Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Apple: Mega-Profit, Curiously Modest Taxes

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Apple: Mega-Profit, Curiously Modest Taxes

Click here to access article by Kristina Chew from Care2.

Investors have made piles of money from Apple stocks, but governments that fund education, health, and welfare have not. Aren't austerity policies of the One Percent wonderful? Well, they are...for the One Percent.

Apple avoids paying billions of dollars in taxes to the US and other countries thanks to a number of legal strategies that include setting up subsidiaries far from its headquarters in Cupertino, California. According to the New York Times, Apple has set up offices in low-tax places like Ireland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the British Virgin Islands to reduce the amount of taxes it pays.