Just how hard a screwing are you willing to take, or don’t you know what’s happening, Mister Jones? (10 points to the first person to get the reference)
As global capital becomes ever more powerful, giant corporations are holding governments and citizens up for ransom — eliciting subsidies and tax breaks from countries concerned about their nation’s “competitiveness” — while sheltering their profits in the lowest-tax jurisdictions they can find. Major advanced countries — and their citizens — need a comprehensive tax agreement that won’t allow global corporations to get away with this.Google, Amazon, Starbucks, every other major corporation, and every big Wall Street bank, are sheltering as much of their U.S. profits abroad as they can, while telling Washington that lower corporate taxes are necessary in order to keep the U.S. “competitive.”
Baloney. The fact is, global corporations have no allegiance to any country; their only objective is to make as much money as possible — and play off one country against another to keep their taxes down and subsidies up, thereby shifting more of the tax burden to ordinary people whose wages are already shrinking because companies are playing workers off against each other.
Ballad Of A Thin Man?
Good call. I still thought the Rolling Stones did a cover of it, but my quick Google doesn’t turn it up.
Good song.
10 points! Use them wisely.
Next rounds on Me!
Nah, “Me and Mrs. Jones”…
“We gotta thang……… goin’ on. (DID-IT, …did-it, …DID-IT, …did-it)”
Simple… Fairtax.. Corporations can’t manipulate it. Politicians can’t exploit it.
Good luck with that one. Just ask Ron Paul how well it worked for him.
Name of a song, or its chorus, or its refrain: “..and you don’t know what’s happening, do you Mr Jones?” Forget what the subject of not knowing was though. Today: it would be swamped by college loans that prepared one to be unemployed in todays economy.
….but anyhoo==its not about not knowing. Everyone knows. Its government by and for the SUPER RICH. Its “of” the bureaucrats they have paid for just for the patina of illusion.
HEY!!–In the last 12 hours, Youtube stopped freezing on merely going to its website, a globe icon for translation services now appears at 50% transparency on my web pages, and the html number lock for the music symbol no longer works.
Its like…. I don’t know what’s going on…..except my name ain’t Jones?
Eliminate all taxes and go to a VAT (value added tax, similar to a sales tax).
Then all this goes away.
Big corporations evade taxes because our tax system is stupid and tries to tax “profits”. Switching to a VAT would also ensure rich people pay the right amount of taxes too.
This article is very stupid because the problem isn’t megacorps/rich people not paying taxes, the problem is an asinine tax system that is easy to game.
Don’t whine about the results, whine about the defective system in place.
Part 2: There are piles of tax books. Of course rich people and mega corps will always have time to cheat via the rules.
A normal person has no chance of understanding all the tax rules. Even the IRS can’t.
This is why weasels who do know the rules get paid by the rich very handsomely.
The author of the article and everyone who agrees with the theme is an idiot who cannot see the forest from the trees. The tax system in place is stupid, it will be gamed because it is 100 years of cobbled together crap.
Yes, I agree! The tax code is indeed a pile of crap because it’s NOT FAIR!
The only fair way to tax anyone would be to institute a very simple flat sales tax on money that changes hands. But then all the little minions in the IRS and tax preparation companies are all of a sudden out of a “job” which in turn “hurts the economy” where we end up fighting another “war on (insert bodiless enemy here).”
Yes, this is why they can’t do it.
It would wreck the careers of millions who specialize in minutiae. IRS, tax preparation companies, auditors, and on and on.
Lets not forget Apple:
Senate investigators: Apple sheltered $44 billion from taxes
http://politico.com/story/2013/05/apple-taxes-offshore-senate-investigation-91633.html#ixzz2Tsl7Omvh
Just for reference, here is Apple’s prepared testimony for the Senate for this week’s hearings. Make of it what you will.
And Eric Schmidt’s op-ed in the Observer.
Apple? Really?!
I don’t exactly like Apple (either). But they’re not exactly scum sucking money swindlers. OK! Maybe they are. But haven’t you forgotten anyone?
Perhaps General Electric (GE)?
Or how about British Petroleum (BP)?
Or maybe, oh I don’t know, like everyone in the BANKING circles?!
I mean, have you completely forget about MICROSOFT?!
California tried to get rid of its tax on capital equipment. Some people, read liberal big-government Democrats, objected. Intel came and testified that ,’We have a choice of where to put our new factory. California is never going to tax Intel on this factory. You can either keep the tax and we will build in New Mexico, or you can get rid of the tax and we will build in California.’
Apple’s CEO should say the same.
Rather a good argument for a national tax scheme or a homogenized state tax scheme?
Tax the corps on their revenues within the USA for those who want to move to Mexico or elsewhere.
All it takes is the WILL to do so.
SUPER RICH = CRIMINAL
The issue is that Apple is keeping money overseas, revenue earned in other countries, because they don’t want to pay taxes on it. Other countries do not tax in the manner the US does.
Maybe. If money is “truly” earned overseas and not taxed overseas then I can see allowing that offshoring…but in context the usual issue is accounting tricks that transfer USA made income to those same locations==ie==a fraud that often everyone knows is going on but the cognescenti wink and grin at given so many salivate uncontrollably around the rich.
Its a more difficult question to simply tax all USA based/revenue makers on their total revenue with perhaps discounts for taxes paid elsewhere. Why not?
USA revenue from corp tax is about 30% from what it was 30 years ago.
They are thieves. Plain and Simple.
SUPER RICH (CORPS) = CRIMINAL.
Now it’s Super Rich = Criminal…..
Wonder why not the old Rich = Criminal?
Realize the error of your ways?
That’s because of changes in the tax code. Before it was advantageous for rich performers to have their own corporation to earn their income, as the personal income tax was 70% and even 90%. Now, we have SCorps are corporations that pay personal income tax and not corporate income tax.
Federal personal income tax applies to U.S. citizens who live overseas, are paid in a foreign currency, and who work for a small family-owned store.
Yet major corporations aren’t taxed.
Uncle Dave, I believe the reference is Animal Farm? You can deposit my 10 points in my First American bank of points account.
Mr Jones is the Farmer and a heavy drinker. The animals revolt after Mr Jones drinks so much, he does not feed or take care of them. Mr Jones is supposedly an allegory of Russian Tsar Nicholas II. After animals revolt they rename the farm, “Animal Farm”
The Animals adopt Seven Commandments of Animalism, the most important of which is, “All animals are equal”. The Seven Commandments later degenerates and is reduced to a single phrase: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”.
Sounds like Mr Jones “should” know what is going on? Especially when he sobers up the next day? Cause and Effect? Bankruptcy/revolt thru mismanagement???
N
ot as universal a theme as the Dylan Song.
See that N…..ot just above. My browser typing just started doing that along with the other changes.
WHO is making changes to how my computer works without even the courtesy of a notice of upgrade????
“I don’t know what’s going on……” ?==still no html coding for the music note. Will have to google how to get that little feature back. Or is in “unicode?”
poor shallow pedro, congratulations on having read the Cliff Notes and your limited understanding of a classic work that is one of the best books in the English Language!
The theme of Orwell Animal Farm is much larger and not limited by communism, numbnuts. It is widely seen as a criticism of totalitarian regimes in general and their rise to power through the power of words!
Animal Farm shows how tyranny rises to power (in what citizens think it is the start of a better life), then begins to manipulates and oppress it’s members; controlling their lives with dogmatic adherence to idealistic thoughts. How tyranny brainwash its citizens into a life of hard labor, misery and death!
In its rawest form, it represents human characteristics as animal instincts!
Tyranny includes communism, but is not limited by it! Orwell Animal Farm is a parody of totalitarian regimes with their promise of a better life and the inevitable hypocrisy and citizen manipulations by dogmatic adherence to idealistic thoughts! The descent into living hell is a natural result of the concentration of power. Because power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely! History has repeatability shown (and each time people think it will be different) when few rise to power with unchecked power, it inevitably leads to a cataclysmic societal collapse!
As Uncle Dave was referring to:
“powerful, giant corporations are holding governments and citizens up for ransom — eliciting subsidies and tax breaks from countries concerned about their nation’s “competitiveness” — while sheltering their profits in the lowest-tax jurisdictions they can find.”
Many people fear how a few wealthy elites, like the Koch Brothers and China are facilitating a global management of the planet and will be our new slavemasters and how the GOP is now marching the American sheeple lockstep to their slaughter with the ruse of jobs, corporate competitiveness and freedom!
In the midst of all this citizen frustration, the GOP wants to hand out guns like candy to distract and better manipulate the masses as citizens fight amongst themselves to control what scraps are left behind!
I can hear the evil laugh of Rush, Koch Brothers, Xi Jinping, Mitch McConnell in the background!
Mextli had it. Bob Dylan’s Ballad of a Thin Man.
Anyone on here ever read Confessions of an Economic Hit Man?
Very good book and enlightening.
The IRS goes after individuals if they have an overseas account, yet companies like Apple can park $44B overseas with no problem.
Are they breaking the law? No, then good for them.
The end result is that you’re paying their taxes for them. How “good” is that?
Do you honestly believe your personal taxes would go down if corporations paid more? I don’t.
No, but I honestly believe that my taxes would go up even MORE if corporations paid less.
Only dare once again to make it!
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You really need to delete this crap.
“This committee will admit: Apple has not broken any laws. Yet, they are forced into a show trial at the whims of politicians, when in fact; Congress should be on trial for chasing the profits of great American companies overseas. You haul before this committee one of America’s greatest success stories and you want applause?”
Rub it in Uncle! Say—why not link to your favorite version? I got distracted myself while listening to a horrible boot leg copy.
Congress wrote our tax code. If they don’t like the response they got it’s their job to fix it.
If it’s any comfort some rich people in France paid over 100% of their income as taxes last year. If that won’t run the big money investors out of the country nothing will.
I’ve heard that at least some of those people are moving to Cajun country.
Last thing I’ll say on this topic for now. Steve Jobs and company were and are big Obama supporters. The Dems that called this are biting the hand the feeds them. I don’t know about Tim Cook but Jobs wasn’t a forgiving kind of guy.
Another unintended consequence of Obamacare, if you want insurance subsidies, you have to have a checking account. Banks always hate that so much of the population isn’t buying their services, and now they can get the government to force the issue.
$480 billion spent by corps…
FOR adverts…Tax write off..
Then they raise prices to COVER the adverts…because you cant PROVE the advert worked…and the corp SPENT that money..
You’re on the money, Dave. Now what?
CAP’s donors included Comcast, Walmart, General Motors, Pacific Gas and Electric, General Electric, Boeing and Lockheed
That would be the left-wing Center for American Progress.
If corps are so evil quit giving them all your money. Their is a huge amount of wealth transfer.The great bulk of which is voluntary.You transfer your wealth from your pockets to theirs voluntarily.Am i to imagine that you wake up in the morning with a wise guy from bp standing over your bed with gun saying your buying gas at are stations or its curtians for ya.I dont think so. You make these decisions freely a thousand times a day.You dont like big corps then ride a bike or a horse every where.Better yet go live like the amish for a couple of years and i quite certian you will never utter the words evil corporations.