Posts Tagged ‘tax-free’
Assata Shakur: Tax-Free Profits
on Monday, February 5, 2024Meaning Assata Shakur Corporations tax-free profits politicians cut food stamps salaries City bankruptcy, dollars spent spend millions arms close day care centers fire stations. Assata Shakur said:
“While big corporations make huge, tax-free profits, taxes for the everyday working person skyrocket. While politicians take free trips around the world, those same politicians cut back food stamps for the poor. While politicians increase their salaries, millions of people are being laid off. This city is on the brink of bankruptcy, and yet hundreds of thousands of dollars are being spent on this trial. I do not understand a government so willing to spend millions of dollars on arms, to explore outer space, even the planet Jupiter, and at the same time close down day care centers and fire stations” — Assata Shakur
Assata Shakur was criticizing the priorities of the U.S. government in this quote. She points out that while large corporations and politicians benefit financially, everyday working people face increasing taxes and cuts to social services.
At the same time, the government spends vast sums on military weapons, space exploration, and other projects seen as less essential than programs that directly help citizens, like day care centers and fire stations.
The overall interpretation is that the government favors powerful corporate and political interests over the needs of ordinary citizens, especially the poor and vulnerable. Shakur saw this as unjust and “did not understand” the logic of a system with such skewed priorities.
Stephen Colbert: Yearning Tax-Free
on Friday, August 4, 2017Stephen Colbert Money Quote saying in a parody of the Emma Lazarus poem on the Statue of Liberty that we would prefer allowing only rich, educated immigrants rather than the downtrodden poor. Stephen Colbert said:
“Give me your wealthy, your rich, your huddled M.B.A.s yearning to be tax-free. Send these, your English-speaking, fully insured, to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door! And lift my leg upon your filthy poor” — Stephen Colbert
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Stephen Colbert is satirizing the famous poem by Emma Lazarus about the Statue of Liberty welcoming immigrants. In this quote, he suggests the U.S. is really only interested in attracting wealthy, well-educated immigrants who won’t burden the social welfare system and will contribute economically, rather than helping the poor.
The best interpretation is that Colbert is using humor and exaggeration to critique a perception that the country’s immigration policies and priorities seem to favor the rich and educated over the less fortunate seeking opportunity.
His comedic rewriting of the poem implies the U.S. is more welcoming to those who are tax-advantaged and financially self-sufficient than to those simply seeking refuge or a better life through hard work.