The Union of Soviet Socialist Multinationals
Amazon, the e-commerce giant
helmed by the world’s richest man, paid no federal taxes on profit of $11.2
billion last year, according to an analysis of the company’s corporate filings by
the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a progressive think
tank.
Thanks
to a variety of tax credits and a significant tax break available on pay handed
out in the form of company stock, Amazon actually received a federal tax rebate
of $129 million last year, giving it an effective federal tax rate of roughly
-1 percent.
It is the second year in a row
the company has enjoyed a negative federal tax rate on a multibillion dollar
profit. That would place the company’s effective federal tax rate below the
rate paid by the poorest 20 percent of American households, which had an
effective federal tax rate of 1.5 percent in 2015, according to the Tax Policy Center.
By J.M. Hamilton (2-23-2019)
The City of New York received a three billion dollar – Valentines’ Day – gift card from Amazon, when the company announced it would
not accept the city’s welfare, and would not be setting up an alternative headquarters w/in the city’s
boroughs.
It’s just the latest example of the corporate relo welfare
that has run amuck w/in these United States.
Relo welfare is characterized, whereby local muni and state politicians,
throughout the country, bid against one another in the hopes of bringing in an
ever-shrinking pool of well paying jobs to their hometown. The prizes for the multinationals are often free tax
breaks, possibly land, infrastructural improvement, and preferential treatment
by the local establishment; the prizes for politicians maybe an assortment of campaign
contributions, endorsements, PAC money, political advertising, perhaps philanthropic contributions to foundations - used for political purposes, and possibly, dark money.
During that same Valentines’ week, another news story broke, reporting that Amazon made $11.2 billion in profits, and would be paying no
taxes on any of it… and in fact, due to a rigged tax code, would actually be
receiving money, or a tax rebate, back from the government.
And politicians - allegedly the nation’s leaders - wonder why
all the well paying jobs are drying up, and the country is bust w/ national
debt at 22 trillion dollars and counting.
Tax cuts for the rich (aka billionaires &
multinationals); the plutocracy’s capture of federal & state governments; the
political class’ abdication of the responsibility to regulate markets, and
protect consumers, citizens & labor from the ravages of cartel, monopoly, & monopsony powers; the billions gifted to Wall Street banks, shadow banking, and
multinationals daily, via the Federal Reserve… all have left politicians, of the weaker mindset,
w/ limited leverage, and little recourse, but to throw additional welfare at
multi-billionaire dollar organizations in the hopes of bringing in jobs.
Otherwise, an angry multinational might pick up their toys,
like Amazon did, and run to a less meddlesome locale.
There are a handful of politicians, of the stronger mindset, however, who actually give a damn, and care about ordinary Americans. Senator Sanders was exceptionally successful in launching a populist campaign that caused Mr. Bezos to raise Amazon’s minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour.
This, in lieu of Amazon engaging in another form of corporate welfare,
practiced daily w/in the US, where multi-billion dollar corporations pay
their employees a nonliving wage, and let the taxpayer foot the bill for the
balance necessary to keep those underpaid workers alive. This is nothing less than a direct subsidy to
the multinational’s bottom line.
And perhaps, all this entered into Amazon’s calculus, when it
abandoned NY. The world's richest man - going through a
messy divorce, w/ alleged “dick pics” at the National Enquirer; lambasted by Senator Sanders over minimum wages & government subsidies; and a nasty
battle brewing w/in the country’s greatest metro area, NYC, over corporate relo
welfare….
No wonder Amazon bailed.
Mr. Trump and the GOP are said to be salivating about tarring
the 2020 Democratic nominee as a socialist. However, the true welfare queens (a
trope exploited at its apogee, by candidate Reagan) are US multinationals, who
never miss a trick w/in our rigged system to profit, by stealing from the
government & the taxpayer. Despite all the Ayn Randian chest-thumping about rugged individualism, with monopolies, always remember, what is theirs is theirs - unless there are losses, and then, they are socialized - and what is yours is theirs, too. The government exploitation
angles are too numerous to count. That’s why they hire, McKinsey & Co.
Google, another multi-billion dollar tech behemoth, also plays the relo game. Google comes to
cities, states, and towns – w/
agreements of sworn secrecy (like Amazon, there can be no transparency), and
wearing the mask of some derivative LLC or made up corporate name – seeking welfare and tax subsidies, too. Except Google is really quite shrewd. In that, taking a page directly from the
military industrial complex’ playbook, Google is spreading themselves around
the country and throughout the globe's nations. Per the WashingtonPost, Google now has a geographic footprint that includes seventy offices
worldwide, including “15 data centers on three continents.” Alphabet Inc. (aka Google) knows that if they can
provide a sprinkling of jobs to as many states as possible - spread the wealth,
so to speak - fewer politicians will have the courage, or temerity, to
challenge Google on: privacy; the plundering of personal data; its monopoly; and
a tech industry/company that has jumped into bed w/ the Deep State and the MIC,
itself.
Meanwhile, the disenfranchised, the poor, the middle class,
mothers and children… are told to enjoy a nice steaming bowl of austerity,
because the government has maxed out the country’s credit line on the true
welfare queens: US multinationals, Wall Street banks, and MIC contractors.
Socialism & welfare for billionaires & multinationals, and austerity
& bootstraps for our children and the poor: no wonder the US birthrate – in certain states, particularly among Trump voters – is lower than the death rate. Meanwhile, relo welfare rarely, if ever, pays
the purported dividends/results back to the muni or state, in terms of increased
jobs or an expanded tax stream (just ask Wisconsin’s former governor, Walker, about Foxconn).
Союз Советских Социалистических
Транснациональных Корпораций
JMH has written extensively about holding corporate
leadership accountable for our crony economy & government. But perhaps, simultaneously, it’s time to
hold our owned politicians accountable as well.
As there are clawback provisions written into some C-Suite
contracts - whereby in the event of accounting irregularities, or fraud, the offending
executive forfeits bonus and pay - perhaps it's time to have similar provisions w/in politician pay? (Note, the proposed
politician clawbacks are not a substitute for campaign finance reform, term limits, nor caps on the duration of the campaign season, and a whole host of
other democratic & lobbying reforms.)
What better way to restore the public trust in Congress, and
state and local legislative bodies & counsels? Start with written accountability,
performance, and transparency standards, deduct 20 to 25% of the political
class’ pay and campaign contributions, and hold it in escrow for ten
years. At the end of ten years, if
there’s no accountability, performance, or transparency violations, said
politician receives the pay/campaign contributions that were set aside ten years
prior. Otherwise, if there’s a deviant
malfunction, or some other sordid scandal, then said contributions/pay becomes
forfeit, and the taxpayer’s property (or perhaps a victims fund is financed from forfeit pay).
Some might argue this is civil forfeiture in reverse (which SCOTUS took a hammer to just this week); but if a law has been broken, or fraud
committed, then arguably, due process has occurred.
In short, if we are going to clean up our basket case of a democracy,
and the crony –economy, we need to hold both camps responsible: not only our elected politicians, but the
billionaire, C-Suite & multinational class, as well.
It seems that when it comes to doing backroom deals, the Union
of Soviet Socialist Multinationals, and our elected politicians, just can’t
help themselves, enough.
Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2019
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