6. Corporate Maker-Takers
If corporations are people, too many of the current crop are whiny, tiny-minded, titan “maker-takers.” Make no mistake, I'm not against corporations: Many are decent, well run, respectable, responsible, constructive contributors, providing products and services we depend on every day. But as you’ll see, it’s a $160 billion error not to call out and hold to account those that behave badly by seeking to exploit the public purse—as well as politicians who fail the Founders’ defined duty to protect the taxpayer dollars that are “the public good.”
The logic of Milton Friedman's famous phrase “There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” which has been so effectively deployed against public programs, can be turned around and applied to titan “takers.” There’s no such thing as a free infrastructure either. Every dollar a private business makes depends on publicly funded institutions and infrastructure, which has to be paid for somehow.
Some corporate titans are happy to be maker-takers on a free-lunch infrastructure. A recent analysis found that 30 of the largest, most profitable corporations in the country often pay no federal taxes at all. They increase their profits by avoiding contributing to the infrastructure their businesses depend on. They can find ways to avoid it. But many of the rest of us can’t. Every dollar they don’t pay is another dollar others have to provide. Or that has to be borrowed. Scheming to get out of paying taxes is an act of tiny-minded free riding by corporate titans. General Electric is a prominent member of the moochers club, despite the fact that its CEO, Jeffrey Immelt, is the leader of President Obama’s economic advisory team on job creation. Clearly it’s not just Mitt Romney who’s a corporate coddler.
But it gets worse: Some of the largest corporations in the country receive payments from the taxes others pay. ExxonMobil, despite being one of the most profitable companies in the history of capitalism, is one of these titan “takers.” When efforts are made to get such companies off welfare, their lobbyists complain and reel off their rationalizations. While the majority “of the people” struggle economically, these corporations—whiny, tiny-minded titan maker-takers—continue to pick the public pocket. The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service reported that in 2011 these corporate entitlement programs cost the public good $160 billion in total “tax expenditures.”
These corporate welfare “takers” use the same justification Governor Romney employs in justifying the low percentage of his income he pays in personal taxes. They say they pay what's legally required. What that really means is that they have lobbied to create lax tax laws that grant them special treatment, and allow them to contribute less to, or take money from, their country, and from every taxpayer in America. This may be technically legal, but it's far from ethical. And it’s far from sustainable. It fails the logic of the golden rule, and of Kant's first test of any viable ethical system. Both boil down to the question, What would happen if everybody did the same? If everybody found a way to create a legal fig leaf that allowed them to evade most or all of their taxes or rationalized why they should receive payments from the public purse? It takes no special smarts to figure out that this weakens the country. And it fails the Founders’ defined constitutional duty to “promote the general welfare.”
Let me repeat, many corporations do their best to be productive, and essentially good, but even they must see the errors of their nastier non–burden-sharing brethren. We’ve long paid too much attention to the fruits of success. It's time we focused on the roots and on paying for everything that keeps the soil that nourishes those roots in good shape. As the old saying goes, there’s a time to sow and a time to reap. It’s time we told every titan, no sow, no reap.
The logic of Milton Friedman's famous phrase “There’s no such thing as a free lunch,” which has been so effectively deployed against public programs, can be turned around and applied to titan “takers.” There’s no such thing as a free infrastructure either. Every dollar a private business makes depends on publicly funded institutions and infrastructure, which has to be paid for somehow.
Some corporate titans are happy to be maker-takers on a free-lunch infrastructure. A recent analysis found that 30 of the largest, most profitable corporations in the country often pay no federal taxes at all. They increase their profits by avoiding contributing to the infrastructure their businesses depend on. They can find ways to avoid it. But many of the rest of us can’t. Every dollar they don’t pay is another dollar others have to provide. Or that has to be borrowed. Scheming to get out of paying taxes is an act of tiny-minded free riding by corporate titans. General Electric is a prominent member of the moochers club, despite the fact that its CEO, Jeffrey Immelt, is the leader of President Obama’s economic advisory team on job creation. Clearly it’s not just Mitt Romney who’s a corporate coddler.
But it gets worse: Some of the largest corporations in the country receive payments from the taxes others pay. ExxonMobil, despite being one of the most profitable companies in the history of capitalism, is one of these titan “takers.” When efforts are made to get such companies off welfare, their lobbyists complain and reel off their rationalizations. While the majority “of the people” struggle economically, these corporations—whiny, tiny-minded titan maker-takers—continue to pick the public pocket. The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service reported that in 2011 these corporate entitlement programs cost the public good $160 billion in total “tax expenditures.”
These corporate welfare “takers” use the same justification Governor Romney employs in justifying the low percentage of his income he pays in personal taxes. They say they pay what's legally required. What that really means is that they have lobbied to create lax tax laws that grant them special treatment, and allow them to contribute less to, or take money from, their country, and from every taxpayer in America. This may be technically legal, but it's far from ethical. And it’s far from sustainable. It fails the logic of the golden rule, and of Kant's first test of any viable ethical system. Both boil down to the question, What would happen if everybody did the same? If everybody found a way to create a legal fig leaf that allowed them to evade most or all of their taxes or rationalized why they should receive payments from the public purse? It takes no special smarts to figure out that this weakens the country. And it fails the Founders’ defined constitutional duty to “promote the general welfare.”
Let me repeat, many corporations do their best to be productive, and essentially good, but even they must see the errors of their nastier non–burden-sharing brethren. We’ve long paid too much attention to the fruits of success. It's time we focused on the roots and on paying for everything that keeps the soil that nourishes those roots in good shape. As the old saying goes, there’s a time to sow and a time to reap. It’s time we told every titan, no sow, no reap.