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by MAGZine 1880 days ago
You've just described trickle down economics but for society.

Companies are more than welcome to make themselves at home iff they pay their dues, and should not be welcome if they don't.

2 comments

This comment touches a personal nerve with me. I am not against it, but I have seen it so many times traveling in developing countries in South Asia and Southeast Asia. When (South) Korean and Japanese companies invest in a developing economy, it is with head, heart, and wallet. They go 100%. How many times have a seen Korean or Japanese business people on a local flight study local language from a book or try to practice local language with staff? Too many to count! I makes me proud, and I am neither Korea nor Japanese. This is how it should be. And, (for the most part), they are welcomed by communities. To be fair: I feel the same about Volkswagon's recent commitment to Rwanda to build their first plant in Africa. I am suspicious of UK/US/AUS/China firms that show up with the "resource extraction" mindset. Five or ten years later, there are terrible environment consequences or social unrest. Almost never, do I see that with (South) Korean or Japanese firms. (Yes, I have seen it first hand in SA/SEA developing nations.)
How is economic growth trickle down for the society? It is not. Strong economic growth is the best thing to level up a society.

What is really trickle down for the society? The dead loop between more taxes and economic stagnation.

Do you not see the similarities between "give rich people low taxes and they will create economies around them," and "give rich corporations low taxes and they will create economies around them?"

Companies will seek the lowest taxes in an area that suits them. If they're building in America, it's because it behooves them to build in America. There are lots of places they can go to lower taxes, but they're not competitive.

So you still have companies who are VOLUNTARILY building industry in places with high taxes, because it behooves them. Can you see how a race to the bottom in this regard is damaging? They're already committed to paying high taxes, its just a matter of how high. So—do you really want to be the place that cheats yourself out of the most income, for a company that really doesn't care if they settle in your county, the next one over, or the one across the country?

The minute you become noncompetitive, the company will move, and your countrymen are the people who paid for it. The real winner? the company, who got to hang onto more of their vast profits. :-) Apple committed almost $100B a year. And places are fighting over... how much tax revenue? there's plenty of room for fair taxation.

Good reasoning. So just stay poor, and don't let the big companies make money, this sounds like a great advice to local communities.
You've done nothing to convince me that allowing big companies to exploit the local economy and infrastructure for free actually ends up in a net benefit for anyone other than the company.

You don't get rich by giving things away (unless if you've figured out how to make this possible—in which case, please ready a room for me :-))