Given the daily outrages committed by ginormous corporations in this country, it's understandable that we often lack focus in addressing their arrogance. One day it's slave labor practices in overseas sweatshops; the next environmental degradation; another day super-PAC contributions; then defrauding consumers, followed by anti-union skullduggery, and so on, and so on. I think I have an answer for a rallying point - an issue around which people can coalesce and spread a message that would resonate: Employees paying higher tax rates than their employers, effectively paying billionaires legally compulsory kickbacks for the privilege of working for them. As we know, some of the largest and wealthiest corporations in this country pay no taxes whatsoever, and in fact receive net subsidies - wealth transferred from the 99% into the pockets of majority shareholders and top executives.
So I have an idea for a campaign to bring attention to this - one that I think would be potent (and quite apropos) in this election year: Bill the Bastards. As has been noted before in other innovative campaigns, many large corporations send out postage-paid envelopes expecting to receive bill payments trawl for new revenue sources, but instead I think perhaps it's time to use those envelopes to send invoices for all the tax money not paid that has to be covered by everyone else, either directly or via public debt / lack of services, as well as the vast ecosystem of subsidies they receive. The fact that they are paying for the postage on these invoices would be a nice beginning, and a statement unto itself.
If you want the letters going to a different department than is on the postage-paid envelope, just put another envelope inside ATTN: Accounts Payable or Legal Division or HR (since the American people as a whole are unpaid employees of these corporations). The permutations for such invoices are endless. They can address specific subsidies, broad discrepancies in tax rates, or services rendered by the public (directly or via absorbing externalized costs); they can take the form of overdue interest-bearing loan payments dating back to however long the company has been leeching off the public, utility collections notices (e.g., 2nd warning, 3rd warning, final warning, etc.), personal demands for reimbursement of taxes or interest on public debt paid in their stead, or any other variation that stays within the law (i.e., you can't pretend to be from another company or to represent a government agency). A couple of possible examples - although anyone with professional experience with billing would surely have better ideas on format:
I. Arrears form letter with payment options:
Dear ___ Corp./Inc./Company/LLC, it has come to our attention that your balance is overdue. For fiscal years 19xx through 20xx, you paid ___ in taxes to the United States while receiving _________ in public subsidies and unpaid services. The attached document provides a yearly breakdown of tardy payments and associated interest accrual that has been added to your balance. Please select a payment option:
{ } Minimum monthly payment of X1 at Y1% interest for Z1 years.
{ } Minimum monthly payment of X2 at Y2% interest for Z2 years.
{ } Minimum monthly payment of X3 at Y3% interest for Z3 years.
{ } Complete repayment of balance (please enclose check).
We appreciate your business here in the United States of America, and hope to hear from you soon.
Sincerely,
(Insert your name)
Citizen, United States of America
II. Personal letter:
Dear ___, as you know, your company paid an X% tax rate last year on profits in excess of $__. My family, however, paid a rate of Y% on earnings of $__. Since you received $___ worth of public subsidies and benefits, by my calculations you proportionally owe us $____ in reimbursement for the taxes we paid to cover your payment shortfall as well as interest rate expenses on public debt and costs imposed on us due to inadequately-funded public services.
I note with interest your recent purchase of a fleet of limousines and private jets for your executives. Selling a microscopic fraction of that equity should cover your balance so that I can pay for my daughter's kidney transplant / chemotherapy / barely adequate education. I have helpfully enclosed a postage-paid envelope for you to use in sending your company's first payment - you should recognize it, as it's yours. Just go ahead and change the destination address. Thanks.
Sincerely,
One of the 310 Million People Who Pays for Everything You Do
A.K.A., (Insert Name)
Obviously they aren't going to pay the bills, but they pay for the envelopes, and have to pay employees to read them because they're not part of a machine-readable form. If the campaign grew to any significant level, we could expect the true arrogance of the companies involved to rear its head and draw even more attention to the subject - perhaps through Cease and Desist letters and threats of legal action to silence the speech involved: Yet more money expended by the companies. In that case, answer their legal bluster with equal and opposite legal bluster, also in postage-paid envelopes, because either way the 99% wins - dragging some ordinary citizen to court for complaining about having to pay kickbacks to corporations ought to do wonders for that company's PR standing and the messaging of Republican candidates.
Even though it's obvious that such an act would backfire for them, their arrogance knows no bounds - sooner or later they would try to smack down the "flies" with their political power, and it would just sink them deeper. But if they completely ignored it, then you can still cost them on an ongoing basis, and still draw attention to a critically important and potent issue for the voting public. This kind of win/win action that puts the enemies of the American people in a Catch-22 is precisely how the average citizen can ultimately triumph.