Robert Reich:Why should Apple have access to consumers if it refuses to pay its fair share of taxes? [View all]

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Why should Apple have access to consumers if it refuses to pay its fair share of taxes?
By Robert Reich, The Observer
Sunday, May 26, 2013 0:24 EDT

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A Senate report criticises Apple for shifting billions of dollars in profits into Irish affiliates where its tax rate is less than 2%, yet a growing chorus of senators and representatives call for lower corporate taxes in order to make the US more competitive. The American public wants to close tax loopholes and shelters used by the wealthy to avoid paying taxes, yet the loopholes and shelters remain in place.

These apparent contradictions are rooted in the same reality: global capital, in the form of multinational corporations as well as very wealthy individuals, is gaining enormous bargaining power over nation states.

Global companies are not interested in raising living standards in a particular country or improving any nation’s competitiveness. Their singular goal is to maximise returns to their investors. “We don’t have an obligation to solve America’s problems,” said an Apple executive last year. “Our only obligation is making the best product possible” (he might have added “in order to make as much money as possible”). Likewise, the wealth of rich individuals flows all over the world in search of the highest returns and lowest taxes.

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Not only does money move immediately to wherever it can summon the highest return and be subject to the least tax, but jobs can be dispatched almost as quickly to wherever workers get the lowest wages for the most output.

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more:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/26/why-should-apple-have-access-to-consumers-if-it-refuses-to-pay-its-fair-share-of-taxes/