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Seriously, what's up with politicians recently, both in Europe and here in the States, hammering at successful companies for trying to minimize their tax liabil

• svenkatesh 13y ago
  I agree with you about simplifying the tax code, but do not agree about reducing the tax-liability. Since these corporations benefit from society just like private individuals do, they should contribute to society (in the form of taxes) in kind.
  • pvnick 13y ago
    Why not reduce the tax liability as well for people like you and me then? It would be one thing if governments could be trusted to spend the money wisely, but so far as I've seen (other than obvious exceptions such as emergency services and libraries) that's rarely the case.
    • svenkatesh 13y ago
      I don't disagree with you. I'm in favor of the tax-code placing an equal burden on everyone. I am against only corporations getting a free-pass though.
  • dpatru 13y ago
    Government is a parasite on society. Corporations and other private enterprises are what create good societies through mutually advantageous exchanges. In contrast, governments extract wealth by force or the printing of money (fraud) and use it to pay for things that no private person or corporation would pay for (war, prisons, bureaucracy, fat pensions, welfare for people who could work but don't want to, etc.)
    • figbucket 13y ago
      nonsense. Consider for a second all of the technology that corporations use in their products that were originally funded by government research projects like the internet(arpanet), world wide web (And others). If government didn't have the scale to take on such projects a lot of these corporations wouldn't exist and a lack of research like those often government funded would just reinforce the status quo.
      • dpatru 13y ago
        The assumption you're making is that if government hadn't funded network research, then all of the engineers who worked on the Internet would have been hoeing turnips in the fields. As if only the government can create technology, and that without a government bureaucrat to direct research, we all would still be communicating via smoke signals. The fact is, that if government hadn't been employing these engineers to create war technologies, our technology would probably be much more advanced and the world would have less war and be a much better place. Whenever government employs people to do something, it necessarily keeps them from doing something else. This is well explained in chapter 4 of Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson (http://steshaw.org/economics-in-one-lesson/chap04p1.html http://steshaw.org/economics-in-one-lesson/chap04p1.html) in taking the example of government spending for a bridge: "The bridge exists. It is, let us suppose, a beautiful and not an ugly bridge. It has come into being through the magic of government spending. Where would it have been if the obstructionists and the reactionaries had had their way? There would have been no bridge. The country would have been just that much poorer. Here again the government spenders have the better of the argument with all those who cannot see beyond the immediate range of their physical eyes. They can see the bridge. But if they have taught themselves to look for indirect as well as direct consequences they can once more see in the eye of imagination the possibilities that have never been allowed to come into existence. They can see the unbuilt homes, the unmade cars and washing machines, the unmade dresses and coats, perhaps the ungrown and unsold foodstuffs. To see these uncreated things requires a kind of imagination that not many people have. We can think of these nonexistent objects once, perhaps, but we cannot keep them before our minds as we can the bridge that we pass every working day. What has happened is merely that one thing has been created instead of others.
  • ams6110 13y ago
    Corporations are organizations of private individuals (either employees or shareholders), all of whom already pay taxes.