Double Indemnity The embryonic

Double Indemnity

The embryonic wave of activism is in part a response to the Tea Partys focus on budget cutting, which has led to proposals for drastic cuts in states and nationally, cuts which are seen as primarily impacting working people. The massive protests in the Midwest against moves to eliminate collective bargaining have been one response. Uncut wants to shift the budget focus to the billions of corporate taxes that go uncollected because of various deductions. According to a Forbes list, Bank of America, for example, with a provision for credit losses of 49 billion, probably wont be paying taxes for a long time. Companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron pay little or no income tax despite many billions of dollars in domestic sales. Thats in contrast to Wal-Mart, which paid nearly a third of its profit in taxes in 2009, the kind of percentage a working family would be familiar with. Different business models account for these disparities, and the issues are complex. ExxonMobil, for example, does a high volume of business in countries with extremely high tax rates, so it pays a lot of income tax just not to the treasury. Still, when working people see their teachers and firemen being laid off while corporations rack up huge profits yet appear to pay almost nothing into the system, its no wonder hackles are raised, whether outside a State House in the Midwest or in a bank branch in New York City. Jon Sobel is Co-Executive Editor of Blogcritics. As a writer he contributes most often to the Culture section, where he often reviews NYC theater; he also writes a semi-regular review round-up of independent music releases. If these corporations are underpaying their taxes by taking legal deductions, US Uncuts beef is with Congress, not the corporations. Anyone, individual or corporation, who doesnt take every deduction legally available to them is mismanaging their money. I very much wonder if the enemy here can be identified well enough to be affected by such protests. Taking aim strictly at corporations Double Indemnity the dynamic by which politicians pretty much just do the bidding of their corporate funders. US Uncuts beef is with Congress, not the corporations. Unless, of course, the congressmembers are bought and paid for by the corporations. Wouldnt the officers of a corp be remiss and unresponsive to their shareholders if they didnt use every opportunity to bribe congressmembers? There is a very high ROI on political bribery, better than RD budgets, better than employee education, and even better than executive bonus plans! After all, SCOTUS has proclaimed bribery is free speech Double Indemnity thus immune to government control. Unless, of course, the congressmembers are bought and paid for by the corporations. The beef is still with the congresscritters; they werent elected to be on the take. If your congressman is taking bribes from corporations hes certainly not representing you; on the other hand, if her refuses the bribe, hes probably not in office. Actually, the beef is with the corporations that put their money in offshore accounts called tax havens in order to make it appear that they lost money. Make the tax havens go away and enforce honest income pay your taxes. MW Yes! Problem: if laws need to be changed to eliminate these tax havens, it has to be Congress that changes them. And Congress is in the pockets of the companies that use the tax havens. Only a very large upwelling of popular dissent can be a stronger influence on the politicians than corporate backing. Can union-inspired protests US Uncut coalesce into such an uprising? Time will tell.