This is actually a fair point and one I hadn't considered strongly enough. And I don't support restrictions on outside investment like they have in China or other countries so this is something that would need some sort of solution.

My gut reaction is that they are still to high, but this is a perfect argument against them going to 0 which could make sense in a world where everyone who has an ownership stake in a business pays personal income taxes.

A possible solution would be taxing investment here regardless of what country you are from, but I am not really sure what effects that would have without doing a lot more research. It could be very bad.

CDL, we have a federal, state, and local governments. Were you aware of this? Alot of the providing of services is done at the state and local government level. Bezos's dealmaking that you are lauding is a conscious effort to avoid being taxed to provide those services and to have other people's tax dollars help his company! Yet, you keep saying he should be taxed more, much more!

He justifies this by saying these cities are better off than they would be "but-for" Amazon. This is true, and why his scheme works. However, this is obviously incomplete and self-serving because he eliminated many, many retailers that provided jobs that paid state and local taxes all across the country to provide services to people that needed it.

Its laughable how you need the simplest things explained to you when it doesn't fit your wanna-be plutocrat agenda.

His personal taxes and Amazon's corporate taxes are not the same thing. He is negotiating on behalf of Amazon. He's not personally saying "look, I'll also buy a big house but don't charge me state income tax or property tax."

OMFG, he owns $100 billion of Amazon, that is how he accumulates his great personal wealth! And the thought of touching those shares is anathema to you. And even judging him for the method which he accumulates his massive wealth through those shares is anathema to you. On the contrary, you think he should be as cutthroat and ruthless as possible, even when negotiating with us. Again, you are not a friend, you are a wanna-be plutocrat.

The last thing the world needs is for the IRS to handle capital gains tax globally. It's enough of a cluster**** having American citizens file two tax returns when living abroad.

why is it absurd for Bezos to own <20% of Amazon but its perfectly ok for Jane and John Doe to own 100% of their bakery and negotiate ruthlessly with suppliers for better pricing on inputs and the city for a tax break to start their business there while paying employees less than they themselves make for managing the bakery?

You keep using these stupid analogies. It is impossible for me to believe that you work in finance and don't understand market power. The only conclusion can be that you are willfully arguing in bad faith.

I understand market power. I also understand financial leverage, negotiating power, and the value of scale. I think its fine to have the power to set the price if you are in a position of strength. I also think its fine to use your position of strength to gain market share or increase/decrease margins in a way that benefits your company.

Great, thanks for confirming. The uber-wealthy have the market power and they are leveraging their strength against us for more gains which give them even more strength to leverage against us. This is the system we have through which the rich get even richer. You explicitly want this to happen.

I want a free market where firms can charge what they want for goods and services and pay whatever negotiated prices they can get for inventory. I don't want an online shopping retailer to be told what they can charge and how much they have to pay for different things they need to operate. I don't wish for a system where the government regulates profits and profit margin for corporations that sell consumer discretionary products and operates in the technology industry.

Are you arguing for government control of corporate profits and profit margin across all industries?

You need a VAT tax of around 25% like all the Nordic countries where people are so happy.

Lol c'mon dude. When you get put in a corner don't paint the guy you're arguing against as a communist. It's a foxnews propaganda tactic that apparently works extremely well for their audience but doesn't work itt.

If only there were some sort of rules around that prevented abuse of dominant market power.

I want, at a minimum, for Amazon to put its headquarters where it makes most logistical sense and not try to extract money out of people's pockets. When they are engaged in a cynical game instead, I want them humiliated and shamed rather than praised and lauded. I want every person who comes into contact with Bezos to express disgust with what he is doing rather than congratulating him for his shareholder value maximimization, when he is by far the largest shareholder.

If he does it anyway, I want widespread outrage with what he is doing and to implement policy in response to make up for the money he took from us. If he can get specifically tailored tax cuts and subsidies to benefit himself, then we can respond with specifically tailored taxes to take that money back. To be "civilized," we would do it through a mechanism that does not name Amazon specifically but through a tax that becomes widely known as the "Amazon tax." Fight back. Don't get punched in the mouth, and say thank you sir, may I have another.

The biggest problem with CDL is that he worships at the altar of money.

That's not what strawman means. I'm calling CDL a liar. He keeps on saying he's not, but then providing evidence he is.

Also, **** you. That insulin guy is ****ING DEAD but you're still whining about jokes? DEAD. His feelings aren't hurt, he's dead. He got his wages leveraged all the way the ****ing grave.

P.S. You don't believe in single payer healthcare either. Absolutely not, nope. It's completely incoherent to hold the beliefs you guys have about "commie bull****" and the virtues of leveraging wealth and also believe that the government should forcibly redistribute that wealth to buy medicine for poor people! Sorry you're not better at lying, I guess, but you're real ****ing bad at it. Y'all clearly reject progressive taxation at a deep, foundational level because it's forcing the rich to give money to the government rather than allowing them to use it as they see fit. If you agreed with UHC and the social safety net, you wouldn't be trying to gotcha people about whys they think theys know better than Warren Buffett about what to do with his billions.

fly, there are situations where wealth and income can have a wide dispersion and people can have universal healthcare. treating these as if they are mutually exclusive is laughable.

Show me a single place I've lied in this conversation. You keep assigning me beliefs that I don't hold and have never said I hold.

True, something off by people congratulating Amazon for this behavior.

People like CDL never understand that the ULTIMATE FREE MARKET means we can do whatever the **** we want and that includes tax the **** out of billionaires.

Billionaires just spend a lot of money brainwashing you that you shouldn't.

Thought I read an article, separate from this topic, that stated Amazon had a habit of hiring people on contracts just short enough that they didn't have to provide healthcare coverage for their workers -- might be my drug-addled mind and everything, but could have sworn I read that.

It is theoretically possible that extreme wealth inequality and universal healthcare can co-exist. However it is not practically possible to reach that situation in a system where the amount of wealth you have correlates very strongly with the amount of influence you have in shaping policy.

This is why people have such a huge issue with your position - you are simultaneously paying lip service to these liberal policies (and I do believe you genuinely think they are good ideas) whilst lauding people who are abusing the hell out of the fact that their huge wealth gives them so much influence in dictating policy and are effectively preventing these liberal policies from ever happening.

I'm not? But like, in America today, no UHC. Why not? Is America being an extremely unequal country(for an industrialized nation) and having the worst safety net a COINCIDENCE?

Uh, you clearly do hold them. There's no worldview that gets you panicky and emotional in defense of companies leveraging their economic power to drive down salaries BUT ALSO think that rank and file people should get health care benefits beyond that which they can negotiate from their employers. The free market says that guy dies because he didn't have the $26. Why are you interfering with the free market? Why should HE get $26 of our money to "stay alive"?

It's an obvious disconnect.

I'm resolving it that you're lying about what you list off dispassionately as a dodge, but sure, I'd consider the alternative, that you DO believe in UHC and are trolling with this billionaire worshipping ****.

I agree with the bolded, because the term is so often strawmanned into, "You're just some COMMIE GOBBLEDYGOOK GUY who wants everyone to make the same money!" toward people who use it, as we've seen in this very thread. It's not a matter of the existence of income inequality but of degree.

Fly,

You haven't experienced CDL as much before and I know you are used to posters in politics claiming to be liberal but believing in zero liberal ideas.

That said, CDL actually has proven time and again with discussion in here he does believe in things like UHC and even UBI. The disconnect he has with those positions while not understanding what the big deal is with massive wealth inequality is certainly odd, but he does actually genuinely believe both positions he is taking here.

why didn't you give the guy $26 then? Do you not think his life was worth those $26 if they had to come from your pocket?

I obviously think the government should have paid for his healthcare, but I don't think it is the responsibility of a specific individual outside the government to do so outside of their obligation to pay taxes.