WAL-MART'S TAX AVOIDANCE SCHEMES HAVE MORE IN COMMON WITH PARISH SERFDOM THAN FREE MARKETS

Wal-Mart has about $76 billion stashed in a web of tax havens around the world. This has helped the company shave $3.5 billion off their U.S. tax bill over the past 6 years. Dumping corporate profits in countries that provide tax protection - which includes Luxembourg, often called the magical fairyland of Europe - is part of a larger system of tax havens used by corporate America. 

These global tax havens rob the United States of tax revenue, which blow holes in America's annual budget and adds to our growing national debt.

But wait, it gets worse.

To keep their heads above water, many of Wal-Mart's workers are also forced to seek public assistance because the company fails to pay their employees a living wage. To help keep Wal-Mart's employees alive and healthy cost you and me $6.2 billion a year.

This tells us that in many ways Wal-Mart's business model is more in tune with 17th century parish serfdom - where the parish was charged with providing public assistance to keep workers alive - instead of with the ideas that surround market capitalism.

The irony here is that many Europeans emigrated from Europe precisely because they wanted to escape the suffocating culture and environment nurtured by parish serfdom.

You can read about Wal-Mart's tax avoidance story at Bloomberg Business by clicking here.

- Mark

Addendum: Click here to learn from the Center for Effective Government how tax avoidance schemes are helping to undermine the future of our nation.