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There's No Evidence Comcast's New 'Network Investment' Is Because of Net Neutrality Repeal or Tax Cuts (vice.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Comcast issued a statement last week claiming that the government's new tax plan and the end of net neutrality will directly result in a dramatic spike in Comcast's network investment and job creation plans. If you look at Comcast's capital investments over the past 12 months and calculate continued investment growth at current rates -- you'll find that Comcast was already on pace to spend more than $50 billion on investment over the next five years.
Journalists that could be bothered to take a closer look at Comcast's earnings discovered that the company's promise of $50 billion in investment over five years is something that would have occurred regardless of the net neutrality repeal or Comcast's shiny new tax cut. "In Q3 2017, the most recent quarter, Comcast's capital expenditures were $2.4 billion," noted Ars Technica's Jon Brodkin. "Continuing to spend at that rate, even if Comcast doesn't increase spending to account for inflation, would push Comcast to $9.6 billion a year or $48 billion over the next five years." Indeed; if you look at Comcast's capital investments over the past 12 months and calculate continued investment growth at current rates -- you'll find that Comcast was already on pace to spend more than $50 billion on investment over the next five years.
Journalists that could be bothered to take a closer look at Comcast's earnings discovered that the company's promise of $50 billion in investment over five years is something that would have occurred regardless of the net neutrality repeal or Comcast's shiny new tax cut. "In Q3 2017, the most recent quarter, Comcast's capital expenditures were $2.4 billion," noted Ars Technica's Jon Brodkin. "Continuing to spend at that rate, even if Comcast doesn't increase spending to account for inflation, would push Comcast to $9.6 billion a year or $48 billion over the next five years." Indeed; if you look at Comcast's capital investments over the past 12 months and calculate continued investment growth at current rates -- you'll find that Comcast was already on pace to spend more than $50 billion on investment over the next five years.
You have to pay for all that military spending somehow. Did you think the money grew on trees? It comes from taxes and deficit spending.
Large tax breaks to corporations generally equate to those companies spending between 10 and 20% of the initial take on employees wages and bonus's. This is already known. The larger portion goes to dividends for stock holders and the rest is company cash assets. The fact that Comcast is claiming that the investment they have already been making is now due to the end of net neutrality is absurd at any level. I can claim that I'll pay my electric bill for the rest of the year because of net neutrality, so what.
Yeah, Comcast is generally a lame company, but to say an official announcement by the decision maker about the reasons for a particular decision equals "no evidence" is quite a biased stretch,
No, it is not even a short stretch. Only a compleat idiot (look it up) would believe something because there was a press release about it. The rest of your comment is thus utterly invalidated by simple common sense, and not just that you shouldn't listen to anything said by anyone who just said something so blatantly false, but that the rest of it is predicated upon trusting the words of corporate PR flacks and officers. Lying to you is literally part of their jobs. Looks like it's working brilliantly on you.
If you read the press release, that's the part most specifically attributed to the tax cuts and the FCC rule change.
AT&T says the same thing, while cutting 2,000 jobs. I wonder how many jobs Comcast will cut? And I further wonder how many employees will actually get those bonuses. Comcast is literally known for not keeping their word.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
He doesn't have a brain at all. "If you want to compete we need to lower that [the corporate tax rate]." Is he saying American corporations aren't competitve???? The American corporation is doing VERY VERY WELL. The market has been going through the roof. Corporate income is at an all time high. The tax money is going to come from somewhere, because the "conservatives" are going to spend more and more. Where do you think the tax money is going to come from? Increased corporate profits? You better hope so, otherwise it is coming out of YOUR paycheck.
Large tax breaks to corporations generally equate to those companies spending between 10 and 20% of the initial take on employees wages and bonus's. This is already known.
[citation needed]
Correct, nowhere near 10-20% of large tax breaks goes to employees. Of the $300 billion companies saved from the 2004 Homeland Investment Act, about 92% of it went to shareholders in the form of share buybacks and dividends. The top 15 companies, who accounted for half of the repatriated money, cut 20,000 net jobs in the three years following the tax break.
But the remaining 8% didn't even all go to employees. I couldn't find exact figures, but some of that also went to capital purchases. At best you could say 5%-10% of large tax breaks go to employees, but even that is probably a bit high.
There is no honest debate on whether this tax bill will meaningfully boost the economy and help American workers. It won't. It will boost the stock market (or more likely already has) and create the illusion that the economy has improved, but that is about it.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke