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More taxes. That's the answer. How has the government spent our taxes so far?
by pteredactyl 8y ago
More taxes. That's the answer. How has the government spent our taxes so far?
- taberiand 8y agoLess taxes. That's the answer. How have the corporations spent their windfalls so far?
- mbrumlow 8y agoIt's their windfall ... They can spend it any damn well they want.
- gleenn 8y agoI believe that's exactly what's under contention, some people think corporations should not have as large windfalls in the name of spreading that wealth more generally.
- mbrumlow 8y agoThen people should simply stop buying their products.
- scaramanga 8y agoOr they could just have their charters revoked and their assets seized. Corporations have no rights, not even the right to exist.
- jjeaff 8y agoCorporations are owned by citizens. Those citizens have constitutional rights. Siezing the assets of a corporation = siezing the assets of a citizen. To not have such an elementary understanding of how things work is just baffling to me.
- _m96l 8y agoWhat are you talking about? Everyone knows corporations are owned by tiny white men wearing tuxedos and monocles.
- ddingus 8y agoThose corporations operate under license. Said license comes with terms. Said citizen has a voice in those terms same as everyone else.
- scaramanga 8y agoYes. People have rights, and those rights come with responsibilities. And again, yes, corporations, individuals, criminal gangs, they can all have their assets seized at various times and under various conditions. I'm not sure which part of that you think is news to me.
- hedvig 8y agoSimply huh? Or a good majority of people share a belief in a mixed-market economy that includes sensible regulation on enterprise.
- jblow 8y agoThey used them to research, develop and build every piece of technology you used to post this snarky comment ... ??
- mikeyouse 8y agoNah, all this R&D and CapEx is pretax.
- awinder 8y agoThey’ve also used taxpayer giveaways to fund stock buybacks which really don’t have any effect on products they’re pushing to market. I don’t think anyone is really arguing that corporations don’t provide value, but there is a very valid to what effects tax policy have had (especially when govt makes these deals with certain envisioned effects, and without retrospecting to see if they did, we are bound to get into a place where money is poorly spent)
- AsyncAwait 8y agoThat was actually the DoD, but no surprise you don't know that.
- crunchlibrarian 8y agoNot really, they used them to buy back shares while simultaneously expanding equity compensation plans for executives. There is very little corporate investment going on anymore despite many companies being awash in new cash.
- infinite8s 8y agoReally? I'm pretty sure the internet wasn't researched and developed by corporations.
- pteredactyl 8y agoYea, Bell Labs had nothing to do with the internet.
- 8y ago
- tomcam 8y agoOn workers. Record unemployment, including for underserved minorities.
- ace_of_spades 8y agoIt‘s always really surprising and also really interesting how debates about „free“ markets and corporate taxes seem to get snarky and somewhat personal/emotional pretty quickly. For example, instead of having an open mind about possible solutions some ideas are dismissed outright under the premise that they haven‘t worked before, while it is pretty clear that such perceived bad outcomes (if they even exist objectively) have not been tied to anything fundamental wrong with the idea but with less than stellar execution. To make a long story short, I would be interested in a constructive fact/evidence based position how we should tackle things like disappearing jobs due to automation, decreasing wages for unskilled labor, etc. in the future? Do you really have evidence and reason to believe that something like a government doesn‘t have to play a role in this? Really curious to understand your perspective and how you come to it :)