Quote:
Originally Posted by MattW
You seriously believe that the tax laws, the various governments and Big Business aren't connected? Do you follow politics, like, at all?
Do you honestly believe that the thousands of lobbyits in Washington and Brussels are there for fun? Don't you think that they have influence over the decisions our politicians make?
Corporations lobby for and get the rules they want; and if they don't they threaten to take jobs overseas and no politician wants to antagonize them and take jobs away from their electorate.
It's simply not true that corporations are merely playing by the rules and if we don't like it, we could change the rules by electing different politicians. Take the US, for instance, this beacon of democracy: you can either vote Republican or Democrat (otherwise, your vote is basically meaningless on a national scale), and both have an absolutely atrocious track record of reigning in Big Business. The Republicans may be more aggressive in their pro business stance, but your chances of effecting meaningful change in the tax code (or the patent system) in the US as a voter are zero. [EDIT: I do not want to get into the whole Republicans vs. Democrats mess here; the situation that you as a voter have no real choice is true in many countries, albeit maybe not as extreme as in a two-party-system like the US]
That's just a fact.
As long as the system works they way it does -- as long as money plays as big a part in politics as it does now -- we're f*cked. We'll get one step closer to being able to effect real change onc we realise that corporations are the driving force behind most pro-business laws.
So, damn yes, we should blame the corporations. We can and should, of course, blame the politicians too, but the claim that Big Business (Amazon among them) just plays by the rules and didn't make those same rules is patently absurd.
Matt
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We are not talking about the US, we are talking about France. (Amazon did not make the rules in Europe). France is now the land of ultra-high taxes. Elections are won by promising higher taxes, last time it was a ridiculous 75%. Corporations can only lobby to minimize the damage. The solution is always, let us tax the "higher incomes" some more, never "let us try to reduce spending a little".
I would agree with you on the situation in the US.