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Microsoft Pushes For Public Education Funding While Avoiding State Taxes
theodp writes: After stressing how important the funding of Washington State education — particularly CS Ed — is to Microsoft, company general counsel Brad Smith encountered one of those awkward interview moments (audio at 28:25). GeekWire Radio: "So, would you ever consider ending that practice [ducking WA taxes by routing software licensing royalties through Nevada-based Microsoft Licensing, GP] in Nevada [to help improve WA education]?" Smith: "I think there are better ways for us to address the state's needs than that kind of step." Back in 2010, Smith, Steve Ballmer, and Microsoft Corporation joined forces to defeat Proposition I-1098, apparently deciding there were better ways to address the state's needs than a progressive income tax.
Everyone loves taxes when it is someone else paying them.
Unfortunately most business ethics as taught these days highlight the need to return value to the shareholders over most everything else
They like to highlight ideas like, "how would you feel if your grandmother saw this on the front page", or "think how the cost of criminal prosecution would hurt your company", while simultaneously propagandizing grandma to believe that being a tax cheat is like the Founders of the country, or subverting Congress to reduce the punishments associated with their crimes
If grandma is pleased that you are a tax cheat, and the fines for being one are negligible, there is no barrier in the current world of 'business ethics' to doing it
Wherever You Go, There You Are
"republican-controlled media" - good one.
MS is paying taxes in NV, where the licensing corp is located.
It is not right to say MS isn't paying taxes, it simply is avoiding Washigton State's higher tax rate. I bet if Washington state lowered it's tax rate to equal Nevada's MS would consider relocating MS licensing group back to Washington State... How about it Washington state, do you want the tax revenues or the talking point against MS?
Ken
Please show me at least one example of a society at any time in history that survived for any length of time without some form of taxation. I think you will have to go back to just about the hunter-gatherer days to find an example. You can leave the country and revoke your citizenship if you want (Yes, we should make this easier to do), but in the mean time I suggest you propose a viable alternative before going all anarchist on us.
And then Nevada lowers its tax rate to get it back, and then it's Washington's turn again, the end result being that Microsoft pays a nominal tax if any at all. And since that means other people and companies must pay more to make up the difference, their effective tax rate goes up, they do the same, and ultimately all tax burden gets concentrated on those too poor to move. But of course they can't pay, so the state must cut education, infrastructure maintenance, law enforcement, etc. And that, in turn, makes the state an even less attractive location for business.
It's simply another manifestation of the illness that's killing capitalism. But at least the process of decay is fascinating to watch, as pathological patterns become the norm and eat away the structure of society. Sooner or later it's frayed enough that some crisis launches the final domino effect of collapse.
Washington state wants to survive, just like any living thing. Unfortunately, being a cultural organism rather than biological one limits its options, since it must be careful not to discredit the very mythology that justifies its own existence. And in the US, the mythology of the nation has been tightly coupled with the mythology of capitalism. Untangling them or altering capitalism to less toxic form is a job for the prophetic archetype; Washington state can do little but play for time and hope one appears before it runs out.
Of course, the whole reason prophets are so rare is because you always run the risk of being one of those things found wanting and cast out, but at some point the prevalent mythology of the society has been exhausted of its possibilities so there's little choice except to get a new one or die.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
A lot of people in the US are out of toilet paper too. You probably just choose to ignore them....
Just more personal "personal responsibility" politics that complete ignore reality. Goody. Where do I begin?
Not everyone has the chops to make it through college. Their brains don't work that way. But there's nothing for you in life if you don't make it through anymore thank to outsourcing and a complete lack of protection for local industry. How do these guys whose brains _can't_ comprehend AP credits galore compete with a guy in China working 70 hours a week breathing carcinogens?
Then there's the parents. Half the country goes out of it's way to keep people from opting out of parenthood in any other way than abstinence. Try being lower income and getting birth control or a vasectomy in Alabama and let me know how that works out for you. But once again, "Personal Responsibility" politics to the rescue! Ignore the fact that sex is a basic human drive on par with eating/breathing. Ignore the fact that when you're dirt poor with no hope it's hard to say no to the few sources of joy you have in your life. It's so much easier to look down on the little hussies and the dead beat dads, ain't it? It absolves you from the moral implications of abandoning 70%+ of the populace to their (very miserable) fate.
Schools can fix a _lot_ if we let them. Schools can and should act as parents when parents _can't_ because our God damned society didn't equip the parent with the skills and resources needed to do so. This doesn't mean schools _replace_ the parent either. It means they support the parent. This is what it means to have a society and civilization and not "I got mine, f**k you".
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