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IBM, Other Multinationals "Detaching" From the US
theodp writes "If you're brilliant, work really hard, and earn a world-class doctorate from a US university, IBM has a job for you at one of its US research sites — as a 'complementary worker' (as this 1996 piece defined the then-emerging term). But be prepared to ship out to India or China after you've soaked up knowledge for 13 months as a 'long-term supplemental worker.' Newsweek sketches some of the bigger picture, reporting that IBM, HP, Accenture, and others are finding it profitable to detach from the United States (even patenting the process). 'IBM is one of the multinationals that propelled America to the apex of its power, and it is now emblematic of the process of creative destruction pushing America to a new, less dominant, and less comfortable position.'"
You might want to look at the effective corporate tax rate, since no actual corporations pay 39% with our loophole-riddled tax code of exceptions, credits, and deductions. The actual rate they pay is about 22%, the 2nd-lowest in the developed world (after Ireland).
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
This is what our factories have to compete with. Plants which poison children.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090820/ap_on_re_as/as_china_lead_poisoning
Laws that protect us from this kind of behavior add costs that push companies to these countries.
Democracy isn't cheap.
I hope the "we" you are talking about isn't the US. We actually have one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world.
Perhaps Google would have helped you a little.
You're right that the jobs aren't automatically American jobs but even if Obama is a "redistributionist you're still ignoring the original guy's point that this happened long before Obama came into office.
In fact a load of it happened under Bush. Are you telling me he's a "redistributionist" who scared off companies? In fact it's usually Republicans that allow companies to import people on H1-Bs and allow them to move work over seas with no negative effect. That is probably what makes companies move.
The fact is that when it comes down to it, neither Obama or Bush really make a difference. Foreign workers definitely don't do a better job (like wise their work isn't inferior). What it's all about is someone in Manila can be paid for a year on a couple months of my salary, they have no expectations of pensions, private health care, etc. They're just happy to have a good job.
My company employs over seas staff. I know what they're paid, what they get and it's quite obvious why my company uses them. The employment laws are more lax and they 6 people for 1 of me.
It's not fucking rocket science.
To be fair, Bush pissed off the whole world and destroyed the US budget. Both will take years to repair. No other US president can come close to that.
Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
In 2007, Exxon reported paying a 44% effective tax rate in their sec filings.
Goldman sax went bankrupt in 2008 didn't they? Remember the bank bailouts? Besides, they paid a 34% effective tax the previous year and attributed the lowered tax rate to the increase in permanent benefits as a percentage of lower earnings and changes in geographic earnings mix. This means that the their profits were paid out and the tax money didn't disapear, it will be paid by those people.
You entire 0% rate is fictional to any company that is solvent. It isn't because of loopholes and it isn't because the rates set down don't have any meaning. The rates have an effective disposition because they are higher then what they should be and the government lowers them for companies who do certain things they want them to do. It's like the mortgage interest deduction, if your making over a certain amount of money, you should be owning instead of renting in order to lower your tax burden. That's by design and accurately reflects the intended rates. What doesn't accurately reflect the intended rates, is you misunderstanding of the tax system and those who participate.
Quit your bitching.
You knew what they were up to when Watson was still in charge. He didn't rename the company "American Business Machines". The Nazi banks ran on equipment he sold them. The Nazi rockets were modeled mathematically on equipment he sold them.
The ethnic populations were CERTAINLY tabulated by the Nazis. On equipment he sold them.
Funny. I know Jews who won't ride in a Volkswagen, but make sure iBM is in their portfolio.
So, screw Godwin, and screw INTERNATIONAL Business Mahines.
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
We actually have one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world.
You're quoting KPMG and right wing propaganda machines as authoritative sources on corporate tax rates? Edwin Feulner runs the Heritage Foundation, one of the groups helping organize the "Tea-Birthers". One of his own favorite quotes:
"We conduct warfare in the battle of ideas."
Yes, they do. And those ideas are almost always promoting conservative policy items including corporate welfare. The tax rate is meaningless, the US is actually a corporate tax haven. Because of exceptions, credits, deductions, depreciation and amortization, plus a little lawful and unlawful income shifting, tax deferments and shelters, the effective rate paid by corporations in the US (13.4%) was below the average (16.1%) for the 19 OECD nations in 2000-05. So, sure, lower the tax rate and close off the deductions, then watch those very sources have a collective heart attack.
You'll believe anything if it's on Fox News.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
I can't help but wonder if people modded you flamebait because of the anger in your post or because they didn't think you were correct.
If the latter, then I'd like to point out to the people modding you that IBM was indeed the provider for the tracking software used at the concentration camps and labor camps of the Third Reich. The numbers tattooed on Jews weren't just decoration, they were tied to a punch card system IBM developed and maintained for the Third Reich. The numbers represented what "crime" you were arrested for (Jew, Gypsy, Homosexual, etc), your point of origin, and the camp you were assigned to. And this wasn't like a modern system where IBM can say they only sold it and didn't know its use. The systems which were used would've required constant on-site maintenance by IBM employees, which means there's no way they couldn't have seen what was being done to the prisoners held there. Additionally, contracts, internal memos, and other paperwork still exists showing that IBM's headquarters in the US was well aware of what was going, and what their equipment was being used for. They simply didn't care.
What do you mean by "knowing each other"? This homogeneous country myth has to stop, we are individuals, not a collective mind. Danish people are probably worse at networking than an American (who are more forced into the situation).
The security of the job market works either as a payment from the municipality or as a insurance (where the government pays for most of it, but you get a more decent monthly payment). The system hunts you down to get a new job as fast as possible (by you hating it so much to get away from useless courses and forced applications), or getting an education (either payed by the municipality or the educational state system). The companies on the other hand gets much more freedom (than other EU-countries that is) to fire and hire people as they please.
For a mixed economy, the system works pretty well, and this is probably why we haven't felt the recession yet (yes, we have had stimulus packages to banks and what not). But the price is that we pay over 50% personal taxes (+25% sales tax and "behavioral" taxation of almost every product available) with some subsidies (mainly interests; good for home owners and banks).
(yes this can be compared with sex)
Good god. In Iran-Contra, the Reagan administration facilitated the sale of arms to Iran in the hope of freeing hostages in Lebanon taken from 1982 onward, years after the Iranian hostage crisis.
So what history books have you been getting your information from?
I'm not sure why this is a troll, unless we've got some very unschooled libertarians moderating tonight.
Corporations owe their complete existence to the government and the people. A corporation is a legal entity created out of nothing by government action, and supported by the people. Benefits include tax breaks, jurisdictional freedom, limits on officer liability, access to publicly run and regulated markets (Wall Street), and so on.
Private companies, on the other hand, are not corporations, and do not owe a certain responsibility to the public.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
Too bad that's not stopping IBM from laying off Irish workers, too.
Progressivism: Parasites helping parasites to help themselves - to other people's stuff.
I gave it a read. It's well researched, but repetitive and sensational.
The system worked like this. One punchcard per person. Take the census data, find out a person's ethnicity, parent's ethnicity, religion, occupation, education etc. Now if you need to find the Jewish people, all you do is run a sort based on ethnicity. They were able to use the census data and the card sorters to find people with as little as 1/16 Jewish ancestry.
Now you have a stack of cards for each concentration camp. If you need a thousand people to build a railway, sort on profession, age, etc. Done. Distribute the cards to the guards and find people to find the prisioners with the right numbers tattooed on their armptis.
It's no surprise that the German subsidary did this work though. It was a German company. The surprise was how Watson was able to keep his hands in the cookie jar from over a wartime border.