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We already do.
@freemo But not in the way it should, IMHO.
I agree, though in my case I think they are taxed **far** too much. I suspect you think the opposite.
That is ok, we can disagree, I wont be mad at you for that. The important part to me is we are being honest about the fact that they are, in fact, taxed, and, at least relative to everyone else, quite a bit a lot.
Actually, usually when someone who understands it and looks they find such "exposures" are just dishonest framing.
Take Amazon as a prime example used in that very discussion. People will cite years in which amazon paid no tax in a bid to mislead people to make this very point. Yet when you actually look at all the years and why this happened you find other years in which amazon pays 90%+ taxes. The reason is easy to understand to people who know taxes. You can differ taxes int he present to opt for growth, and in such years your losses will exceed income (resulting in 0% tax). But then when you realize that growth you have to pay for the growth and your profit eventually. So it usually catches up with you sometime down the line, and you pay massive taxes later.
To put it to actual numbers in 2014 amazon paid nearly 92% tax on their income that year. Which was the counter to several years leading up where their tax rate was between 5% and 10% (lower than average).
@freemo True. But there are reasons that justify this petition. And here, in Portugal, we've had several cases that prove that such legislation is necessary.
I also think that we need fairer societies in which the difference between the rich and the poor decreases.
One of these days I was feeding my cat and thinking that I spend more money with his food than what millions of parents have to feed their kids. This is utterly unfair, IMHO. But it's our reality. No one solves the problem and the situation is getting worse... And people are dying because they don't have access to basic goods. It's just sad!
> True. But there are reasons that justify this petition. And here, in Portugal, we've had several cases that prove that such legislation is necessary.
I cant really speak to protugal honestly. There may be issues there im unaware of that need addressing. I can only speak to the narrative as it applies to most of the EU (the parts i have expiernce with which is a lot of it but not portugal) and the USA and a few other countries.
Maybe portugal has some unique issues here for usre.
> I also think that we need fairer societies in which the difference between the rich and the poor decreases.
I think this is a well meaning but misguided (And ultimately harmful) goal. We shouldnt be trying to reduce the gap between poor and rich, that gap can be as large as it naturally will be, nothing wrong with that. What matters is the quality of life of the poorest, and the opportunity they have to get out of poverty. These are distinctly different from and large unrelated to disparity of wealth.
> One of these days I was feeding my cat and thinking that I spend more money with his food than what millions of parents have to feed their kids. This is utterly unfair, IMHO. But it's our reality. No one solves the problem and the situation is getting worse.
I agree there is an underlying problem to be solved there. But it isnt so much "cat food is too expensive" bur rather, if your struggling to afford cat food then clearly you havent been given the chance to be trained in marketable skills that would allow you to earn a better income.
The bigger issue is simply that the poor need to be given the means (and expected to do their part) to get out of poverty. Something society doesnt do well right now.
Good morning! Sorry for the late reply, but I couldn't think anymore at that late hour.
You know, you're one of those people I like to talk to. Because we both respect each other, even though we disagree in certain points. 😉 Lately, it has been hard to find someone who does that. People think they know everything.
The points I'd like to address, in order to clarify them, are:
- the Portuguese reality;
- cat food;
- the gap between poor and rich being natural.
Portugal is really something different in Europe. Living conditions, here, progressed a lot in some ways since we were the EU, but only for the ones that had less and for the very rich. We, people like me, teachers, nurses, doctors, engineers, public workers... have suffered colossal income cuts. And the very rich haven't ever been so well off!
Our taxes pay everything, which is private, and we don't have any decent service right now! So, IMHO, this is not social justice at all. And politicians live in "a different country," of course. Young adults can't buy our rent a house, find a job, start a family...
The point about cat food is not that I can't afford it; it's that parents in many countries don't have the same money to buy food for their families. This is not fair since they are the ones we're exploiting in order to live more comfortable lives.
I wouldn't say that the gap between poor and rich is something natural. I see it as something totally artificial.
I remember when I was a kid that we're promised better living conditions, less work, more free time for leisure, family and friends... What do we have now? The opposite! The capitalist system is driving the world to the edge as well as the entire humanity. We only need to think about the mass exodus of people that we're witnessing from Asia, Africa, and South America.
The world belongs to all living creatures, and those who are exploiting all resources should be responsible for repairing their wrongdoings.
The USA, for example, has most of the wealth in their pockets and are the worst polluters. But they have, at the same time, many communities struggling for survival! IMHO, that's not fair.
The gap between poor and rich is something fabricated, intended to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. It's the way of capitalism.
We don't need wars, we don't need people fleeing their home lands, we don't need rich people stealing the resources and lives of the less fortunate.
We need cooperation between peoples, fairness, justice, less work, time for family and friends. IMHO, I truly believe that we'd all live much better lives if we started valuing a totally different mindset, like the one on the short video, which is, in this regard, a great American example.
I think it's as simple as that.
@freemo Yes, of course we can disagree. 😉 The fact is that there are always some examples of big corporations being exposed that almost don't contribute anything but have huge profits. Here in Portugal we're sick and tired of them!