As George Osborne announces £12 billion more in vicious new cuts, a new report has revealed that big business is getting a massive £93 billion each year from the public purse in the form of grants, subsidies, and tax breaks. The Tories and the right-wing press complain about “benefit scroungers”, but the real parasites are the capitalists themselves.
As George Osborne announces vicious new cuts – aimed at public sector workers, the low paid, students and many of the most vulnerable in society – in an attempt to round up £12 billion in additional austerity cuts, a new report by the Guardian newspaper has revealed that big business is getting a massive £93 billion each year from the public purse: the equivalent of £3,500 per year from each UK household. The Tories and the right-wing press complain about “benefit scroungers”, but the real parasites are clearly the capitalists themselves.
This money is being given away in the form of grants and subsidies, along with tasty tax breaks and exemptions. £14.5 billion is being paid out in direct grants and subsidies alone each year. Many of the companies profiting from the state handouts pay little or no corporation tax, notes the newspaper. Whereas in 2012-13 the state forked out £58.2bn in cash handouts and tax benefits to business, it took in just £41.3bn of corporation tax. The difference is more than enough to pay for the £12 billion figure that Osborne is so interested in cutting.
Much of this data has been difficult to get hold of, says the Guardian, noting for example that only one regional development board has provided information about their handouts for the period up to 2012. In fact, many of the means by which big business get additional funds from the state are hidden well away from public view and therefore scrutiny. The report adds that the OECD has confirmed that the UK has the “most generous” corporate tax regime going compared to say the US or Germany. To make matters worse, Osborne’s latest budget includes further cuts to corporation tax.
Workers on building sites, who face attempts by the bosses to undermine conditions and pay, might like to note that the construction industry got £7 billion in 2012-13 in exemptions on taxes. Many firms also benefit from nice, lucrative procurement contracts from the state. This is what Cameron really means when he calls Britain “the most open, welcoming, business-friendly country in the world”. Migrants desperately seeking an escape from poverty and oppression are to be kept out of the country; yet big-business scroungers looking for a nice fat handout are invited in to enjoy grants, low taxes, tax-breaks and so on.
These are, needless to say, the same people who from the comfort of their boardrooms and golf courses rant on about “unaffordable” benefits to the poor and needy and the “evils of the nanny-state”, demanding an end to state aid – an end to state support for all except themselves of course!
These double-standards and hypocrisy have always existed. For all their talk about the efficiency and wealth-generation of the private sector, the reality is that capitalism has always demanded its unfair share from the state. They are a parasitic class in every way, stealing from the working class (who actually produce the wealth in the first place) both directly and, as we now see, indirectly. They are the real welfare cheats, not the mass of people now being hit by the Tory government to preserve their decaying system.
The case for nationalisation of the monopolies, banks and finance institutions gets stronger everyday – that is why you should fight for socialism.
