You are correct, and I agree, the union criticism is accurate, there is widespread corruption, not paying into pensions, etc. It does need to get fixed, and now is rather a good time to fix it. We should all have a debate. A good one with facts. I’m actually okay with a balanced discussion of union pension issues.
One of the best examples I can think of is right here in town with the City of San Diego, City employee union, illicit deals to increase benefits. That got moved through via Republicans mainly, which is hilarious because you don’t hear the zombie GOP fuck-bots criticizing the local GOP for their role in orchestrating these sweetheart union deals for City employees. It’s all about democrats and school teachers in Wisconsin…
Overall, my response to the union criticisms is one of proportion, measuring the cost of the bubble in raw dollars — and the cost of the financial crisis dwarfs anything related to union benefits. The financial crisis CAUSED the pension bust. Nothing even remotely compares with what happened with finance, insurance and real estate businesses during the bubble, the deregulation, the massive fraud, the leveraging, and the subsequent bust and bailouts.
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The OP topic was about an article about corporate tax evasion. That was the original topic, until it got thread-sharked by brain-dead GOP zombie fuck-bots complaining about democrats and unions. In a better world, I think this thread could have been a very reasonable fact-based discussion on economics and U.S. tax policy, and the gigantic amount of tax avoidance occurring with large multinational corporations.
Does anybody out there have anything intelligent to say about US corporations moving their profits offshore, through shell companies in Ireland, Cayman Islands, etc. — for the express purpose of avoiding US tax obligations?
