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Surprised other countries aren't calling this out as an attack on their sovereignty. Co-operation frameworks seem to become governance bodies pretty fast. The p
by motohagiography 5y ago
Surprised other countries aren't calling this out as an attack on their sovereignty. Co-operation frameworks seem to become governance bodies pretty fast. The problem isn't that these companies aren't taxed enough, the problem is their influence operations on various national governments, and this tax issue is a distraction.
What I think we're seeing more broadly is the dissolution of the nation state into a single global administrative regime, and the inevitable consequence from a risk perspective is when you homogenize and correlate everyone under the same rules and criteria, it also fails as a single correlated entity, and this is why people and smaller countries should resist it in principle.
- jasondigitized 5y agoBermuda is an island of 65k people in the middle of the Atlantic with 40k registered companies. Claiming sovereignty to take registration fees from multinationals that want to obfuscate their financials is just absurd. This is just blatant financial shenanigans: https://www.gov.bm/38865/google-bermuda-limited-thomas-hutchinson-38865 https://www.gov.bm/38865/google-bermuda-limited-thomas-hutch... https://www.gov.bm/18571/general-electric-bermuda-ltd-marcello-ausenda-18571-0 https://www.gov.bm/18571/general-electric-bermuda-ltd-marcel... https://www.gov.bm/30983/caterpillar-bermuda-holding-company-paul-james-housey-30983 https://www.gov.bm/30983/caterpillar-bermuda-holding-company...
- yunohn 5y agoA globalized economy needs globalized cooperation and governance. The current situation is not feasible.
- cblconfederate 5y agoEconomies have been globalized since ancient times
- yunohn 5y agoThere has never existed accounting methods for corporations to funnel taxes via cherry-picked countries, until the modern globalized economy. Do provide some sources or examples?
- Zuider 5y agoWhy is this a bad thing?
- yunohn 5y agoI’ve mentioned an easy example of why this is bad in my other comment - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27405841 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27405841
- krastanov 5y agoExtracting value from one nation/people and not paying taxes to support the public services of that nation/people is "not pulling your weight". Your corporate entity is involved in the life of these people so it should pay for their growth. That is more of an axiom for me.
- atatatat 5y agoSure, colonies.
- yunohn 5y agoYou mean to say colonizers paid tax to the colonized country? Is this a joke?
- cblconfederate 5y agoThere were always concessions and deals with kings and empires for monopolies, free trade and exclusions from taxation. There are myriads of examples from the age of empires. E.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars
- 5y ago
- ryanmentor 5y agoIf we don't find a way to unify Terra for Terrans, how will we ever be ready to join The Federation?
- cblconfederate 5y agoWhat if i don't want to join?
- ryanmentor 5y agoYou have to choose where to draw the line for yourself. Today, what do you do if you don't want to join society? More broadly, what DO you want?
- cblconfederate 5y ago> what DO you want? The freedom to do whatever i want. Societies don't really provide freedoms, they exist to curb them. Technology on the other hand is empowering individuals
- krastanov 5y agoI get that many people share your point of view, but I really do not understand it. Could you elaborate on it? Why would someone not want to join a post scarcity society where the only limits on your freedom is to not hurt other creatures and nature as a whole. A global government is necessary for that, in my mind mainly in order to fund blue sky research, respond to crises, and ensure monopolies are busted.
- cblconfederate 5y agoBecause it doesn't allow people to leave it. This is the recipe that gets you communism / nazism / all kinds of single-minded societies. Do people forget that millions died for the freedom from such regimes?
- 5y ago
- gumby 5y ago> Surprised other countries aren't calling this out as an attack on their sovereignty. That is called out early in the article: that issue has blocked progress* on this issue until now but the financial impact of the pandemic (greater calls on governments as “insurers of last resort” and greater profits at the top of the power law distribution) plus changes in governments has created a different environment. * “progress” in the sense of forward motion; not using the word in any political sense.