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Google is copying GE's playbook. It's fascinating to watch this tech company turn into an investment vehicle.
by anonymoustrolol 9y ago
Google is copying GE's playbook. It's fascinating to watch this tech company turn into an investment vehicle.
- skj 9y agoWhat else do you do with 100B in the bank? If they just paid it out to the engineers (yes please, thank you!) half of them would retire after two years.
- jdross 9y agoWell historically when a corporation couldn't reinvest its capital for an above market rate of return, it would either buy back shares or issues dividends so owners/shareholders can reinvest for higher return. Hoarding this much cash is historically unprecedented, largely because it's mostly offshore for tech companies and repatriating it would cost many billions in taxes.
- lucretian 9y agomaybe they should repatriate it and pay their damn taxes.
- Veratyr 9y agoWhy? Why should they pay US tax on money earned abroad? They've paid tax to the local government where sales were made, why does the US get a cut too?
- B1FF_PSUVM 9y agoEnforcement. Getting billions out of intellectual property works better if you have a couple dozen aircraft carriers, etc. to back up the diplomats and trade treaties. "You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone."
- ec109685 9y agoWhy shouldn’t they? Google pays sales tax here too and yet have a corporate income tax given they are based in the US.
- Veratyr 9y agoMy point is why are they subject to a corporate income tax on income earned and already taxed abroad? The US government hasn't supported that income.
- skj 9y agoWithout arguing for or against repatriation taxes, I don't think it is true that "The US government hasn't supported that income."
- stale2002 9y agoApparently this literally happened with much of Google's self driver car department. They started off paying them ridiculous salaries, and then when the engineers got their "F U" money, they left.