From The Washington Post editorial page.
“That Apple and others behaved legally does not mean that they behaved beneficially, from society’s point of view. As subcommittee chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) pointed out, the net effect of Apple’s tax avoidance is to raise the tax burden on everyone else. Yes, Apple pays $6 billion per year in federal taxes, and that’s a lot of money — but not commensurate with its heft in the U.S. economy. The billions Apple and other firms hoard overseas are billions not working to create jobs here.” (Full editorial here.)
Really? Are we to conclude that, in the view of The Post, Apple is in business for the benefit of society? And, Apple’s shareholders should pay more taxes to reduce the burden of other taxes on ‘everyone else”? Mr. Donald Graham (chairman of The Washington Post Company) What is ‘commensurate with [Apple's] heft’ and may we see your tax return, sir? If, in your view sir, Apple’s purpose in business is to ‘create jobs’ one could wonder: How many excess employees does The Post carry on its payroll for the sake of ‘job creation’ and how many are on payroll to perform some task that contributes to the company’s delivery its [shoddy] newspaper to its readers?
When The Post and the government have brought profitable corporations (excluding, of course, mass media corporations that do Senator Levin’s PR work for him) to their knees (metaphorically speaking) you can be assured that John Q Public is next - no metaphor, HIS KNEES ARE REAL, and the all-powerful state/media axis will expect him to bow down on command, even if he’s not a Tea Party supporter.
If they have no qualms about harassing a successful corporation – remember, corporations are owned by real humans (not big-wigs and robots, not fictional Thurston Howell IIIs) even working stiffs who invest their retirement plans in stock indexes and the like – why would they stop once they’ve gotten the corporations “in line”?
These people are ignorant and evil. First they vilify money-making and the people who create wealth with innovation that results in products that millions of customers willingly purchase, products they willingly possess in exchange for $699.99. Then, in the next breath, they insist that those evil, good-for-nothing, vilified corporate monsters ‘support society’ with some undisclosed, unknowable portion of the $699.99. That’s an extreme version of “biting the hand that feeds you!”
At some point, the strike will happen, and the next Steve Jobs will be preemptively stomped upon and will crawl under the table and wait for the scraps the government lets fall off of the table. The only limit these people know is ‘what can I get away with today?’ Are you going to stop them or will you bow down? Are you going to crawl under the table, too?