OK, let's start with this: Corporations are the only reason taxes are so complex and skewed that only corporations and a few of America's ubber rich can take advantage of the tax havens, hidden exemptions, write-offs, and write-downs that you and I can't access.
Corporate lobbyists who secure tax gifts through favorable legislation have generated a real profit center for corporate America and the top 1 percent of wage earners. The fact that America's middle-class can't access these legal tax gifts and off-shore tax havens is a slap in the face to the American family and every worker.
These legislative gifts have not only shifted the burden of paying taxes to the middle class - while transferring more wealth to the ubber rich - but it's also created a unique wealth creating culture built around tax avoidance (hate the state, and let someone else pay), white collar crime (can you say 'ponzi scheme'?), and wealth extraction (hidden fees, front-loaded interest rates, bailouts, the commodification of debt, etc).
Corporate loopholes that allow a select few to avoid paying taxes have drained the public treasury, and go a long way to explain why local, state, and federal agencies are cash-strapped. More specifically, loopholes and legislative tax favors go a long way to explain why corporate taxes as both a percentage of federal revenue (what we take in) and GDP (what we produce) has collapsed since the 1950s ...
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The fact that public services have been cut back while the rich have gotten richer during this period should not be a surprise to anyone ... and America's on-going race to the bottom continues.
Next up: Explaining Our Race to the Bottom ... How Our Shadow Banking System Helps Undermine Financial Stability.
- Mark
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