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Will the Pope Declare Google Evil?
theodp writes "In the next few days, Pope Benedict XVI plans to issue his second encyclical, in which he is expected to denounce the use of tax havens as socially unjust and immoral in that they cheat the greater well-being of society. He is also expected to argue that the globalized economic world needs to be regulated. Prime technology companies playing the offshore 'profit laundering' game include Dell, Google, Microsoft, and Sun, who set up subsidiaries in Ireland, where the corporate tax rate is a low 12.5% and no taxes are charged on royalties (e.g. from patents)."
Why should tax havens be immoral? This is just healthy competition at work, where I can choose to set up and operate my business where costs are lowest. Most of the residents these "tax havens" are pretty well off, and more countries are adopting the philosophy and seeing success, so the policy must be working.
My rights don't need management.