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There is some truth to that line of thought. Either it is legal to avoid taxes, then no distinction should be made. Or it is illegal, in which they should be p
by kleiba 7y ago
There is some truth to that line of thought.
Either it is legal to avoid taxes, then no distinction should be made. Or it is illegal, in which they should be persecuted.
But making this distinction as a means to "punish" certain companies seems to conflate two unrelated issues.
- klyrs 7y agoBailouts are a reward. Not getting a reward is not a punishment. If you buy a lottery ticket and win, your neighbor was not punished for not buying a ticket.
- oconnor663 7y agoThe point I'm trying to drive at is that bailouts are not a reward. If they were a reward, we wouldn't wait until emergencies to issue them. Rather, they're an emergency response, and in that sense they should really be optimized for effectively addressing the emergency, regardless of what feels fair.
- snovv_crash 7y agoIt's not that. The issue is that companies have figured out that ups and downs happen, so if they sail close enough to the wind they capture the upside while their limited liability and bailouts protect them from the downside. Privatize profit, socialize risk. The people they are placing that risk onto are not obliged to accept it.
- int_19h 7y agoJust like there aren't enough masks and ventilators to go around for the patients, there's also not enough money to bail everybody out. Hence, triage.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- kleiba 7y agoThat's just semantics. Whether you see it as a reward for some or a punishment for others is besides the point. The argument is about companies getting treated unequally with no just cause.
- klyrs 7y agoTo spoonerize a colonial slogan, No representation without taxation. Is there just cause to use tax money to help companies who have not paid taxes? Is that fair to the companies who put their money in that pot, to have it doled out to those who didn't? Should companies be treated equally, when they don't behave equally? Because I'm unconvinced that countries owe tax-dodgers a dime. I think that their employees, being taxpayers, should have a safety net in case their employers neither pay taxes nor save for a rainy day. Let this be a lesson to the executives and let their ventures fail.
- ivalm 7y agoBailouts are there to create incentives for the future. In the future companies know they can save money by going to tax haven but potentially not get a bailout.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]