Who You Talkin' To Willis!
By Jim Bauer
@porwest (92589)
United States
August 20, 2022 3:14pm CST
There is a funny thing that happens when a politician stands at the podium pounding fists about how the evil corporations don't pay their fair share of taxes.
People listen. People rejoice. People agree.
The politician gets lots of applause and wins votes for them telling those big corporations where they can go and what they should do...
But people miss something here. A very important thing is missed.
Not a single one of these companies not "paying their fair share" is breaking a single law. Not one. In fact, they are FOLLOWING the law to the letter.
The law, by the way, which the politician, the legislator, wrote and signed off on and passed. The tax law is their law. It's their rule. It's as they set it.
The corporations are just, actually, doing what they are told. And of course they (the corporations) scratch their heads a bit wondering why they are the bad guy?
"Hey," says big time CEO. "You told me this is what I have to pay based on this thing or that thing you put into the code."
In other words, if the politicians, if the legislators, pounding their fists at the podium want the corporations to pay more, it's up to them to change the law. Why are they mad at the companies for doing what they—the politicians—said they can?
When Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders—or anyone, democrat or republican—asks why a corporation is not paying enough, we should ask them,, "Hey Bernie, you've been in the Congress and Senate for 31 years, have you changed the law? Hey Liz, you've been in government since 2012, what have you done?"
This is not to single out these two democrats. But simply to, as I always do, ask questions that I think are important and keep things in perspective.
When Amazon was accused of paying zero taxes was that Amazon's fault? Was it Jeff Bezos' fault? Should Amazon have simply wrote a check to the IRS? "Hey. What amount shall I put in this box here?" The answer to all of that is NO. They followed the law. They adhered to the tax code.
As voters we need not hold the corporations responsible for paying more taxes if that's what we think they should do. We need to hold the politicians who write the laws responsible for not writing the right law to get that done.
7 people like this
7 responses
@RebeccasFarm (90474)
• Arvada, Colorado
20 Aug 22
Yes I so agree with this summary.
3 people like this
@porwest (92589)
• United States
20 Aug 22
I always try my best to keep things in perspective. THEY write the laws. Don't blame people for FOLLOWING the laws you write. For them it is all about political theater. The problem is the media agrees the problem is with the corporations, and the politicians get away with the narrative AND, because the democrats are the richest and more prominent business owners, they get to tell people they are on your side when all along they are writing laws that line their own pockets.
The party of the rich is the democrats. It is documented and proveable. The old rich guys are not republicans. They are democrats. They just have much better masks.
2 people like this
@RebeccasFarm (90474)
• Arvada, Colorado
21 Aug 22
@porwest How true that is Jim..you are excellent I tell you..masks is right.
3 people like this
@porwest (92589)
• United States
21 Aug 22
@RebeccasFarm Unfortunately far fewer people believe truth anymore. Kinda sad really.
2 people like this
@RasmaSandra (80748)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
21 Aug 22
I ma in total agreement with this and it always seems to be she said he said they said and in the end no one knows or can agree with who said what
2 people like this
@clrumfelt (5490)
• United States
28 Aug 22
For all the applause those kinds of emotionally laden speeches get, even if the large corporations are taxed more it will not decrease the amount of taxes the average American pays. What they are really saying is they want as much money from everyone as they can possibly get, corporations icluded.
1 person likes this
@porwest (92589)
• United States
29 Aug 22
You alluded to something I have been pointing out for years. And that is that a tax on a corporation is a tax on you and I, because corporations do not PAY taxes. They collect them and pay for them out of the profits they get from things they sell to us.
Many people have a hard time understanding that a tax is a cost of doing business as much as any other cost is, and ALL of those costs are passed on to you and I when we buy their stuff.
People often don't ever consider the contribution that corporations already make to the economy AND to the government either. For one, they offer wages which are taxed and there is a tax on every good and service they sell.
1 person likes this
@1creekgirl (41750)
• United States
20 Aug 22
A very insightful post, probably not something everyone has figured out.
2 people like this
@gtdoss (1013)
• United States
21 Aug 22
You do have quite a good point in this article. I think the people who are complaining about corporations not paying enough taxes are, in fact, looking for the powers that be in the corporations to just be more generous with the company's money, kind of a change of heart, so to speak. It would be great if people and corporations were just more naturally generous with their money and possessions, in my opinion, but I don't think they should be forced to be generous. That's a matter of the heart and what you actually have to give.
2 people like this
@porwest (92589)
• United States
26 Aug 22
The reality is that if anyone bothers to read a corporate balance sheet, what they find is that company's actually do not make as much money as people think they do. MOST of the money they make is paid out to workers and shareholders in reality. Many corporations also donate enormous amounts of money to charity. There is also not nearly as much money to pay people more as people think.
The BIGGEST generosity is creating the business itself which creates jobs for people to live and eat and have a roof over their heads.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (121715)
• Gainesville, Florida
21 Aug 22
Very well said. It's easy to pick on the "evil" corporations that are supposedly destroying America, when in fact they are what's making America great. They're paying their fair share of taxes under the current tax law, so we shouldn't say a word about them. And besides, we don't have a tax income problem in this country, the good ole USA is raking in plenty of tax money, we have a spending problem. That's also the politicians' faults. Let's just tax and spend, tax and spend. That's not the answer. They just want corporations to pay more so they can spend more.
