Reply #15: Because they profit by free use of our public infrastructure

[noamnety]

and put more of a drain on it than individuals, whether we are talking road maintenance and new construction, energy (profiting from wars), and they cause ungodly amounts of pollution often cleaned up with tax dollars, and the people they poison through that pollution (air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution) often have to resort to public tax dollars for medical care and welfare support.

When three mile island happens, or the Valdez oil spill, or the 20% lead poisoning rate in Detroit from smelting plants, the damage from their businesses becomes our burden. I have yet to see any of the heirs from the smelting businesses step forward and volunteer to pay the special ed costs for all the kids with lead poisoning in our area. I'm waiting to see the factory owners downriver step forward and pay all the respiratory-related health care expenses from the people who live in those communities.

It's a matter of them shouldering the true cost of running their for profit businesses, instead of the rest of us paying the costs while they pocket the profits.