According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the nations of the Earth collectively give the oil/energy industry $5.3 trillion a year in subsidies. At that rate, big oil gets $10 million per minute.
A classic low-information voter would likely see that headline and get riled up. By some (unproven) estimates, people earning $50,000 a year contribute $36 towards the cost of the food stamp (SNAP) program. Bear in mind the figure skews the actual cost of the SNAP program. This is because the top one percent of wage earners pay fifty percent of the nation’s taxes. This would suggest that the “wealthy” are paying substantially more towards the food stamp program than the recipients of the program contribute.
However, the issue at hand is the $5.3 trillion which the IMF claims goes annually towards the oil/energy industry. Contrary to the heavily biased rant by one blog site, Forbes published a detailed analysis of the same IMF report that revealed a different picture altogether. It may be more accurate to refer to the energy sector as globally being run more akin to a SNAP program than one which is handing money to big corporate interests.
One of the largest blocks of money being funneled by various governments is to subsidize the price of energy consumption. For example, Venezuela subsidizes oil so that gas stations have a zero cost for the oil they sell. Saudi Arabia and Iran subsidize oil so heavily that its citizens can purchase it at rock bottom prices. Admittedly, there is reform needed in how the entire energy sector is operated. That said, it serves no educated purpose to slant the information entirely to one particular ideology.