Exposing Tech's Competitive Advantage: Uber, Tech's Tax Shelter For The Millionaire Class [View all]

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

Last edited Fri Jan 29, 2016, 12:26 PM - Edit history (1)

If you think Uber is anything but a legalized money laundering shell for its millionaire and billionaire investors, you should read up on how they avoid paying taxes.

Does tech really have a "competitive" advantage? Companies like Amazon and Uber have not only hastened the destruction of the middle class, but they've done so while, or because of, receiving government subsidies. The new brand Libertarian Democrats prosper in markets marked by distorted competition, creating an uneven playing field, and giving them a tremendous advantage over companies already in the marketplace. A misguided 1992 NDSC ruled that internet purchases were not subject to sales tax. Amazon received this subsidy for the next two decades while decimating livelihoods. It wasn't until 2015 that the subsidy was ended. By then, however, it didn't matter. Brick and mortar businesses were long gone. Venture capitalist and early investor in Amazon, Nick Hanauer, says he made millions off his investment, but Amazon didn't create jobs, it destroyed 1 million jobs.

Uber is the latest tech "big thing" thriving not because it's "technology," but because of the extraordinary corporate welfare it receives thus creating a distortion of competition in every economy it enters. Heavyweight investors, including Chicago mayor Emanuel's brother, Jeff Bezos, Goldman Sachs, and Microsoft, have the clout and deep pockets to maintain the uneven playing field over an industry in which cab drivers could once earn a middle class living. Unlike the 1992 internet sales law, Uber is the beneficiary of unsettled law. That could change in June 2016. A ruling against Uber will cripple the company that's little more than a tax shelter for its investors. Will a ruling against Uber be appealed for years? Likely. Will full-time, middle class workers survive a market place inundated with unregulated, 1099 part-timers before the law is settled. TBD. Corporate welfare more than anything drives tech companies, and they are job killing tax havens for the millionaire and billionaire class.

I thought we opposed welfare for billionaires.










http://fortune.com/2015/10/22/uber-tax-shell/

So why pick on Uber when this is standard operating procedure? Unlike, say Google, Uber has virtually no employees relative to its size. Since Uber is privately held, all data the public receives is filtered through its CEO. As a result, analysts refer to Uber data as "magical numbers." But according to its CEO, in 2014, when already valued at $40 billion, Uber had 550 full-time employees.

https://www.quora.com/How-many-employees-does-Uber-have-How-fast-is-that-number-growing




http://www.chicagonow.com/kelly-truth-squad/2015/10/thanks-rahm-property-tax-hike-uber-rules-will-soak-chicagoans-for-millions/

http://www.chicagonow.com/kelly-truth-squad/2015/10/angry-about-rahm-550-million-property-tax-hike-heres-an-uber-proposal/

http://www.chicagonow.com/kelly-truth-squad/2014/07/the-chicago-way-why-bruce-rauner-and-rahm-emanuel-are-really-helping-uber/