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Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever

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191–200 of 373 posts

Re: Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever

#191

One have to remember why this was setup in the way it is, to protect the company forever. In Sweden during the 70-ties 80-ties the Social democrats was pushing a radical socialist agenda ('löntagarfonder') to take over companies by taxing profits and then buying shares with it, all controlled by trade unions. Result of these policies was that many companies left Sweden to protect itself (of course). IKEA, Tetra Pak a…

This sounds so obviously stupid I wonder why nobody stopped and said "You know, we might just make all these companies leave with stuff as ridiculous as this."

Re: Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever

#193

One have to remember why this was setup in the way it is, to protect the company forever. In Sweden during the 70-ties 80-ties the Social democrats was pushing a radical socialist agenda ('löntagarfonder') to take over companies by taxing profits and then buying shares with it, all controlled by trade unions. Result of these policies was that many companies left Sweden to protect itself (of course). IKEA, Tetra Pak a…

As a Norwegian I keep getting surprised by things I learn about Sweden. Sweden seems to have been a lot more socialist than Norway. In some respect might still be.

The housing system in Sweden sound more socialist than what we got in Norway today, judging from how a Swedish friend has explained it to me.

However welfare benefits seems more generous in Norway. How sick people are dealt with in Sweden seems harsher. No pay the first days out of work, and maximum days sick decided by the government for different ailments etc.

Re: Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever

#195
post #170
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see a ton of imprecision in technical discussions here daily, and that's a topic on which one would expect some expertise here. And yet the pedantry that receives is far less annoying than the inevitable tax avoidance cliche-rants. Why? Because there the pedantry is at least topical. Here, it is arguing language in order to grind an axe on a side issue almost completely unrelated to the Ikea founder.

Natural language philosophy constitutes legitimate dialectics, not pedantry. In the former you add precision by first synthesizing an agreement of terminology and introducing relevant definitions. In the latter you argue against the meaning of a word instead of the intended meaning of the argument. In point of fact, it’s pedantic to dismiss an argument from legality on the grounds that it’s “legal” and not “ethical”,…

This is not a philosophy seminar, you're not engaging in normal conversational norm setting at this point, and this game was boring in high school. Have fun, but you'll have to have it with someone else.

Re: Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever

#196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A related problem is that international stage is a market by itself. Nations compete for the business of large corporations. Which leads to creation of ridiculous tax exemptions and loopholes.

Countries can't have it both ways. You can't hate legal avoidance, while at the same time trying to steal tax revenue from your neighbour with similar tax incentives.

They can, and they do.

Nothing in nature forces countries to be ethically consistent.

Re: Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever

#197

One have to remember why this was setup in the way it is, to protect the company forever. In Sweden during the 70-ties 80-ties the Social democrats was pushing a radical socialist agenda ('löntagarfonder') to take over companies by taxing profits and then buying shares with it, all controlled by trade unions. Result of these policies was that many companies left Sweden to protect itself (of course). IKEA, Tetra Pak a…

This sounds so obviously stupid I wonder why nobody stopped and said "You know, we might just make all these companies leave with stuff as ridiculous as this."

In many socialist points of view companies do not provide value, they are viewed as rent seekers. Value = {Raw Resources} + {Labor} + {Tools used by labor}. Companies own the tools, and take a margin of value. If labor owned the tools they could remove that margin. This sounds like the world view used to design that policy.

Re: Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever

#198

One have to remember why this was setup in the way it is, to protect the company forever. In Sweden during the 70-ties 80-ties the Social democrats was pushing a radical socialist agenda ('löntagarfonder') to take over companies by taxing profits and then buying shares with it, all controlled by trade unions. Result of these policies was that many companies left Sweden to protect itself (of course). IKEA, Tetra Pak a…

This sounds so obviously stupid I wonder why nobody stopped and said "You know, we might just make all these companies leave with stuff as ridiculous as this."

That's not a mindset any true socialist/communist politician operate with. Good of economy, long term economical prosperity whatnot. More like how to tax rich till they leave, blame them for all the failures of politicians and central planning inefficiencies and so on.

Re: Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever

#199

> The foundation owns itself, so no Kamprad family members hold shares. Late stage capitalism... Anyway, I don't really get why the article claims he didn't care about money. It's known for a while that IKEA avoids taxes in many dodgy ways. If he really didn't care, the connected companies could pay a reasonable amount.

You cannot make sense of Ingvar Kamprad and IKEA without taking a moment to look at how Scandinavian culture is very different from American culture. First, we should talk about the infamous "Jantelagen": > The Law of Jante is the description of a pattern of group behaviour towards individuals within Nordic countries that negatively portrays and criticises individual success and achievement as unworthy and inappropri…

As a Norwegian who has lived in the Netherlands for 3 years, I'd say there is many similar traits there. The dutch are known as traders and business men but don't seem particularly concerned with opulence. The attitude towards public display of wealth seems very similar to the Scandinavian view.

The richest man in Norway Olav Thon, has very similar behavior to Kamprad. He drives an old car, doesn't wear particularly fancy clothes. For him it seems more about the game. He loves the game of doing business and winning. It is not what you can do with money personally that matters.

Younger Scandinavian billionaires seem more into spending their money though. The American lifestyle and values are definitely spreading.

Re: Ikea founder leaves fortune to no one, structures it to ensure it lasts forever

#200
post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that the laws are the rules, the rules are publicly published, and everyone has access to them. If McDonald's is selling a 10 piece McNuggets for $1.49, and a 20 piece for $4.99, then buying 2 x 10 piece McNuggets for $2.98 is a loophole around paying $4.99. If you find it immoral, so be it, but it doesn't change that you're paying more for McNuggets than McDonald's requires you to pay.

I don't find that to be an apt analogy. Tax avoidance is more like abusing coupons. Someone else is effectively paying your share, but the company can't shut it down because customer would complain or it could hurt the business overall. Eventually the business is forced to raise prices and everyone deal with coupons just to get a decent deal.

Why isn't just getting rid of coupons a viable option?
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