An article in the Washington Post, May 3 by Jia Ling Yang provides an excellent analysis of how U.S. corporations use a myriad of tax loop holes and accounting schemes to significantly lower their tax rates. The article points out that most of the 30 companies listed on the Dow Jones industrial average have seen a dramatic decrease in their tax contributions, even as their profitability has risen to all-time highs.
General Electric paid zero taxes in 2010 and, actually, benefited from a tax credit of $3.2 billion. G.E. and Pfizer are reported to have stockpiled $187 billion in untaxed overseas profits during the past year. The corporations of America are being allowed to avoid paying hundreds of billions in taxes because neither the U.S. Congress nor a succession of U.S. presidents have addressed the monumental need to overhaul the nation's tax code. Perhaps the two of them should allow the corporations to rewrite the tax code as they wish; after all we have often heard that corporate lobbyists regularly create the very legislation that is designed to regulate their business activities.
It's becoming more and more obvious that Corporate America is calling the shots and dictating the direction that this country takes. And they are doing a lousy job of it. Corporations are at the center of America's greatest problems and here is why. Corporate America has ravaged the American workforce, forced many millions of its members onto the rolls of the unemployed; their purchasing power has been greatly diluted, millions have lost their homes to foreclosure, millions more have to rely on food stamps, more Americans have fallen below the poverty line, and life in America has become a massive struggle for these once productive members of this society.
What all this manipulation and corporate scheming is doing is carving the heart out of America; its financial foundations and its economy. The Corporatists know, deep within themselves, that they largely responsible for the fact that this economy is bleeding to death because of their policies and actions; but like a drug addict, they have no intention of giving up their addiction and obsession with greater and greater profits; their motto seems to be; live for today and to hell with tomorrow.
By now we all know that one of the most important foundations of this nation, small businesses, including the neighborhood and the mom and pop stores fell victim to and were wiped out by the lightning-like spread of giant corporate retail chains, with Wal-Mart being the most powerful. That was chapter one in the weakening of the economy. Chapter two was the disintegration of the American workforce. Now we are waiting with great trepidation for chapter three to be opened to see what other foundations of this nation Corporatism will destroy.
Corporatism has a hold on America that will be almost impossible to break. Not only do the Corporatists own and control the U.S. Congress and many elements of the government, they also control many millions of Americans who work for them. I know from personal experience what this is like since I once was a part of the corporate world; and, while I objected to many things that were happening all around me, including outsourcing of manufacturing, I had no real power or influence to do anything about it.
Just think of the many Americans who work for the most powerful banks and financial organizations most of which I would venture to say are ethical and have integrity. But to keep their jobs many of them have no choice and are forced to succumb to the demands of the corporations to bend, break or otherwise find a way to get around governmental regulations and laws. As just one example, just think about all the many Americans who, either willingly or by being forced, became a part of the financial sector's schemes and manipulations that led to the housing crash and recession that began in 2008.
These Corporatists have an agenda that is diametrically opposed to the new directions that this nation desperately needs to be taking. Do they want to stop the wars and the spread of the military empire? Absolutely not! Do they want to be a part of the need to address climate change and what it's doing to this planet? No! Do they want to be at the forefront of developing new sources of energy? Certainly not. They are not the least bit interested in doing the many things that would greatly strengthen this nation; they are only interested in those things that strengthen their bottom lines.
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