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Netflix Posted Biggest-Ever Profit in 2018 and Paid $0 in Income Taxes
151–160 of 512 posts
Re: Netflix Posted Biggest-Ever Profit in 2018 and Paid $0 in Income Taxes
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think your last point is precisely backwards. Total annual lobbying spending is just $3.7 billion a year, in a $19 trillion economy. It's a tiny amount of money compared to the stakes. If lobbying was so effective companies would spend way more money on it. It's also notable that you couldn't point to a specific tax law, like OP asked for. Lower taxes in general--nobody needs to lobby for that, there is a large con…
$3.7 billion a year is a lot. There aren't that many politicians to bribe.
>There aren't that many politicians to bribe.
I think this is really the crux of the issue.
If a CEO met with a politician and said "I've talked to all my CEO buddies and if you do XYZ we're all going to make substantial contributions to your campaign and PACs" that's clear-cut bribery and honest services fraud.
But if the same CEO hires a lobbyist to say the exact same thing to a politician suddenly it's "free speech" and we're expected to believe the government can't do anything to reign it in.
Re: Netflix Posted Biggest-Ever Profit in 2018 and Paid $0 in Income Taxes
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not that simple. Companies lobby to keep, even coerce, laws that benefit them and allow these sorts of things to happen. What is the common person, or collection of persons, supposed to do when they are against that kind of force? I believe one way is to actually be involved in politics and get into the seats that govern and make the laws. But it's easier said than done.
The answer is to outlaw lobbyists, it would fix a lot of problems. That, and enact term limits for Congress. That will fix even more.
The First Amendment protects the right to petition the government. Outlawing lobbying would require a significant campaign to amend the Constitution.
Re: Netflix Posted Biggest-Ever Profit in 2018 and Paid $0 in Income Taxes
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
The answer is to outlaw lobbyists, it would fix a lot of problems. That, and enact term limits for Congress. That will fix even more.
The world is a crazy complex place. Like them or not, lobbyists are useful for helping lawmakers understand the implications of laws, and eliminating lobbyists (setting aside the impracticality of such a task) and imposing term limits (thus reducing the level of institutional knowledge in Congress) would mean that lawmakers would often be flying completely blind.
There is of course a middle ground between no terms limits and super short term limits. The longest serving member of congress made it over 59 years - I think most everyone would agree that's excessive.
Re: Netflix Posted Biggest-Ever Profit in 2018 and Paid $0 in Income Taxes
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What is the common person, or collection of persons, supposed to do when they are against that kind of force? Vote. All sorts of interests lobby, all the time. These include consumer-focused interest groups, as well as corporations. But, at the end of the day, politicians gain (and keep) office based on the votes of their constituents. These politicians are (generally) not going to vote on bills that they think mig…
I suggest it's not as simple as just saying "vote" given the massive disparity in funding capabilities between the average citizen and the average Fortune 500 company. Money is powerful and greatly influences elections. Now due to media consolidation, Facebook, etc. it's also easy to manipulate at a grand scale. Politicians who vote the right way can guarantee very high paying jobs when they are out of office. It see…
> I suggest it's not as simple as just saying "vote" given the massive disparity in funding capabilities between the average citizen and the average Fortune 500 company. Money is powerful and greatly influences elections
You can find examples in almost any election of a heavily-funded initiative being defeated at the polls. Here in California, a recent example I can think of off the top of my head is the continual defeat of policies and politicians backed by charter school advocates, including in the Nov. 2018 election.
> It seems to me that democracy has been hijacked in the U.S.
Elected officials in the U.S. are in their positions because voters put them there. Unless you're claiming that substantial election fraud took place, you can't claim that democracy isn't working just because it didn't produce the result that you agree with.
Re: Netflix Posted Biggest-Ever Profit in 2018 and Paid $0 in Income Taxes
#156Populist clickbait headline is clickbait. I'm sure Netflix paid tons in employer contributions to employee income taxes, social security taxes, etc. They probably paid a bunch in sales taxes where they made purchases. Property taxes for data centers, office buildings, etc. So there are many more taxes that everyone pays beyond the income tax. As others have pointed out, the tax code is immensely complex, but you prob…
>Populist
I love that this word has been resurging around the internet.
Finally people are calling out popular nonsense. I can only hope we can start labeling politicians populists, so statements like "Mexico will pay for the wall", are laughed out of the election.
Re: Netflix Posted Biggest-Ever Profit in 2018 and Paid $0 in Income Taxes
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not that simple. Companies lobby to keep, even coerce, laws that benefit them and allow these sorts of things to happen. What is the common person, or collection of persons, supposed to do when they are against that kind of force? I believe one way is to actually be involved in politics and get into the seats that govern and make the laws. But it's easier said than done.
If you look at the histories of many politicians, you see them making honest efforts to represent their people... in the beginning of their careers. A major problem is that there's so much money in campaigns that in order to get enough money to compete, a politician must make deals with donors. Often these donors are small groups of high wealth individuals or industries. Now the politician is effectively in the pocke…
When you spend most of you working day and a lot of your personal time mingling with high worth individual, it is only a matter of time before you lose sight of what is their interest and your people interest. Also those high worth individual are not bad person or repulsive. I'm sure a lot have good intention but are too sheltered. They can become your circle of friend and there is no way back from there.
There is also the plain political game. You can't make a political career alone, you need allies, people that trust you and support you within the party, above and under. Over the years, you get stuck in a network of dependencies that ties your hands.
And there is the sad reality that no single decision is going to improve anything. You need continuous and consistent effort in one direction for years. So even if you are aware of all that I listed above, the truth is that you can't go fully lose cannon and actually achieve anything lasting.
Re: Netflix Posted Biggest-Ever Profit in 2018 and Paid $0 in Income Taxes
#158Rather than being outraged at the headline, what are the actual details? Why were they able to pay no taxes? Was it due to carried losses or something like that? Anyone mad at a company for not pay taxes is misdirecting their anger. Companies follow the law. If you don't like the law elect different politicians. Don't get mad at companies that follow the law.
>Companies follow the law. If you don't like the law elect different politicians. Don't get mad at companies that follow the law. If a company is dumping waste into a lake and it is not against the law to do so, it is then wrong to get mad at the company? What if this is the behavior of all companies in the area? They all need to dump waste in the lake in order to remain competitive. Is it wrong to become outraged at…
Well, “wrong” is subjective, but it’s certainly pointless to get mad at such a company.
Companies are amoral, and they are emergent behavior that is a product of a particular political, economic, and cultural situation.
It’s a bit like getting outraged at a tree for falling on your house.
Re: Netflix Posted Biggest-Ever Profit in 2018 and Paid $0 in Income Taxes
#159Populist clickbait headline is clickbait. I'm sure Netflix paid tons in employer contributions to employee income taxes, social security taxes, etc. They probably paid a bunch in sales taxes where they made purchases. Property taxes for data centers, office buildings, etc. So there are many more taxes that everyone pays beyond the income tax. As others have pointed out, the tax code is immensely complex, but you prob…
>Populist I love that this word has been resurging around the internet. Finally people are calling out popular nonsense. I can only hope we can start labeling politicians populists, so statements like "Mexico will pay for the wall", are laughed out of the election.
That statement was widely labeled populist at the time.
Re: Netflix Posted Biggest-Ever Profit in 2018 and Paid $0 in Income Taxes
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not siding one way or the other, that will definitely limit the amount of expertise that comes with a Congressman/Congresswoman. Think about it, it takes at least six months for us to learn our jobs, they have to learn about hundreds of things ongoing in the government before they can make informed decisions. You then even rely more on lobbyists (or "experts") who at least generally know what they are talking about.…
> that will definitely limit the amount of expertise that comes with a Congressman/Congresswoman. The expertise they have is in glad-handing, personally enriching themselves, and playing political games. They're certainly not subject matter experts in anything outside that realm. Term limits don't have to mean that we're losing out on this valuable "expertise", it could be something as simple as "retire at 65", you k…
==They're certainly not subject matter experts in anything outside that realm.==
Except many of them clearly are. Bill Foster worked as a particle physicist at Fermilab for 22 years [1]. Sean Casten started and sold an energy recycling company called Recycled Energy Development [2]. Those are two examples just from suburban Chicago. Try not to let political cynicism cloud reality.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Foster_(politician) [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Casten