It’s Monday morning here in the Western hemisphere and most of us are rubbing our sleep-deprived eyes and trying to remember exactly why we get out of bed to go to  work. And then it hits us — we have bills to pay, and, of course, the tax collector to keep at bay.

Where does our hard-earned tax money go? Here at The Outrage, we might not mind paying taxes so much if we thought the money was going to feed starving but otherwise angelic children.

But how would you feel if you were scrimping and sacrificing to put more money into… the coffers of IBM and other huge and wealthy corporations?

That’s right Outraged readers: although Big Blue has $76 billion in annual revenues and a research and development budget of $4.7 billion, the company still gets a subsidy of over $100 million for R&D, courtesy of the seemingly infinite largesse of US taxpayers.

The Commerce Department’s Advanced Technology Program (ATP) gives industrial giants like IBM taxpayer dollars to carry out “high risk” research and development. (Is there such a thing as “low-risk” research and development?)

IBM isn’t alone at the government trough. In fact, they’re cheek and jowl with other corporate behemoths like General Motors, General Electric, Ford, and Sun Microsystems. These five alone have received well over $300 million in taxpayer-funded research subsidies.

But we’ll say one thing — for welfare recipients, the CEO’s of these companies sure do dress nicely.

(Source: MSNBC.)