Jeff Bezos Just Endorsed Corporate Tax Hikes. Here’s Why Amazon’s Support Should Be a Giant Red Flag
Democrats say their corporate tax hike would help the working class and hurt Big Business. But if that were true, giant corporations like Amazon wouldn’t be endorsing the change—and that’s exactly what Jeff Bezos just did.
It's easy to tell who new tax laws (or any laws for that matter) help the most by observing who is lobbying hardest for them. You hear stories all the time about how this or that big corporation paid practically nothing in taxes. Sometimes there is some truth to those claims and sometimes there is not. Raising the rates won't change that much. Companies like Amazon lobby for such laws because they are designed in a way in which Amazon can skirt the laws. Either because they can afford the lawyers to find the loopholes or because exceptions and exemptions exist tailored just for them (for all practical purposes anyway).
The best solution is to simply eliminate corporate taxes. Many countries considered to be more "progressive" don't even have them. They amount to double taxation since presumably the actual people making the money are already taxed via income or capital gains tax. But the most important reason (besides taxation is theft) is that these complicated tax laws hurt small businesses to the benefit of large corporations. While Amazon may be able to lobby for the exemptions they want or hire the best tax lawyers, small businesses don't have that luxury. This is one way that big corporations like Amazon are able to maintain price advantages over smaller companies.
This is the sort of thing those critical of capitalism often complain about. But this isn't capitalism (at least not the free market variety). This is corporatism whereby corporations are allowed to buy their own laws. Any government is inevitably corrupted and the larger the bureaucracy, the more corruption there will be. This is why a smaller more distributed government is necessary. It can't be said better than Thomas Paine:
"Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one."
That's probably his most famous quote but he had many other brilliant quotes about government and taxes that ring truer today than ever before. I'll leave you with one more good one:
"[W]e still feel the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping at the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised to furnish new pretenses for revenue and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without a tribute."
Ok, just one more, I swear:
"An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws."