[skushch]

How do subsidies for stadiums, roads and public works 'overwhelmingly' benefit the affluent. A poor person with no car benefits from roads, unless they never leave the house and somehow grow all their food and produce all their goods.

[pauljonas]

Because they are less likely to use them. They tend to be more likely clustered in urban areas, less likely to own vehicles (and less vehicles on average) and served by public transportation (trains & subways supported by fares and charged with being self-sufficient) that receives far less in subsidies than roads which are built on the federal dime.

On food delivery and utilities, more externalities imposed by exurban users (more affluent) than urban users. New York City residents are much "greener" and use far less energy than country/exurban dwellers, despite paying for the same Kw at a much more exorbitant price.

Stadiums and public recreation areas are frequented by the affluent, not those living paycheck to paycheck (on average).

Also, I did not even get into all the upside down craziness that tilts tax favoredness to the affluent, but you can check out writings of David Cay Johnston (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Cay_Johnston) who details extensively how the wealthiest Americans enrich themselves at government expense (http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/18/free_lunch_how_the_wea...).

I will cite one that he begins one of his books with — the burglar alarm subsidy — each time police respond to an alarm (95% being false alarms), it costs the public $50 or more ($2-3B per year), in essence a subsidy, and a diverting of police resources away from other areas (that either go unmet or result in additional costs and increased crime).

Note: edited because for some reason, keep thinking this forum supports Markup…