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Currents
May 2016
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important as it is dry.
It's because the issues seem arcane that corporate
lobbyists get away with murder. The Oxfam report
says that each $1 the biggest companies spent on
lobbying was associated with $130 in tax breaks and
more than $4,000 in federal loans, loan guarantees
and bailouts.
And why would a humanitarian nonprofit like
Oxfam spend its time poring over offshore accounts
and tax dodges? “The global economic system is
becoming increasingly rigged” in ways that exacerbate inequality, laments Ray
Offenheiser, president of Oxfam
America.
One study found that tax
dodging by major corporations
costs the U.S. Treasury up to
$111 billion a year. By my math,
less than one-fifth of that annually
would be more than enough to
pay the additional costs of fullday prekindergarten for all 4year-olds in America ($15 billion),
prevent lead poisoning in tens of
thousands of children ($2 billion),
provide books and parent coaching for at-risk kids across the
country ($1 billion) and end family homelessness ($2 billion).
The Panama Papers should be
a wake-up call, shining a light on
dysfunctional tax codes around
the world - but much of the
problem has been staring us in
the face. Among the 500 corporations in the S.&P. 500-stock
index, 27 were both profitable in
2015 and paid no net income tax
globally, according to an analysis
by USA Today.
Those poor companies! Think
how the character of those
C.E.O.s must be corroding! And
imagine the plunging morale as
board members realize that they
are “takers” not “makers.”
American companies game the
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