UNPATRIOTIC US CORPORATIONS Becoming Hot Political Issue That Unites Right and Left

[KoKo]

(Who can Disagree with this? Or, does it become ignore the content and attack the Messenger?)
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Unpatriotic US Corporations Becoming Hot Political Issue That Unites Right and Left
by Ralph Nader

(Photo: flickr / cc / Ryan Ozawa)CEO Greg Wasson of the giant Walgreen drugstore chain may be thinking of other things than patriotism this 4th of July. He confirmed last month that, to save on taxes, he and his Board of Directors may be renouncing the company's U.S. citizenship and moving its incorporation to Switzerland or some nearby tax haven.

Were Mr. Wasson to quit America, where the company rose to great profits and where it receives one quarter of its annual $72 billion in sales from Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements, he would be grossly underestimating the reaction of many Americans.

Following intentions by corporate welfare kings Pfizer and Medtronic to quit their native country to get further tax escapes, Walgreen is unique in that it has 8000 pharmacies -- convenience stores well situated for citizen picketing.

Imagine the signs:

"Walgreen Goes For the Green Instead of the Red, White and Blue."

Or "Walgreen: Where's Your Patriotism?"

Or "Walgreen: Pay Your Fair Share of Taxes and Stay Loyal to the U.S.A."

Or "Walgreen: American Taxpayers Fund Your Sales But Not If You Abandon America."

"The average person who pays taxes cannot take advantage of the tax loopholes exploited by corporations and they don't think it's fair," says Professor Klaus Weber at Northwestern University's Kellog School of Management. Nell Geiser, associate director of Change to Win Retail Initiatives, declared that "Walgreen should show its commitment to our communities and our country by staying an American company." While Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who has filed legislation to make it harder to move overseas to cut taxes, bluntly asserted that he is "troubled by American corporations that are willing to give up on this country and move their headquarters for a tax break." Durbin must be upset to challenge one of the biggest corporations in his own state of Illinois.

Nonetheless, Mr. Wasson seems unperturbed by the coming uproar and damage to his 103 year old corporate brand name. He still says the company is "looking at everything" that could reduce their effective tax rate. Analysts estimate Walgreen saving $4 billion in taxes over five years.

I wonder if Mr. Wasson is ready for the public reaction implicit in Senator Carl Levin's (D-Mich.) recent statement: "Average taxpayers are fed up with profitable U.S. corporations using tax haven gimmicks to dodge their tax obligation, while still benefitting from this country's laws, infrastructure and workforce."

The senator could easily have added more grist for the "fed-up" mill. These include U.S. companies shipping jobs and whole industries, encouraged by our tax laws, to fascist and communist regimes abroad that know how to keep their workers in their serfdom. Or very profitable drug companies, lathered with U.S. tax credits and U.S. taxpayer-funded research and development of new drugs, still going to China and India to make 80 percent of the ingredients in medicines that Americans buy so as to make even more profits and avoid tougher safety regulations here.

Mr. Wasson will be taking many considerations before making a decision for his company's nearly $80 billion in annual sales. Let's hope he does this before the public blowback starts adversely affecting the company's stock price. Over the years, it is amazing how oblivious to public opinion and mores these overly monetized CEOs can be. All these U.S. chartered, big corporations better get used to corporate unpatriotism becoming more and more a political electoral issue.

As the U.S. Supreme Court rules again and again that corporations (never mentioned in the Constitution) are "persons" under the Constitution and in federal statutes, it should not be surprising if real people start judging them by such human values as loyalty, reciprocity, gratitude and love of country.

The days when Big Business can have it both ways -- as an artificial, power-concentrating entity with special privileges and immunities, on the one hand, and all the constitutional human rights of real people on the other hand, are coming to an end. When the public sentiment changes and becomes politically and electorally operational, it won't matter what Chief Justice John Roberts and his band of four other corporatists think. For their decisions subordinating the sovereignty of the people to the domination of corporations will be consigned to the 'dustbins of history.'

The subject of unpatriotic corporate behavior, at huge cost to the people, is emerging as a left/right unifier.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/07/05-2

[littlemissmartypants]

1. Kicking. Thank you. nt

[Populist_Prole]

2. It really is a simple and effective message, isn't it?

Why is our side so loath to run with it? I know, I know; It's the influence of corporate money, but it's not like the message wouldn't resonate with the public and snowball into something nobody would want to be on the wrong side of. Then again, that might just be why the Third-Way doesn't want to let the genie out of the bottle.

[saidsimplesimon]

3. I fear you are correct. I hope we can change the direction. The Genie

is our friend, for the moment.

[RKP5637]

5. IMO because when it comes to big money, R=D=I! None want their gravy train

disrupted ... personal money or campaign money. And the majority of us, "we the people," have lost control of this country, hence, big money rules in USA, Inc. And the masses can't seem to get their act together to do squat about it ... I've often said, many people in the US have a lot more in common than they think, but they let political name tags and ideologies get in the way ... so, they end up propagandized to serve the 1%, falling for all of the propaganda.

[Populist_Prole]

6. Yes it's quite frustrating

I've often said, many people in the US have a lot more in common than they think, but they let political name tags and ideologies get in the way

I mean, to actually have it within our power ( numbers ) to prevail, or at least arrest the marginalization of the working class; only to let it fracture due to silly tribalistic behavior.

[BrotherIvan]

4. So many are apathetic until it affects them

Why should individuals pay taxes and not corporations or the rich? The repukes have done such a wonderful job of messaging and the Democrats have been sorely lacking. If a company moves to another country, then all its sales and imports into this country should have heavy tariffs.

[denbot]

7. Just confirmed with my wife, if they switch, we switch pharmacy's.

We like Walgreens over CVS, but we will go back if they offshore.

[Uncle Joe]

8. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, KoKo.

[msongs]

9. our corporate prostitutes in congress and the white house are fine with this, what's the prob? nt

[cantbeserious]

10. The Oligarchs, Corporations And Banks Own And Control The Politicians That Own And Control Us

eom

[zeemike]

11. That is what the movers and shakers of this country fear.

That we unite on one single issue, the one that keeps them in control of the political system.

Thus the steady stream of outrage created over anything at all...just so it makes you hate the other side so much you would not cooperate with the doctor to save your life if he were a righty...(he is just trying to kill me because he hates me as much as I hate him)

Radicals play both parts on this little drama...good guys and bad guys and you know who you are, and who to hate and who to love...and so we love our radicals and hate theirs...and because they are deceptive it gives us good reason not to trust them...and they feel the same whether there is reason or not.
And so our reason not to trust them becomes an important part of the drama...and it would make no difference one way or the other if the reason was founded in fact or not.

We have to learn how not to play that game...something difficult to learn until you get it.

[mother earth]

12. Exactly. We are united on this one subject & it is the one thing we can tackle, and the one

thing essential to our democracy. I just don't get why people aren't more focused on tackling this issue. As you know, zeemike, Cenk Uygur has made it pretty clear how to proceed on this. Why aren't we acting?

[Enthusiast]

18. +1

[mother earth]

23. :)

[zeemike]

19. Well I am doing what I can and I would bet you are too.

But far to many of us are caught up in the emotional drama they create for us to distract from what is the obvious solution...and Cenk Uygur has pointed out to us.

What we have to overcome is reacting to them pushing our buttons and distracting from the prize...and if we can overcome that we can actually effect change that we don't have to believe in because it is real.

[mother earth]

22. Well said...and I'm hoping VT & CA are the sparks igniting a firestorm.

[Enthusiast]

24. No doubt, it's the emotional drama that is artificially created.

There is an ugly outcome that they® are working toward. Who are they? They are the direct inheritance of the Nazi philosophy incarnate.

[zeemike]

26. I would not disagree with that at all.

Their actions speak for themselves.
It is hard for some to believe that there are people like that in the world...and yet we know there were and did many evil things...and they exist here as well as in Germany 70 or 80 years ago.
And they always seem to find their way into power.

[90-percent]

16. Chris Hedges has mentioned this

He said the PTB's were scared shitless of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Hence the militarized police unlawfully arresting them en masse for peaceful protesting and other forms of authoritrian persecution.

and there was a recent court ruling in NYC that the protesters did indeed get their civil rights violated. So the militarized police can still go la-de-dah and the NYC taxpayers pick up the tab for their unconstitutional over reach.

-90% Jimmy

[Enthusiast]

25. You're 100% on that.

[cascadiance]

20. Tea Party and progressive populists should both push to yank H-1B Visas from the immigration bill

This bill got pronounced dead when Cantor got voted down, but I think this is one area where populists on both sides could agree on that we should get rid of that perhaps might be a starting point to finding a bill that both sides can live with later, AND help get rid of the corporate cancer that both sides hate out of it! I noted this to my congresswoman yesterday at July 4th celebrations.

[conservaphobe]

13. 4th of July sales are not enough to prove to us you love MURICA...

Pay your fucking taxes, you corporate leeches.

[calimary]

14. And what about Hobby Lobby? Dealing with China to save a few bucks and foist

cheap-ass shit on consumers? Sticking it to American manufacturers who could provide those same things. SO WHAT if it costs a little more? That's merely a surface approach. If you look at the larger picture, it costs a little MORE. Because if you're buying from China, you're not buying American-made. So you're not reinforcing American companies and manufacturers and small businesses too. You're not supporting American workers and American jobs. So you wind up having more of your taxes (and yeah, Hobby Lobby, too) going to picking up the tab for coverage that more unemployed Americans need - from affordable insurance coverage to such life-supporting BASICS as freakin' FOOD. Okay???? In the long run it doesn't save you, me, or anybody else a single penny to buy and import cheap-ass shit from China.

[defacto7]

15. I stopped using main line corporate pharmacies years ago.

There are plenty of Mom and Pop pharmacies out there that need our support. I have no use or CVS, Walgreens or any other corporate pharm. Just do things locally and you help support people not corporations.

[Enthusiast]

17. Kicked and recommended a whole bunch.

What ever happened to the good corporate citizen?

Now they are just citizens—bad citizens that prefer to create jobs overseas.

[jwirr]

21. Corporations may be people but their stockholders should also be questioned on their patriotism.

[Initech]

27. We need an amendment overturning Citizens United now!!!

[KoKo]

28. Some are working on it....but, we know how that goes these days....

Will take a very long time and meanwhile the DAMAGE is being done that's hard to reverse it given the make up of the Supremes and the coming elections.

Would WISH, though that States could do it...but then there's the SunBelt Block.