[yequalsx]

The first part of the article was about Apple avoiding California taxes by having a small office in Reno. You haven't shown that Apple pays its fair share of California's road system (don't ignore the federal road system), schools, sewers, police protection, or its use of American soft power for its purposes overseas.

But supposing Apple does pay it's share of all these things. Given our current deficit and that a large portion of our deficit goes toward maintenance of both soft and hard power and that such power is used for the benefit (not solely) of large corporations its clear that business are not paying their share of the burden. And a large portion of the current deficit comes from stabilizing the economy. Without infusions of cash into the system after Lehman went bankrupt Apple would have been greatly disrupted.

Corporations in the U.S. currently sit on a great hoard of cash. I don't know another hoard of cash government can access to pay for the maintenance of the system. From you last paragraph it seems it would be advisable for you to read the Wikileaks cables. Your view about the role of military power and its relationship with soft power the use of said power for the benefit of corporate interests appears to naive.

In an environment where public policy has been co-opted by corporate interests to serve business interests to the detriment of other interests it's hardly reasonable to think that "we should simply stop defending Ireland". Why would businesses want such a thing when they benefit from our power without having to pay for it?

[yummyfajitas]

Roads, sewers, police and fire are dirt cheap. Bringing them up is disingenuous.

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/year_spending_2010USbt_1...

As for the federal road system, that's paid for by gas taxes - Apple (or fedex, or whoever delivers iPhones) pays for it whenever they fill up their gas tanks roughly in proportion to how much they use it.

It's also hardly clear that businesses are not paying their share of the burden. The services businesses require cost very little - corporate registration, police protection, roads, etc. The fact that these services are cheap is demonstrated by the fact that Nevada provides those services and charges very little for it.

Most other services are given to individuals and different individuals (usually younger ones) are charged for those services. The individuals who work for Apple raise their prices commensurately.

[yequalsx]

The federal road system is not paid for by gas taxes. The soft power wielded by the U.S. is not paid for by gas taxes or by corporate taxes. The are a lot of very large companies that pay no tax despite reaping great rewards for using the services of the U.S. government and despite (at least in some areas) having regulatory capture.

Labor has very little power in the U.S. and in an environment of 8%+ unemployment (15% U2 rate) it's hard to believe that labor can raise prices.

[yummyfajitas]

My mistake, there is a small fraction of the highway system which is not paid for by user fees.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System#Fina...

There is a pretty simple solution to this problem - raise user fees until the system is revenue neutral.

As for "soft power", could you define that in a less vague manner? Are you asserting that dead Iraqis somehow benefit Apple?

And again, I'll note you keep harping on a few cheap, useful items, while ignoring the fact that the vast majority of spending is merely redistribution from the young to the old which doesn't benefit Apple at all.

[yequalsx]

Taxes are at a 50 year low. The current deficit is large with most of it coming from non-recurring expenses but with long term deficit of around $500 billion. Corporations are having record profits and are sitting on over $1 trillion in cash. Solution to the problem is easy. Tax more (or spend less but in the present situation that would be more hurtful than raising taxes). It can't be said that taxes are too high unless one is a fanatic that thinks all taxation is theft or evil. A lot of the large U.S. corporations pay no corporate taxes.

Consult Wikileaks cables for how corporations benefit from U.S. soft power and hard power. Apple benefits from being in the U.S. It should pay for this benefit. I don't know the optimum rate. It should not only pay for the tangible, easily understood benefits. It and other corporations benefit from the U.S. exerting its power to their benefit. The U.S. does this quite a bit.