This Thanksgiving is a good time to spot the Golden Fleece Turkey, a bird that epitomizes economic irrationality and environmental destruction. This remarkable breed pollutes air and water and wastes tax dollars, while scamming the public in the process. Although known for its camouflage, especially its ability to hide wrongdoing, the Golden Fleece Turkey regularly treats birdwatchers to astonishing displays of stupidity. Such birds could not exist in a sustainable economy, but the present economic climate provides an ideal habitat, and they’re spreading like many other invasive species. Below are 10 recent sightings of the Golden Fleece Turkey.
(Note: Wisconsin Senator William Proxmire presented Golden Fleece Awards in the 1970s and 1980s for taxpayer boondoggles. This Daly News entry is dedicated to his memory.)
1. Animal Factory Slums
Sometimes masquerading under the name of Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), these gigantic lots keep thousands of animals in filthy, cramped quarters. They produce over 500 million tons of manure annually, some of which spills because lagoons leak and pipelines break. The spills cause massive fish kills downstream and spread dangerous bacterial contamination. Up to 70% of the antibiotics in the US are used on animals in CAFOs, thereby aggravating antibiotic resistance and jeopardizing one of the miracles of modern medicine. Emissions from these animal slums, tainted with putrid sulfur dioxide, sicken rural neighbors. “Cheap” food from CAFOs isn’t such a bargain when you add up all the health costs.
2. Continued Subsidies for Nuclear Reactors
In the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan (a tragedy that’s still unfolding with more bad news each month), there is a real possibility that damages could top a trillion dollars. Despite such concerns, the nuclear industry keeps fleecing America. The US Congress and the Obama Administration continue to support loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors and to provide liability insurance for nuclear reactor accidents. If reactors are as safe as the industry alleges, one would think that private insurance companies would be eager to make some money here. As we have seen from Japan this year, there is a lot we are not being told, and there’s still a high potential for accidents.
3. The Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline from Canada to the Texas Gulf
The extraction of oil from tar sands takes a lot of energy and leaves behind a polluted landscape that native people of Alberta have to live with. The pipeline would pose a threat to every river it crossed en route to the Texas coast. Embarrassed by revelations of shady dealings at the State Department and the announcement of an Inspector General investigation, the Obama Administration has just delayed a decision on whether to approve the biggest pipeline fleece in history.
4. US Automobiles That Travel 200 Miles Per Hour
Ford and Chevrolet have announced their intentions to produce super-fast cars, capable of speeds between 180 and 200 mph. So much for the goals of saving lives, preventing injuries, and conserving fuel. For the past half century 30-50,000 people have died annually in auto accidents, and hundreds of thousands more have been injured.
5. Offshore Tax Havens
It is estimated that the US Treasury loses $100 billion annually as a result of offshore tax havens. This is about the same amount of money the desperate “Supercommittee” of Congress is scrambling to find for deficit reduction by the November 23 deadline ($1.2 trillion over a decade = $120 billion a year). The two biggest bank recipients of taxpayer bailouts are Citicorp and Bank of America. Citicorp operates subsidiaries in 427 tax havens, and Bank of America does so in 115.
6. Tax-Dodging Corporations
Corporate income taxes provided 35% of federal revenue in 1945, but today that total is just 9%. Some of the world’s best known and most profitable companies (e.g., General Electric) play a variety of accounting games and avoid paying any corporate income taxes. Such companies protest that they are obeying the law, but they don’t say that they are lobbying intensively to keep all the loopholes in place. As a result, the American public is told that it will have to endure massive budget cuts to avoid further increases in government debt.
7. Corn Ethanol Subsidies
75 cents of every tax dollar spent on renewable energy goes to corn ethanol. US taxpayers are shelling out over $6 billion in subsidies each year for the corn ethanol program. Corn is an energy-intensive crop to grow, and it often involves the use of the carcinogenous herbicide atrazine (banned by Italy and Germany in 1990). The Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit is a shameful subsidy (45 cents per gallon blended) that should be cut. On top of that, life-cycle studies show that corn ethanol fails to ameliorate greenhouse gas emissions.
8. Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
The United Nations administers the world’s largest carbon offset program, the CDM, created by the Kyoto climate agreement. The objective is to provide credits to projects that offset greenhouse gas emissions. The idea is to develop useful projects that would not be built without such a subsidy. But there’s a problem: the UN is awarding credits worth billions to projects that are already built or being built — large, environmentally unsound dams provide perhaps the most egregious example. The Clean Development Mechanism is better labeled the Filthy Scam Mechanism. As of October almost 2,000 dams (2/3 in China) were in line for billions in tax credits with no guarantee of compliance with standards of the World Commission on Dams.
9. Leaf Blowers
Doesn’t anyone rake leaves anymore or sweep a sidewalk? Throughout the year, leaf blowers spew dust, debris, and noise in neighborhoods all across America. Of the 220 million tons of carbon dioxide emitted by off-road vehicles and equipment, power lawn mowers and leaf blowers generate a surprisingly large amount — 12% or 26 million tons. Often powered by dirty engines, these leaf blowers can be a serious source of air pollution. And with unpleasant noise, sometimes exceeding 85 decibels, they can make sitting on the porch seem like sitting at the end of an airport runway.
10. Corporate CEO Pay
CEO salaries are now a whopping 325 times higher than the average US worker. And the Institute for Policy Studies found 25 companies that paid their CEOs more than they paid in federal income tax.
Decent citizens everywhere should be looking to carve up a Golden Fleece Turkey or two. Happy Thanksgiving!
