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Criticism is not misplaced if you feel these companies are not being "good citizens", nor is it really acceptable to excuse it away as "companies are supposed t
by Klinky 7y ago
Criticism is not misplaced if you feel these companies are not being "good citizens", nor is it really acceptable to excuse it away as "companies are supposed to be greedy and game the system as much as possible", and the public "outage" over these companies moves the democratic process along.
Ireland was motivated to stimulate their economy with these tax policies, which allowed exploitation of these loopholes in the first place. Finally they are closing, but with ever increasing regulatory capture, new loopholes will likely be found.
- prpl 7y agoArguably governments are not being good citizens to tax payers by not having laws to prevent such arrangements.
- falcor84 7y agoArguably this a case of Tragedy of the Commons - with the Irish government doing what's good for its citizens, and the other governments not being strong enough at the time to police legislation of stricter tax laws for the greater good.
- yokaze 7y agoGovernments can only be as good as their citizens contributing to it. Those companies had a hand in forming those very laws. They could have acted differently without giving up a competitive advantage, by lobbying for better laws for everyone involved, but they didn't. Governments have to rely on external expert advice, and at its best, that is what lobbying is. Google and co gave bad advice and that's what I'll hold them responsible for.
- icebraining 7y agoNot really, the government knew exactly what it was doing. That's why they complained when the EU said that they had to receive billions from Apple - they want to receive less, so that they can compete against other governments.