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Welcome to You’re Probably Getting Screwed, a weekly newsletter and video series from J.D. Scholten and Justin Stofferahn about the Second Gilded Age and the ways economic concentration is putting politics and profits over working people.
This smug anchor from a New York tv studio doesn’t get it.
Clearly, the guy doesn’t have a clue. Perry isn’t a suburb… And Tyson didn’t open in the 60s and 70s. 
The Iowa Pork Plant was built in 1962. Oscar Meyer bought it in 1965. IBP bought it in 1988 and Tyson took over in 2001 [ [link removed] ].
The suggestion that this plant is closing and moving to New York City is insane! This plant made up 2% of the entire pork production in the United States [ [link removed] ]! That’s 9,000 hogs a day. Do you really think that there’s that many hog farms around NYC to supply even a tenth of that? No.
And this 2020 article from the Perry News mentioned that nearly 60% of the Tyson plant were already refugees [ [link removed] ]!
Here’s three things you won’t hear from Fox News:
Tyson Foods’ top 5 execs earn combined $36.5 million in 2023
Since 1976 the market share of the four largest pork processors has ballooned from 33 percent to 66 percent [ [link removed] ], creating a monopoly.
Iowa Republicans at the state level, including Gov. Reynolds, passed a bill to give less benefits to recently unemployed workers [ [link removed] ].
While Fox News plays their disgusting out-of-touch punch down politics… My heart goes out to all of the workers, the farmers and the whole Perry community impacted by this closure. 
YOU’RE PROBABLY (ALSO) GETTING SCREWED BY:
Corporate Power
President Biden’s State of the Union Address touched on a variety of ways big corporations are screwing us from rising housing costs to junk fees to gaming the tax code [ [link removed] ]. Those portions of the speech resonated most with viewers according to one poll [ [link removed] ], which is a similar finding to a variety of other polls [ [link removed] ] in recent years and tracks with a central premise behind this newsletter: People are frustrated with the level of power big corporations have and are looking for policymakers that will do something about it. 
UnitedHealthcare
The cyberattack that brought down the payment system of a subsidiary (Change Healthcare) of the healthcare monopolist UnitedHealthcare continues to impact hospitals, doctor’s offices and pharmacists [ [link removed] ]. This debacle is another clear example of the risks corporate monopolies pose to our economy as they gobble up more and more physical and digital infrastructure. 
Dollar Stores
One part of the dollar store duopoly (Family Dollar, owned by Dollar Tree) will be closing over 1,000 stores across the country [ [link removed] ] in another example of monopoly pillaging where a company rapidly expands, drives out competitors, and then contracts leaving communities hollowed out. 
Rite Aid
The drugstore chain, which is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and has been laying off workers, clawed-back severance payments it already made to workers [ [link removed] ]. While the company has said it has corrected the issue, that is little comfort to the jobless workers that had to see their bank accounts disappear.   
Meatpackers 
The meatpacking giant Tyson is shuttering a plant in Iowa that received nearly $700 in tax subsidies, a situation reminiscent of Koch’s effort to acquire a taxpayer-funded fertilizer plant. The closure will leave nearly 1,300 workers without a job. 
Meatpackers…again
Farmers and ranchers have long complained about companies labeling their products as US made when the animals were raised overseas. USDA has announced new “Product of USA” rules to close loopholes like this [ [link removed] ].
Tax Preparation Websites
Americans spend over $14 billion on tax preparation services, with much of it going to Intuit (TurboTax) and H&R Block, but change is one the way. The Biden Administration has launched a free tax-filing pilot in select states [ [link removed] ] thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act. 
Payday Lenders
The predatory payday lending industry in Michigan is charging consumers interest rates of nearly 400% and legislators are looking to cap that at 36% [ [link removed] ], which is still pretty high, but at least something. The industry is now doing what all corporate bullies like to do, threatening to leave the state despite the fact that 18 states cap payday rates, most around 36%. 
Billionaire Sports Team Owners
We here at YPGS are sports fans (well maybe mostly baseball) but we are not fans of the way billionaires use pro teams to rip off taxpayers, such as Ted Leonsis request for $1.5 billion in subsidies from Virginia to build a new stadium complex for the Washington Wizards (NBA) and Capitals (NHL) and move the teams out of DC. 
Thankfully Virginia State Senator L. Louise Lucas stood up and stripped that corporate welfare from the state’s budget [ [link removed] ] saying “A better deal would be if they paid for it themselves.”   
BEFORE YOU GO
Before you go, I need two things from you: 1) if you like something, please share it on social media or the next time you have coffee with a friend. 2) Ideas, if you have any ideas for future newsletter content please comment below. Thank you.
Standing Tall for All,
J.D. Scholten

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