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Showing posts with label Sacred Corporations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sacred Corporations. Show all posts

Saturday, July 06, 2013

Thursday, June 02, 2011

Sobering Statistics

"40 percent of the people in this country doesn't even pay taxes!!!!"

We here that quite a bit from people that regularly go into anaphylactic shock regarding taxes. I wonder if they know about this..

How Our Largest Corporations Made $170 Billion During Great Recession And Paid No Taxes

Twelve of the nations largest Fortune 500 companies, while making $170 billion in profits during the period of The Great Recession, paid an effective tax rate of negative 1.5%.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Not only have these twelve companies paid zero in taxes for the years 2008-2010, they actually received tax subsidies that added $62.4 billion to their bottom lines.

Perhaps I need to revise my view on corporate taxes.

The fact that our economy isn't really recovering make more sense now. It's not just the banks that are hoarding money and lending out very little. It's corporations like Exxon, Verizon, and Honeywell. And we wonder why our debt and deficit are so high. Anyone who has any significant amount of money isn't paying taxes.

Moreover, these numbers prove that the idea that companies will just "go offshore if we raise taxes" is sub moronic. They are paying no taxes and still going off shore.

I take comfort in the fact that Ungar is a kindred spirit.

Seriously, people, do we need an anvil to fall on our heads before we get it?

Even that won't work, Rick.

Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Wrong Adversary

I'm continually amazed that many folks on the right are still a feared of the gubmint. In their minds, we are getting closer every day to jack booted thugs coming to all our homes and seizing the fruits of our labors. Many think this is already happening (see: taxes). At least they are right about it already happening...and it isn't the government.

Banks Accused of Illegally Breaking Into Homes

The culprit, Ms. Ash soon learned, was not a burglar but her bank. According to a federal lawsuit filed in October by Ms. Ash, Bank of America had wrongfully foreclosed on her house and thrown out her belongings, without alerting Ms. Ash beforehand.

Huh. Would this be another example of a private corporation forcing their way into someone's home? Yes. Yes, it would.

In Texas, for example, Bank of America had the locks changed and the electricity shut off last year at Alan Schroit’s second home in Galveston, according to court papers. Mr. Schroit, who had paid off the house, had stored 75 pounds of salmon and halibut in his refrigerator and freezer, caught during a recent Alaskan fishing vacation.

“Lacking power, the freezer’s contents melted, spoiled and reeking melt water spread through the property and leaked through the flooring into joists and lower areas,” the lawsuit says. The case was settled for an undisclosed amount.


Bank of America had the locks changed? Not the government? Well, they must have used the government as a tool, right?

In Florida, contractors working for Chase Bank used a screwdriver to enter Debra Fischer’s house in Punta Gorda and helped themselves to a laptop, an iPod, a cordless drill, six bottles of wine and a frosty beer, left half-empty on the counter, according to assertions in a lawsuit filed in August. Ms. Fisher was facing foreclosure, but Chase had not yet obtained a court order, her lawyer says.

Nope. Contractors, huh. Where is the government in all of this? Oh yeah, I forgot. Neutered by the conservative movement in this country.

These would be (more) specific examples of a private corporation fucking people over, Not only did they seize Schroit's house but they ruined his food! Now, I'm not an expert but, in addition to food being required for nourishment, was the fish not the "fruit of his hard earned labor?"

Wrong adversary, Tea Partiers. Wrong adversary. But I suppose, in the end, it's OK, though because Bank of America has a lot of money. And we all know that if you have a lot of money, Jesus loves you more and you can do whatever you want.