Nice theory. But I have a different one. And that is that things are totally off balance, and that this is not by random fault, but by wanted intention by some who have the power to legalise system deformations that way that they benefit from from abusing it. And all others have to pay for them.
To me, a law has a certain intentions or purpose. Trying to work around it, to bypass it, and trying to find an exit door in the point above the "i", is the same like openly violating it.
We talk about politics and private business being in bed with each other . Which is the death of any democratic regime.
And we talk about criminal energy to avoid taxes, too.
Maybe you would do that too, like you imply in your answer when saying "we all would do". But still is a viollation of the spirit and intention of certain rules and laws, and still it is simply this: "wrong". Excusing it by refering to others, does not change this fundamental fact.
Such corporations often are just this: a closed club of bosses who think the company is just there to fill their pockets, and so they agree to act by a rule of "You fill my pockets and I'll fill yours." All persons outside their club, are just human capital waiting to be exploited. And the society, community, nation - is just a possibility to externalise all internal costs.
It's not clever to excuse such a system. It is organisid gang crime, and comes at the cost of the vast majority of ordinary people, and the desintegration of national and social structures. Not oinly is it immoral - it is antisocial, and corrosive to the basic cement of communities and societies.
And no, that can never be the decision for just a board of directors deciding over the payment of their own club members behind locked doors.
Edit: P.S.
I posted it before, and do it again, third time I think:
http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/n...4-a27f59d70de5
Quote:
1) Exxon Mobil made $19 billion in profits in 2009. Exxon not only paid no federal income taxes, it actually received a $156 million rebate from the IRS, according to its SEC filings. (Source: Exxon Mobil's 2009 shareholder report filed with the SEC here.)
2) Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS last year, although it made $4.4 billion in profits and received a bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department of nearly $1 trillion. (Source: Forbes.com here, ProPublica here and Treasury here.)
3) Over the past five years, while General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the United States, it received a $4.1 billion refund from the IRS. (Source: Citizens for Tax Justice here and The New York Times here. Note: despite rumors to the contrary, the Times has stood by its story.)
4) Chevron received a $19 million refund from the IRS last year after it made $10 billion in profits in 2009. (Source: See 2009 Chevron annual report here. Note 15 on page FS-46 of this report shows a U.S. federal income tax liability of $128 million, but that it was able to defer $147 million for a U.S. federal income tax liability of $-19 million)
5) Boeing, which received a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airborne tankers, got a $124 million refund from the IRS last year. . (Source: Paul Buchheit, professor, DePaul University, here and Citizens for Tax Justice here.)
6) Valero Energy, the 25th largest company in America with $68 billion in sales last year received a $157 million tax refund check from the IRS and, over the past three years, it received a $134 million tax break from the oil and gas manufacturing tax deduction. (Source: the company's 2009 annual report, pg. 112, here.)
7) Goldman Sachs in 2008 only paid 1.1 percent of its income in taxes even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion and received an almost $800 billion from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department. (Source: Bloomberg News here, ProPublica here, Treasury Department here.)
8) Citigroup last year made more than $4 billion in profits but paid no federal income taxes. It received a $2.5 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury. (Source: Paul Buchheit, professor, DePaul University, here, ProPublica here, Treasury Department here.)
9) ConocoPhillips, the fifth largest oil company in the United States, made $16 billion in profits from 2006 through 2009, but received $451 million in tax breaks through the oil and gas manufacturing deduction. (Sources: Profits can be found here. The deduction can be found on the company's 2010 SEC 10-K report to shareholders on 2009 finances, pg. 127, here)
10) Over the past five years, Carnival Cruise Lines made more than $11 billion in profits, but its federal income tax rate during those years was just 1.1 percent.
|
I also remind of the now known fact that many banks and investment companies payed their bosses hilarious bonusses in the wake of the crash 2009 - with money that just had given to them from the tax payers tpo bail them out and help repairing the system. Billiions got sunk in pirvate pockets that way. Billions that the poublic had to come up for, and that were meant to repair the system for the benefit of all (whter that is reasonable or desirable, is something different) - not just some parasites at the top.
More obviously blood-sucking parasitism cannot be practised.