taxpayers

Reports highlight that many Amazon workers in the United States depend on SNAP food benefits and Medicaid despite being employed, reigniting debate over wages and working conditions at the retail giant. Critics argue the company effectively shifts labor costs to taxpayers, while defenders point to the broader low-wage economy. Amazon has previously said its pay and benefits are competitive.

Commenters are arguing that many governments have been captured by the fossil fuel industry and petrostates, leaving taxpayers effectively funding the burning of oil, gas and coal. They cite a Scientific American figure of $4.5 trillion a year in global fossil fuel subsidies, framing the money as public support for the very emissions governments claim to be cutting.

The directors of 'NAZA', a documentary documenting the destruction in Gaza, presented their film at the New York Film Festival. They argued that the devastation shown on screen is 'being done with taxpayer money from people sitting here', directing their message at American audiences. The film's premiere is drawing attention to US funding of the war and the civilian toll in Gaza.

A new report argues that US taxpayers are effectively subsidizing private jet travel, as tax breaks and airport funding shifts costs from the wealthiest travelers onto ordinary earners while the flights produce outsized carbon emissions. Critics say the arrangements amount to a regressive giveaway that worsens climate change, and are calling for the subsidies to be ended and for luxury aviation to face heavier taxation.