4 Ways the Poor Get Screwed That Everyone Takes for Granted

[Brewman_Jax]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/153043/4...r_granted/

From the article:

Quote: I'm not in the 1%. At the lower end of what I think of as the upper middle class, I nevertheless take daily advantage of a raft of systems intended to ensure that people who have less money than I do pay more than I do. Since my economic advantages result from public policy, it's fair to call them taxes, levied on people least able to afford them and applied upward for the benefit of people like me. Since the glory days of feudalism are long over, and we don't like to revel in high position, matters are arranged to keep me and people like me from noticing the systemic nature of our economic advantage.

Here, therefore, are four quotidian things we deal with half-consciously every day that move money upward and keep it there:

...

I don't own that helicopter or that yacht. And I've seen the graphs. I've seen that line representing possession and growth turn vertiginously upward when it gets above my level and enters the 1%. I can only imagine what goes on up there, so far over my head. Here in the upper parts of the 99%, government and the financial industry work together to keep me only dimly aware of the persistent economic edge they give me every day.

The four points are: ATM's, subway cards, American Express, and sales and "sin" taxes. Their common points: they are regressive in the fees or percentages paid, or they require disposable income to access the desired services. Both take extra money that the less-well-off don't have available.

If this is not a flat-out conspiracy by government and big business, it is at least collusion. It is bad for everyone when it's government of, by, and for big business, and the people are at their not-so-tender mercies.

[azmouse]

I didn't know people would willingly pay ATM fees. I never withdraw money from an ATM not associated with my bank so I never pay fees to get my own money.