 1976 the market share of the four largest pork processors has ballooned from 33 percent to 66 percent, creating a monopoly.

3. Iowa Republicans at the state level, including Gov. Reynolds, passed a bill to give less benefits to recently unemployed workers.

While Fox News plays their disgusting out-of-touch punch down politics… My heart goes out to all of the workers, the farmers and the whole Perry community impacted by this closure. 

YOU’RE PROBABLY (ALSO) GETTING SCREWED BY:

Corporate Power

President Biden’s State of the Union Address touched on a variety of ways big corporations are screwing us from rising housing costs to junk fees to gaming the tax code. Those portions of the speech resonated most with viewers according to one poll, which is a similar finding to a variety of other polls in recent years and tracks with a central premise behind this newsletter: People are frustrated with the level of power big corporations have and are looking for policymakers that will do something about it. 

UnitedHealthcare

The cyberattack that brought down the payment system of a subsidiary (Change Healthcare) of the healthcare monopolist UnitedHealthcare continues to impact hospitals, doctor’s offices and pharmacists. This debacle is another clear example of the risks corporate monopolies pose to our economy as they gobble up more and more physical and digital infrastructure. 

Dollar Stores

One part of the dollar store duopoly (Family Dollar, owned by Dollar Tree) will be closing over 1,000 stores across the country in another example of monopoly pillaging where a company rapidly expands, drives out competitors, and then contracts leaving communities hollowed out. 

Rite Aid

The drugstore chain, which is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and has been laying off workers, clawed-back severance payments it already made to workers. While the company has said it has corrected the issue, that is little comfort to the jobless workers that had to see their bank accounts disappear.   

Meatpackers 

The meatpacking giant Tyson is shuttering a plant in Iowa that received nearly $700 in tax subsidies, a situation reminiscent of Koch’s effort to acquire a taxpayer-funded fertilizer plant. The closure will leave nearly 1,300 workers without a job. 

Meatpackers…again

Farmers and ranchers have long complained about companies labeling their products as US made when the animals were raised overseas. USDA has announced new “Product of USA” rules to close loopholes like this.

Tax Preparation Websites

Americans spend over $14 billion on tax preparation services, with much of it going to Intuit (TurboTax) and H&R Block, but change is one the way. The Biden Administration has launched a free tax-filing pilot in select states thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act. 

Payday Lenders

The predatory payday lending industry in Michigan is charging consumers interest rates of nearly 400% and legislators are looking to cap that at 36%, which is still pretty high, but at least something. The industry is now doing what all corporate bullies like to do, threatening to leave the state despite the fact that 18 states cap payday rates, most around 36%. 

Billionaire Sports Team Owners

We here at YPGS are sports fans (well maybe mostly baseball) but we are not fans of the way billionaires use pro teams to rip off taxpayers, such as Ted Leonsis request for $1.5 billion in subsidies from Virginia to build a new stadium complex for the Washington Wizards (NBA) and Capitals (NHL) and move the teams out of DC. 

Thankfully Virginia State Senator L. Louise Lucas stood up and stripped that corporate welfare from the state’s budget saying “A better deal would be if they paid for it themselves.”   

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