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I'm reading a book on the rise of corporate global power and came across some amazing statistics - the kind you read and think that if the country at large knew about it, there would be riots in the streets. But there won't be because the people that need to read this information don't.
In the US, 10 billion dollars a year is lost to corporate tax evasion. That's 10 billion dollars a year that the average middle/lower class American people have to make up so that US corporations and multi-nationals don't have to pay their fair share of taxes - so that these entities can continue to lie to us - tell us how bad the economy is, lay us off work, et cetera.
How do they do they get away with the ole "the economy is bad, we need to lay off people, cut benefits, retirement, and basically ruin people's lives" crap?
In the 1990's corporations were reporting record insane earnings that had no basis in reality. By the beginning of 2002 they then claimed profits had dropped dramatically. For instance, to use a company that isn't Enron, Exxon, Qwest, et cetera, GM reported a 73% loss in profit. It wasn't real - they were never making the earnings they claimed in the 90's - and in 2001, they were still bringing in a profit of 800 million dollars. That's not 800 million total, folks. That's 800 million after you deduct all the costs it takes to run GM. And all the major corporations are doing this. It's not just GM.
To top all that off, IRS tax audit of big business have gone done by 25% while tax audits of people making less than $25,000 have gone up by 13%. That's because someone has to pick up the slack for all that lost revenue and there are more of us than them.
They need more of us, by the way. They're seeing to it that there will be even more of us:
White House Wages Stealth War on Condoms
We need a Dickens for our times. This crap is all right out of Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby and Great Expectations - Read Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, we're right back to the horrors of the industrial revolution. Where are our social reformers these days?
I go to bed angry and I wake up angry. What wrong with us? Why aren't we storming the Capital, the Whitehouse? Too French revolution for us?
This situation is only going to get worse. Do we have to wait till there is absolutely nothing to lose before we start acting?
Work cited:
Allison, Bill, Charles Lewis & the Center for Public Integrity. The Cheating of America. Harper Collins, 2001. Pgs 11-13, 15, 79, 82-83.
Anderson, Sarah, John Cavanagh. Top 200: The Rise of Corporate Global Power. Decemeber, 2000.
In the US, 10 billion dollars a year is lost to corporate tax evasion. That's 10 billion dollars a year that the average middle/lower class American people have to make up so that US corporations and multi-nationals don't have to pay their fair share of taxes - so that these entities can continue to lie to us - tell us how bad the economy is, lay us off work, et cetera.
How do they do they get away with the ole "the economy is bad, we need to lay off people, cut benefits, retirement, and basically ruin people's lives" crap?
In the 1990's corporations were reporting record insane earnings that had no basis in reality. By the beginning of 2002 they then claimed profits had dropped dramatically. For instance, to use a company that isn't Enron, Exxon, Qwest, et cetera, GM reported a 73% loss in profit. It wasn't real - they were never making the earnings they claimed in the 90's - and in 2001, they were still bringing in a profit of 800 million dollars. That's not 800 million total, folks. That's 800 million after you deduct all the costs it takes to run GM. And all the major corporations are doing this. It's not just GM.
To top all that off, IRS tax audit of big business have gone done by 25% while tax audits of people making less than $25,000 have gone up by 13%. That's because someone has to pick up the slack for all that lost revenue and there are more of us than them.
They need more of us, by the way. They're seeing to it that there will be even more of us:
White House Wages Stealth War on Condoms
We need a Dickens for our times. This crap is all right out of Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby and Great Expectations - Read Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, we're right back to the horrors of the industrial revolution. Where are our social reformers these days?
I go to bed angry and I wake up angry. What wrong with us? Why aren't we storming the Capital, the Whitehouse? Too French revolution for us?
This situation is only going to get worse. Do we have to wait till there is absolutely nothing to lose before we start acting?
Work cited:
Allison, Bill, Charles Lewis & the Center for Public Integrity. The Cheating of America. Harper Collins, 2001. Pgs 11-13, 15, 79, 82-83.
Anderson, Sarah, John Cavanagh. Top 200: The Rise of Corporate Global Power. Decemeber, 2000.
