Receiving interest after lending someone money is located precisely on Dante’s 7th level of hell. And I’m a devout athiest.
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Isn’t that how every bank in the world operates?
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Yes it is.
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Actually, not Islamic banks, no
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It sort of is… do you pay more than you’re required to in taxes?
Aren’t T-bills yielding about zero percent right now? So is Apple even getting anything, other than their money back?
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Cory, you misunderstand how the government’s money system works. The government does not need to tax in order to spend. Beardsley Ruml proved that in 1948.
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Is that the nominal tax rate, or the effective tax rate?
Not usually… not a fan of lending the gov’t money interest-free…
You’re off by about two orders of magnitude. One cubic foot of platinum weights 1330 lb (603 kg), and world output of platinum in 2010 alone was 192,000 kg, or about ~320 cubic feet, and that was a lower year than previous years.
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I agree completely, if the government cared they’d change the tax law. Apple is simply doing it’s duty as a publicly traded corporation
Thank for the correction. I’m not doubting you, but where can I learn more? I’m interested in obscure facts.
Never mind, found something…
Maybe if Apple, et al, paid some fucking taxes, then the govt wouldn’t have to sell Apple so many bonds which Apple can buy with the money it didn’t pay by defaulting on its side of the social contract?
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Well, then, maybe the “party of fiscal responsibility” will see fit to address the massive loopholes that allow corporations (or, indeed, very wealthy individuals) to dodge taxes.
Seems likely, no?
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Well, I disagree with this. The idea that publicly traded companies exist only to maximize shareholder value was created to hide the reason why we allow corporations to exist at all. Corporations are supposed to be incorporated for a specific purpose. At some point someone said, “Hey, shouldn’t private profit be reason enough?” and it basically is now, but corporations pre-date the idea that corporations are just there to make the shareholders money by a long way.
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It is legal. Yup. And why is it legal? Well, because these same companies have paid lobbyists to pay politicians to vote on the laws written by the lawyers those companies hire.
As you know, legal doesn’t mean right. It was once legal to own people but we frown upon that sort of thing these days. What we have here is a moment in time whereby something that is legal is frowned upon by enough people that we begin to discuss the matter in forums such as these.
Back to the over-heavy sledge hammer of the slavery comparison, those discussing why this tax avoidance needs to end are playing the same role of those who thought slavery was immoral. They are those who see an injustice and are speaking out in the hope that things might change. Meanwhile you have decided to play the roll of the person who says “it’s legal so what’s wrong with that”. People such as yourself are in the roll of those who defended slavery as a legal and often used tool of prosperity. History showed us what was wrong with slavery and those who supported it are still derided to this day. The same will likely happen to those who excuse defrauding the working people of this country via legalized tax evasion. The question you have to ask yourself is if you are fighting the fight you would be proud to tell your children about.
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Even the man who came up with that idea, Milton Friedman, has come out against it calling it a mistake.
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It’s the perversity of it - they’re literally taking money that should have been paid in taxes and using it to help create a situation where the US government now owes them money instead. (While the act itself is probably a form of money laundering, essentially.)
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Yes, this 1000%. Treasury bills pay less than inflation. By buying Treasuries, Apple is effectively returning the money to the American economy. Not as good as paying taxes, but better for the US than if they invested the money overseas.
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I’m not sure where you got that opinion, because that’s not what I said. Go ahead and re-read my post, but I specifically didn’t comment on the morality of it. I don’t think your personal attack on me is warranted when you do not know where I stand on this. And, for the record, if you knew, you might be surprised.
