Category Archives: Original

Corporate Welfare, Original

Corporate welfare study breaks down $110 billion in subsidies

By AlternativeFreePress.com

“Subsidizing the Corporate One Percent” breaks down $110 billion in corporate welfare and highlights how big business is being propped up and bailed out, while the middle class disappears. The study details several layers of holding companies, shell firms and ownership agreements.

Good Jobs First discovered that $110 billion — 75% of cumulative disclosed subsidy dollars — are going to just 965 large companies.

This report is detailed, but also highlights the inconsistent quality of state and local disclosure as the award numbers include some for which no dollar amount has been disclosed.

Dow Chemical was awarded 416 subsides. Following it are Berkshire Hathaway (310), General Motors (307), Wal-Mart Stores (261), General Electric (255), Walgreen (225) and FedEx (222). Cumulatively, Boeing, has received more than $13 billion.

These 965 corporate welfare bums averaged 26 subsidies each and the average total dollar amount (from awards for which this information is disclosed) is $102 million.

1 Boeing
$13,174,075,797
137
2 Alcoa
$5,635,305,059
91
3 Intel
$3,867,492,085
58
4 General Motors
$3,494,237,703
307
5 Ford Motor
$2,522,304,454
173
6 Fiat
$2,060,988,039
93
7 Royal Dutch Shell
$2,038,202,298
66
8 Nike
$2,024,582,002
23
9 Nissan
$1,799,585,041
25
10 Cerner
$1,732,784,334
15
11 Cheniere Energy
$1,693,646,504
10
12 Dow Chemical
$1,408,228,374
416
13 ArcelorMittal
$1,338,284,411
58
14 Advanced Technology
Investment
$1,224,997,961
4
15 Berkshire Hathaway
$1,063,809,399
310
16 Toyota
$1,051,586,557
77
17 IBM
$1,026,845,249
208
18 Delta Air Lines
$869,754,989
7
19 Texas Instruments
$727,848,327
39
20 Pyramid Companies
$703,596,595
15
21 Goldman Sachs
$661,979,222
28
22 Volkswagen
$657,778,311
14
23 JPMorgan Chase
$653,474,481
133
24 Hyundai Motor
$649,041,683
7
25 Google
$632,044,922
26
26 Teck Resources
$597,871,991
5
27 Mayo Clinic
$585,000,000
1
28 Forest City Enterprises
$582,389,708
37
29 Clean Coal Power Operations
$550,000,000
1
30 Sematech
$550,000,000
3
31 Scripps Research Institute
$545,000,000
1
32 Daimler
$544,749,000
42
33 Nucor
$534,974,717
46
34 Sears
$534,616,673
54
35 Silver Lake
$482,025,256
85
36 FedEx
$456,750,126
222
37 NRG Energy
$449,990,674
49
38 Apple
$446,485,233
6
39 Honda
$438,179,224
38
40 McEagle Properties
$430,650,000
5
41 Cornell University
$400,000,000
1
42 Shin-Etsu Chemical
$398,842,605
40
43 Severstal
$396,013,300
26
44 General Electric
$394,212,107
255
45 Onex
$388,603,757
118
46 Walt Disney
$381,525,727
36
47 Mitsubishi Group
$379,243,036
42
48 Morgan Stanley
$366,284,480
47
49 Triple Five Worldwide
$358,000,000
2
50 Michelin
$357,416,880
46
51Community Health Systems
$355,703,779
94
52 Aker Philadelphia Shipyard
$350,000,000
1
53 H&R Block
$341,317,824
9
54 Exxon Mobil
$340,271,846
71
55 United Continental
$337,081,638
20
56 Amazon.com
$330,756,147
39
57 LG
$327,082,717
14
58 Duke Energy
$325,877,242
15
59 Revel AC
$323,000,000
2
60 Samsung
$317,148,838
17
61 Huntington Ingalls
Industries
$312,056,400
5
62 Weyerhaeuser
$300,575,457
92
63 Orca Bay Seafoods
$296,849,235
6
64 Jackson Laboratory
$291,000,000
1
65 Anschutz Company
$290,000,045
4
66 Areva
$289,116,137
13
67 Citigroup
$286,228,767
64
68 Sasol
$279,262,538
27
69 Peabody Energy
$278,095,289
22
70 Electrolux
$278,068,356
19
71 ConAgra Foods
$271,306,014
145
72 Nestle
$264,262,725
163
73 General Dynamics
$262,528,332
84
74 Valero Energy
$262,298,522
54
75 Yahoo
$261,078,455
17
76 Eli Lilly
$258,216,376
15
77 BMW
$254,326,405
13
78 Orascom Group
$251,000,000
1
79 UBS
$247,608,178
11
80 Cabela’s
$247,189,539
16
81 Wacker Chemie
$241,325,051
34
82 Comcast
$239,337,579
62
83 Sanford-Burnham Institute
$233,600,000
2
84 Virdia
$230,000,000
1
85 Prudential Financial
$225,734,997
30
86 International Paper
$222,836,793
196
87 Baxter International
$212,892,487
20
88 Pfizer
$210,072,210
123
89 Johnson Controls
$210,010,267
106
90 Caterpillar
$208,982,443
127
91 Blackstone
$203,193,594
141
92 Convergys
$199,690,351
21
93 Triumph Group
$196,342,629
57
94 Max Planck Florida Institute
$193,000,000
2
95 Goodyear Tire & Rubber
$190,432,390
118
96 CME Group
$188,000,000
6
97 Simon Property
$187,000,000
2
98 Summit Power
$183,221,842
2
99 CA Inc.
$181,258,193
20
100 Bank of America
$179,959,106
119

Sources for this article:
1. Subsidizing the Corporate One Percent: Subsidy Tracker 2.0 Reveals Big-Business Dominance of State and Local Development Incentives by Philip Mattera http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/sites/default/files/docs/pdf/subsidizingthecorporateonepercent.pdf

Written by Alternative Free Press
Creative Commons License
Corporate welfare study breaks down $110 billion in subsidies by AlternativeFreePress.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Drugs, Original

Study shows THC blood tests can’t test impairment

By AlternativeFreePress.com

Per se laws criminalize blood content rather than impaired driving. This is systemic chemical bigotry and these laws are ineffective at detecting or deterring impairment.

A new study examines the plasma and blood levels of both occasional and frequent cannabis users, before and after smoking cannabis: “Frequent and occasional smokers resided on a closed research unit and smoked one 6.8% THC cannabis cigarette ad libitum. Blood and plasma cannabinoids were quantified on admission (approximately 19 h before), 1 h before, and up to 15 times (0.5–30 h) after smoking.”

“Cannabinoid blood and plasma concentrations were significantly higher in frequent smokers compared with occasional smokers at most time points for THC and 11-OH-THC and at all time points for THCCOOH and THCCOO-glucuronide.” Both the participants’ baseline concentration levels & how much THC was in their blood when the study began did not change the outcome. The study found that the median time blood THC levels over 5 ng/ml were detectable was 3.5 hours in frequent smokers (ranging from 1.1 – 30 hours), and 1 hour in most occasional smokers (ranging from 0 – 2.1 hours). Particularly interesting is that 2 occasional smokers did not test over 5 ng/ml at all.

These results highlight how occasional cannabis users could pass a blood test even if impaired while a frequent cannabis user would fail even when not impaired at all. There is a dramatic difference in the amount of time THC remains in the blood of users that is not based on the amount of cannabis consumed, but rather on the frequency of cannabis use. Because THC remains in frequent users blood much longer than in those who consume cannabis occasionally, frequent cannabis users are significantly more likely to be charged with impaired driving despite their lower chance of impairment due to higher tolerance and experience. A first time user with no experience or tolerance would very likely pass a roadside blood test while being the most likely users to feel impaired.

The study concludes; “Cannabis smoking history plays a major role in cannabinoid detection. These differences may impact clinical and impaired driving drug detection.”

Testing drivers blood for ng/ml of THC is stupid policy which does not determine if a driver is impaired. On top of the policy being ineffective at determining impairment, decades of studies show that cannabis does not typically impair driving to begin with.

Cannabis users are safe drivers

In 1983 a study by the US National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) tested drivers on simulators, and concluded that the only statistically significant effect associated with marijuana use was slower driving. A NHTSA study in 1992 found that marijuana is rarely involved in driving accidents, except when combined with alcohol, concluding, “the THC-only drivers had an [accident] responsibility rate below that of the drug free drivers. While the difference was not statistically significant, there was no indication that cannabis by itself was a cause of fatal crashes.” A separate NHTSA study from1993 tested Dutch drivers high on THC on real Dutch roads, concluding, “THC’s adverse effects on driving performance appear relatively small.” In 1998 a study by the University of Adelaide and Transport South Australia analyzed blood samples from 2,500 accidents, and found that drivers with cannabis in their system were less likely to cause accidents than those without. A University of Toronto study from 1999 found that cannabis users typically refrained from passing cars and drove at a more consistent speed than sober drivers.

More recently, studies have found that fatal car accidents are reduced by 9% when medicinal marijuana is legalized. The rate of fatal crashes where a driver has consumed alcohol drops by 12% and crashes involving high levels of alcohol fall by 14%.

Sources for this article:
1. Phase I and II Cannabinoid Disposition in Blood and Plasma of Occasional and Frequent Smokers Following Controlled Smoked Cannabis. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24563491?report=abstract

2. Stoned Drivers Are Safe Drivers http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/1775.html

3. Why Medical Marijuana Laws Reduce Traffic Deaths http://healthland.time.com/2011/12/02/why-medical-marijuana-laws-reduce-traffic-deaths/

RELATED : Since Marijuana Legalization Highway Fatalities in Colorado are at Near Historic Lows

Written by Alternative Free Press
Creative Commons License
Study shows THC blood tests can’t test impairment by AlternativeFreePress.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.