Corporate Welfare 

Can we just take a moment to appreciate John Stossel for still doing awesome reporting after all those years at 74 years old? What a great man.

Yet another receipt added to the Why To Not Trust The Government folder.

“IKEA promised to create 175 new jobs with an average salary of $41,000 a year” that is just over $7 million. I’d bet they are getting more than $7 million in government subsidy and tax breaks every year, which means taxpayers are paying their employees salaries rather than the corporation paying it.

The sick thing is that a guy butchering a chicken on his farm is thousands of times safer than any meat packing plant.

Meanwhile, AOC is attending elitist events at 30K a plate wearing a $5k gown with "Tax the Rich" printed on it.

"But they result in unintended consequences." Stop, time out, I'm calling shananigans. Those are 100% the intended consequences. We've done this too many times for people to act like they don't know what this is. This is a giant corporation, engaging in cronyism, to have their competitors subsidize them.

The United States Government has gotten so bloated and so far from its intended purpose I don't know if we will ever be able to fix it without almost totally eliminating the federal government

Hol'up. Social media actually made a positive difference? That's the biggest miracle in this video.

'The Greater Good' is often politician's code for 'Get rid of competition'.

The Rule of 3 Bigs: Big Business with Big Government inevitably results in Big Corruption

Government in the US has been offering “jobs,” in lieu of small business ownership, for decades.

*Lobbying* is a word the modern mafiosos use to rub their bribery in your face.

This is why politicians will never allow a flat tax; this is how they pick winners and losers. We shouldn’t pay corporate welfare nor should we pay personal welfare. Lobbies should also be absolutely illegal, along with the RNC and dnc.

PBS - should Investigate themselves

Man, we should just call lobbying for what it is. Bribery and corruption

Get rid of all subsidies. Get rid of ineffective Ethanol.

Fun Fact: Local Farms REDUCE emissions as there isn't all the trucks

As far as I'm concerned there should be NO government subsidies for anyone for any reason.

I drive a truck for a living, delivering products and goods across the country to consumers like you. I've never gotten money to make sure I have an adequate fuel supply, or maintenance program.

Finally someone talking about this - this isn’t competition it’s destroying local businesses and benefitting corporations

"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power." ~ Benito Mussolini

John Stossel puts out the best stuff.

"Lobbyists" and the politicians that pander to them should be dealt with swiftly and harshly.

Anytime government needs to “protect” us, we should run!

the same thing happened where I live when the hockey team wanted to pickup and leave. They ended up staying because of the handouts.

"And neighbors have a choice in the food that they eat." - Cut to shot of people gathered around a baby. Jokes aside, great video as always, John.

In a capitalist economic system, the role of the government is to protect a free marketplace. When the government no longer protects but instead controls the marketplace, you are no longer in a capitalist system.

The system is officially broken. Disgrace.

Stossel is a treasure. He always has such unique, thought provoking stories.

With a system this dysfunctional; is it possible to fix it without completely destroying it? 🤔

More people need to watch these videos, not perfect but they do give a nice insight to what is happening

Letting businesses keep more of their own tax money is fine. It's their money to begin with. BUT, if all other businesses have to pay a higher rate, the government has now created an unfair advantage and messed with the free market. Government is essentially picking and choosing winners and losers. Not ok at all.

*This video does a great job of highlighting the differences between "Capitalism" and "Financial Corporate Socialism". The first is always being blamed for the second, and it needs to stop.*

Sweetheart deals with large corporations designed to lure them into their jurisdiction allows government to maintain high taxes. Like the video says, directly transferring wealth from mom and pop.

Give me Stossel’s world any day of the week

Any deficit, at any government level, is grounds for Taxation without Representation.

I used to have a small antique shop in Southern California. The local Government got a redevelopment district voted in, and then did what they could to destroy small local businesses, in order to bring in a regional mall, while replacing the smaller buildings in the historic core, with big three story buildings in Faux historic styles. A few of those large buildings were built, because they were subsidized. But most of the historic core remains empty, except for what was built prior to the redevelopment plan being developed.

I think we do need to take a second and realize how important John Stossel really is still getting the truth out there.

Like the windmill and solar panel companies. Without the government handouts they wouldn't be ruining our beautiful rural areas.

Why do people let the government choose what they can and can't eat? Why do people let the government make decisions for them at all?

This is the one victory John found for us. How many other local farmers lost out due to corporate institutions?

Why so many people have lost faith in government in a nutshell: 1. Legislature creates a policy 2. Public outcry about said policy before it is passed 3. Legislature says "oh, we don't understand what we're writing a policy about, I guess enough people are mad that we should actually educate ourselves about it"

One victory in a war is not something to be cheering about. But it does give hope to many that are still trying to win the fight.

Thank you John for being so active lately. We all need these videos now more than ever.

Many bills goes sideways, have you seen Lois Rossman and the right to repair and what arguments lobbyist use regarding why you shouldn't be allowed to repair your products?

I remember that campaign, and yes they really did answer with, "Are you calling about the chicken?".

"finally, they have a choice in what food they eat" *shows people surrounding baby

When I think of real eye opening journalism, I think of how Stossel did it in the 90s!!! I was watching his stuff with my mom on 20/20. He started this and made it possible for the Tim Pools of this world 🙏🙏🙏

this is all about Corporatism, this is not what capitalism is. Capitalism does not engage in subsidies, does not favor laws that restrict or put small competitors out of business...

This happened to the citrus industry in Florida too.

Thank you John Stossel for standing up for communities over big government and their corporate welfare lackeys

I've been to King's. It was a good store. My cousin bought chairs from there. Sad to see it go; maybe if they didn't have that giant tax burden that Ikea doesn't, they would still be here.

I’ve only run for public office once. I “tossed my hat in the ring” when it was reported that the incumbent didn’t have any challengers. I didn’t make many campaign promises but two I did make were 1: that I would spend at least as much time and money encouraging or helping local entrepreneurs and local small business owners as what I spent encouraging interstate or international corporations to build facilities in our city or relocate their headquarters there and 2) that IF I ever traveled outside the United States for that purpose, I would pay for those travel expenses from my own salary - not from a taxpayer-funded “expense account”. Almost anyone who is reading this can at least ask people who run for office in your city or county whether they are willing to make either or both of those promises.

Nice to have a rare happy ending. It literally made me cry....

This so much! We hand out tons of tax money to large corporations that a small business owner wouldn't have access to. It's the reverse-socialism that literally no one, however socialist or capitalist they are, should be in favor of.

"And neighbors have a choice in the food they eat" *shows people gathered around a baby* Uhhhhh

As an independent owner operator truck driver, I would love to know where my government subsidies are!! I know the giant carriers get tax breaks and kickbacks from the government wish I could too.

John Stossel's the best! Send this video to everyone

Thank you, Mr Stossel, you always bring poignant stories to the front. Corporate America really hates competition. This is a problem that needs to be addressed. More reasons why we need to drain the swamp, no matter if there's a D or an R behind the name. Crooked is crooked.

Love to see stories looking into this. Shocking when you see a small town farmer going up against that many corporate interests.

This is one instance where social media actually worked in favor of the small guys. I hope we see more of this.

Circa 2009, I worked for an aerospace company that rhymes with "going". The dept I worked in dealt with sensitive info and work and we needed a new employee. Among the pool of applicants was a white guy with about 20 years of experience in the relevant field, combat vet. Also there was a female fresh out of college, with no experience. Let's just say that she had more melanin in her skin than the more-qualified guy. Who got the job? The underqualified female did. Over the course of the next couple of years, she (unsurprisingly) didn't grasp the job, so they bounced her from one dept to another to see where she'd fit. ALL these depts lost money on her, and about a year later, the more-qualified guy was hired, where he was an immediate success. As of the last time I worked there, she had made no ground in learning the trade, but kept her on the payroll for obvious reasons. THIS is corporate welfare.

That victory for the local farmer made me super proud of my home state of Indiana! God it feels good when something goes right/better for once.

I really appreciated this segment, I am a totally disabled veteran trying to start a small farm of my own. Separately, I would also like to call out Walmart and it's corporate welfare policies. Most folks do not realize that Walmart employs mostly part-time employees so that they do not have to provide benefits, most importantly health insurance. Taxpayers end up subsidizing many of their employees benefits through government run programs. It is a shame that Walmart can come into a town and put every competitor out of business, sell mostly foreign made junk, and hire the vast majority of their workers as part-time for little more than minimum wage without providing benefits. I would love to see Mr. Stossel take them on in a future segment.

Honestly we should find a way to completely remove welfare. For both corporations and private citizens. In the case of private citizens find better ways to help people in these situations that help them get out of it more efficiently. In the case of a massive corporation just do your damn job better like you likely say to your own employees. We are essentially paying for people at the top to do a bad job

Shrink government; give the states back their power. You start turning this nation into smaller nations, there will be more accountability and control. Feds should handle the damn foreign affairs stuff and let states be run according to the wishes of those in the state.

John Stossel is the best; Real journalism, no bias, nothing but the truth.

Holy crap! Finally!!!!!!!!! A positive story when dealing with our bloated government. Thank you John.

I’m obviously against corporate welfare, but we also shouldn’t glorify small furniture stores. Wife and I recently drove across our state to an IKEA because the price of the couch plus round trip gas was a better value than anything in our local area. With high lumber prices, there is a lot of garbage being peddled as high end furniture right now.

Everyone needs to stop paying taxes.

One of the extremely rare HONEST journalists. You're a national treasure good sir. Keep doing what you're doing a.k.a. AMAZING WORK.

With CVD they just cut to the chase and deemed independent businesses non-essential.

Guy: Taxes should go to roads, police, education, firemen. Yeah, there are lobbyists and unions fighting tooth and nail for every penny too.

Governments must everything up

Yup, we've seen this with Wal-Mart, get the tax abatement, and as soon as it expires, close the store and reopen nearby where another city will give them a break. People worry so much about the poor or children getting some money when these few rich businesses are fleecing us for billions every year while hurting small businesses at the same time and it's largely ignored. We should be outraged.

When I was a kid, (1966) I remember our city was getting a shopping center built. It had 2 new grocery stores, (located at opposite ends)) and a Woolworths in the middle. That was a big deal then. Within a year all the mom and pop stores were forced to close.

How in the world did the Chinese come to own Smithfield? That's crazy.

The only reporting that was lackluster was his report on the vaccines. It seemed so one-sided. Otherwise, I have enjoyed his reporting throughout the years.

"We're the government, and we're here to help."

I'm from Memphis and love Ikea's myself, but there has already been talk of issues with them keeping that store afloat. Our city is described by retailers as the "discount city" so it makes some sense why they tried to get one here, but what we really need is for that money to go to a reduction in crime. The reason businesses leave Memphis is due to crime. If they would spend the money on that, in my opinion that would do more a lot than government subsidies.

These videos are very informative, but make me mad at what our government does to the every day person. We get screwed. Our representative don’t represent us anymore.

"Here in America, IKEA is best known for meatballs" Is it though?

I would love to see Stossel checking a similar scam involving professional sports. I would suggest looking at the Atlanta Braves new stadium and maybe an ulterior motive on why the MBL moved the All Star game to Denver.

Love John’s content! One of just a handful of journalists that haven’t compromised their principles in order to please the elites!

Now do the medical lobbies, Union lobbies, environmental, oil…… the list is infinite. reduce government reduce influence. It is simple

Unintended consequences are called The Walmart Effect. This is well known & deliberate. Scouts for new stores identify small businesses that will go under & provide a timeline after the store opens.

END government subsidies! End Bailouts!

John one of the only real reporting sources left!

“The taxes should go to roads, schools…” No, they should stay in the pocket of the tax payer.

"Neighbors have a choice in the food that they eat".... shows a baby human.... great editing people.

LOL it's the same corporations that lobby for government handouts and for deregulations when it suits them.

Good article. I learned something I hadn’t thought about. Local business didn’t get a tax break when they opened. Why should any corporation or sports team? In the end if the local place closes how is that good for the community? It isn’t and I will not support initiatives that favor tax breaks for “job creating big companies” promises. Buy local products, get off Amazon, quit getting home delivery for everything, go to your neighborhood restaurant.

I never liked IKEA, even before I knew about their dodgy business practices!

Moral of the story: keep the government and business separated just like religion and state.

There’s another big box store that plays out this game usefully. They get tax abatement for x number of years, when that runs out, they leave a gaping building nobody can afford to run, save themselves, and move 1-2 miles away over the next county, city, etc line to start the game all over again.

John Stossel and Sharyl Attkisson are the best old school investigative journalists to be found these days!

You really think that it's unintended consequences. I call b.s. on that.

the guy at 2:20 gives away why this is a problem. He thinks that there are "essential" government "services". Once you buy the idea that the government provides ANY services you set the whole problem up. The government provides only one "service"...governance. Everything else--from roads to police to military can be privatized.

Excellent video on why small businesses can't survive because of government corruption

Thanks John! All subsidies and incentivised tax brakes should end. If you are going to give a tax brake to one business then it should be required to be applied across the board. We need to cut government regulation back to a reasonable level so that small farms and businesses can operate more freely and give their customers more and better options. If you give a tax brake and the company fails to fulfill their end, the brake should be removed and then they can pay their fair share.