When I say that it's time to make corporations pay their fair share, you're probably thinking taxes. But, if corporations paid back their full debt to society, they'd be paying each of us about $10,000 bucks a year.

That figure comes from Paul Buchheit over at Alternet, and he says, “That estimate is based on facts, not the conservative-style emotion that might deny the responsibility for any debt to the American people.”

Using data from the National Science Foundation, Paul calculated that about half of that yearly stipend would be our return for all the public money invested in research. About 30 percent of all development, applied, and basic research is paid for by the tax payers, and thirty percent of $2 trillion in annual corporate profit works out to $5,000 bucks a year for each of us.

Another two grand would be payment for pollution and other disaster relief costs paid for by John Q. Taxpayer, and it would reimburse the American public for things like drilling for oil on public lands and cleaning up toxic chemical spills. In addition to the $2 trillion dollars stashed in offshore tax havens, corporations rake in tons of cash in direct and indirect subsidies.

So, the remaining $3,000 dollars would reimburse us for corporate welfare and tax dodging, like overseas tax havens and government subsidies to giant, corporate industries.

When we add all that up, it comes to $10,000 dollars per person, per year – and it's a pretty “small-c” conservative estimate. That's the real price of corporate power in the U.S., and that's a cost being paid by the American public.

Corporations used to return these public investments in the form of larger paychecks and pensions and benefits. Today, they simply buy back their own stocks and call workers greedy for demanding a living wage.

We give them the opportunity to do business in our great nation, so if the corporations won't pay up the way they used to, perhaps it's time they simply cut each of us a $10,000 dollar check.

-Thom

(What do you think? Tell us here.)

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... Professor Eric Foner, Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

Be sure to check out our new videos: CARBON, LAST HOURS & GREEN WORLD RISING - narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio

Big Picture Rumble:
- Stacy Washington, Stacy on the Right (radio) / Project 21
- Tommy Christopher, The Daily Banter
- Scott Greer, The Daily Caller

Conversations with Great Minds - Professor Eric Foner, Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad / Columbia University

Community Square

Wednesday's Daily Stack

Article: "New Budget Keeps Dangerous Coal Subsidies in Place, Senator Warns" by Sam Sacks.

Article: "Hobby Lobby owners planning to build Bible museum" by Rebecca Kaplan.

Article: "Bill O'Reilly faces new questions: His JFK story" by Tom Kludt.

Article: "John McCain and Congress helping mining company steal ancestral, ceremonial Apache land" by Carissa Lovelace.

Article: "President Obama vetoes KXL bill" by Friends of the Earth.

If I Only Had a Brain: "Did you lose your cocaine at this Virginia Super Dollar?".

Book: "Screwed: The Undeclared War Against The Middle Class" by Thom Hartmann. Get "Screwed" by Thom Hartmann!

Article: "Walker breaks out in national GOP race" by Public Policy Polling.

It's "Brunch With Bernie"... the honorable Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) joins Thom with all the news from our nation's capitol and as always he'll be spending the hour taking your calls and answering your questions too...
Follow Bernie: campaign site.

Event: March 9, 2015 Washington, DC: "NPC Luncheon with Senator Bernie Sanders, Vermont".

Article: "Pipeline Veto Shows U.S. is Serious about Climate Change" by Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Article: "Sanders Applauds Veto of Keystone Pipeline Bill" by Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Article: "Robert Reich: Obama Shouldn't Just Halt the Keystone Pipeline -- He Should Toss It in the Trash" by Robert Reich.

Article: "The Week in Review Friday, February 20, 2015" by Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Event: Minneapolis, February 27th, 2015 "AM950's 11th Annual Blue State Ball".

Hour Two: Republican Scott Walker...more Nixonian than Nixon?
- John W. Dean, former White House counsel (Nixon Admin) / The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It

Book: "Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches" by John W. Dean.

Article: "Madison360: Walker more ‘Nixonian’ than Nixon, says John Dean" by Paul Fanlund.

Article: "James MacGregor Burns" by Wikipedia.

The good: Garnet Coleman: "Bill Before Texas Legislature Would Eliminate The State’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ Law" by Carimah Townes.

The bad: Rep. Susan Lynn: "State Legislator Bravely Moves To Eliminate 'No-Go Zones' In Tennessee" by Miranda Blue.

The very, very ugly: "O'Reilly Under Fire, Threatens New York Times Reporter" by Josh Marshall.

Article: "No one should take threats made by a guy with a temper like this lightly" by kpete.

Article: "Pic Of The Moment: The Oh Really? Factor" by EarlG.

Article: "Man to be beheaded in Saudi Arabia after ripping up a Koran and hitting it with his shoe" by Lizzie Dearden.

Article: "Disgorge the Cash" by J.W. Mason.

Book: "Rebooting the American Dream: 11 Ways to Rebuild Our Country" by Thom Hartmann (read online).

Book: "Rebooting the American Dream: 11 Ways to Rebuild Our Country" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Obama Administration Proposes Opening Atlantic Coast to Offshore Drilling" by Brian Palmer.

Case: "Buckley v. Valeo", 1976.

Case: "First National Bank Of Boston V. Bellotti", 1978.

Case: "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission" (2010).

Article: "14th Amendment, July 9, 1868 (citizenship, representatives, public debt)

Article: "First Amendment to the United States Constitution".

Article: "In An Unprecedented Move Harry Reid Puts The Screws To John Boehner’s Obstruction" by Jason Easley.

Book: "The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America--and What We Can Do to Stop It" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "GOP Attacked Democrats For Not Supporting Homeland Security. Now They’re Threatening To Shut It Down" by Igor Volsky.

Article: "New Deal" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Integrating the Histories of Race and Technology" by Bruce Sinclair.

Article: "Eric Foner" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Colfax massacre" by Wikipedia.

Cartoon: "Doonesbury July 13, 2014" by Garry Trudeau.

Article: "Senate debate begins on right-to-work bill as protests continue" by Mary Spicuzza.

Thursday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 3-6pm ET

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BUSTED...Koch Brothers caught funding climate deniers

Rumble: Could Bernie Sanders Run for Prez as a Democrat?

Rumble: Why Obama Really Vetoed Keystone

Today's Supreme Court Has Turned its Guns On "We the People"

Green report: Will Arctic oil exploration be restricted?

Why the President Won't Say 'Islamic Extremists'

Are Bill O'Reilly's Days Numbered at Fox-So-Called-News?

Is Greece Embracing Radical Reform?

Debunking the Latest Smear Campaign Against Marijuana

Malcolm X Remembered 50 Years Later

Scientists vs Feminists - The Fight Over Female Viagra

The Conservative Attempt to Re-Write Our Progressive History

Full Show 2/24/2015: Supreme Court of the Rich

The Politics Panel debates Pres. Obama’s Keystone XL pipeline veto, the looming King vs. Burwell supreme court decision, the DHS funding showdown, Bernie Sanders looking towards 2016, and legalized marijuana in Alaska. Hughey Newsome of Project 21 Black Leadership Network, Progressive Commentator Nate Sweet, and Jennifer Kerns, contributor for The Washington Times and The Blaze join Thom on set.

Arctic Campaigner for Greenpeace John Deans talks about newly proposed drilling regulations in the arctic. Kert Davies of the Climate Investigations Center talks the Koch brothers and Big Oil funding climate change denier Willie Soon. Conservative commentator and contribution to the Washington Times Rusty Humphries debates the war on terror and President Obama’s ISIS rhetoric.

Thom gives his Daily Take – Supreme Court of the Rich, plus The Good, The Bad, and the Very Very Ugly.

Scott Walker more 'Nixonian' than Nixon?

A Day in the Life of a Fox So-Called News Producer...

Brunch with Bernie: February 25, 2015

The Thom Hartmann Program Live - February 25, 2015

Caller: Zoning Laws Screw Minorities and the Poor

An Open Letter to the King of Saudi Arabia...

Caller: Our High Fat Diets are Causing Autism