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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.'"
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.
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.