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‘Stop BEZOS’ Bill to tax Amazon for Underpaying Workers

posted by mrpg on Wednesday September 05 2018, @11:33PM   Printer-friendly
from the corporations-are-people-too dept.

DannyB writes:

DannyB chased by a bunch of wild rabid kangaroos writes . . .

Bernie Sanders introduces 'Stop BEZOS' bill to tax Amazon for underpaying workers

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) have introduced a bill that would tax companies like Amazon and Walmart for the cost of employees' food stamps and other public assistance. Sanders' Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies Act (abbreviated "Stop BEZOS") . . . would institute a 100 percent tax on government benefits that are granted to workers at large companies.

The bill's text characterizes this as a "corporate welfare tax," and it would apply to corporations with 500 or more employees. If workers are receiving government aid through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps), national school lunch and breakfast programs, Section 8 housing subsidies, or Medicaid, employers will be taxed for the total cost of those benefits. The bill applies to full-time and part-time employees, as well as independent contractors that are de facto company employees.

Sanders announced his plans for the proposal last month. He emphasized today that "this discussion is not just about Amazon and [Amazon CEO] Jeff Bezos." But as the bill's name would suggest, he's been particularly critical of Amazon and Bezos who became the richest person in the world (and modern history) last year. "The taxpayers in this country should not be subsidizing a guy who's worth $150 billion, whose wealth is increasing by $260 million every single day," [ . . . rest omitted . . . ]

Food stamps, School Lunch, Medicaid, great . . . but what about employees who must shop at Walmart?

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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday September 09 2018, @12:11AM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday September 09 2018, @12:11AM (#732342) Journal

    I understand your recommendation, and appreciate the concern. There are, however, many reasons that someone might live in a particular area (couldn't get a job in the low-cost area but got one in the high-cost area, would love to live in the low-cost area but here in the high-cost area is where my friend/family lives who I depend on for a ride, etc.).

    Let us note that this is a classic problem of a high minimum wage. One would rather live in the low cost areas, but the jobs aren't there any more. Just look at Puerto Rico for an example. While some costs are pretty high, in general most of it is fairly cheap due to low property values. It has plenty of other things wrong with it, but it doesn't help that the jobs aren't there, but are there in places like New York City or Miami, which happen to be higher cost as well.