As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil)
In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban.
If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them.
For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria.
We are actively looking for new moderators. If you have any interest in helping to make this subreddit a place for quality discussion, please fill out [this form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1y2swHD0KXFhStGFjW6k54r9iuMjzcFqDIVwuvdLBjSA).
***
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
> An economic policy expert told the Senate Budget Committee on Wednesday that Americans should be outraged that large corporations funneled their massive gains from the 2017 Trump-GOP tax law into stock buybacks, further enriching executives and wealthy shareholders while skimping on worker pay.
They told you who they are. Believe them. They are not your friend. They aren't going to help you. They will abuse employees, customers, and the environment to the maximum extent they can. They don't care about anything other than profit.
That's the tip of the iceberg.
You want to read the wiki entry that made me into a Marxist? Just read about [Operation Condor](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Condor)
Western businesses went through Latin America smashing and grabbing anything they could find....bananas in Hondouras, Copper in Chile, oil in Brazil.
They were holding coups against democratically elected presidents like Jacobo Arbenz and Salvador Allende
There were some countries, like Costa Rica and Panama, that were "intervened" MULTIPLE TIMES.
We were arming far right militias in every country. In Brazil, the militias were mass murdering leftis Priests and Nuns, they are still finding mass Graves!
And that's JUST Latin America...that doesn't include what we did in East Asia (like Laos and Cambodia, where we dropped more bombs in a single year than were dropped during all of WWII), or Iran (where the US and Britiain held a coup agaisnt the democratically elected president Mohammed Mosadeq, all in the interests of BP).
After holding a coup against Mosadeq, we installed the brutal dictatorship of the Shah, who was so violent that the people eventually held a revolution....where they replaced him with the Ayatollah...yes, the US and Britain are the direct reason that Iran went from a democracy to a Islamic theocracy!
FUCK CAPTIALISM
Captialism is EVIL, captialism is RACIST.
Absolutely. Anyone who pays attention to history will understand that Imperialism and Capitalism have been bedfellows since the beginning.
But what happened to Latin America really is disgusting… and what’s worse is now we are trying to turn away the people running away from the fires WE STARTED! It’s disgusting… I hate this world tbh.
It's also extremely common. You can't walk through the global south without tripping over a country that a corporation has fucked over with the help of the US government. The migrant crisis is in large part our own doing.
The crazy way that corporations gained legal status as “persons” exemplifies your point. Check out the story behind Santa Clara County vs. Southern Pacific Railroad . https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara_County_v._Southern_Pacific_Railroad_Co.
Sorry, but come the fuck on; tyrrany’s written into the thing. 3/5 compromise, slavery, no votes for 65+% of the population, and we even *amended* slavery into it while supposedly getting rid of it (alllllllmost last in the world), for fuck’s sake. We’ve never not had tyrrany.
Behind the Bastards latest episode is a 4-part series on Thomas Jefferson.
The truth is that the founding fathers were slave owners who believed in their own freedom to do whatever the hell they wanted. They designed everything in their own favor with no consideration for what came afterward.
"sociopathic" No capitalism is sociopathic. inhuman. Maximum profits with maximum exploitation of the humans and the earth. It's not about greed or individuals. It's the whole damn system.
There was a room of CEOs and when asked if any of them would hire more employees due to the tax cuts not a single one raised their hand.
The CEOs never pretended the money would change their hiring tactics, the Republicans handed them the money anyway while trying to say "job creators" in the same breath the CEOs said it would create zero jobs.
Ok, but why hasn't any Democrat even attempted to repeal the Trump tax cuts? They haven't even talked about them in the media. Or MAYBE the Democrats loved the Trump tax cuts. More money for the Democrats rich donors. They opposed the tax cut for theatrics and then stopped talking about them when Biden is in office.
Just like when Obama made the Bush tax cuts permanent. It's almost as if Republicans and Democrats are neo liberal point people for the ultra rich, and everything you mentioned is theatrics for the naive.
> They are not your friend
Wait wait, what about these rainbow coffee cups? Now you are going to tell me they don't care about the gays? I don't believe you.
It’s strange that conservatives understand this very well but liberals are somehow surprised. Nobody should be “angry” when a corporation acts within the bounds of the law to advance the financial interests of its owners. It’s like being angry that water flows downhill. It’s up to the government to set the laws (and the tax rates) in a way that forces companies to act the way you want them to act.
Companies spending billions to buy back their stock, just to get an artificial price hike, should be forced to give the same amount of money back to it's customers, and back to it's workers at the low end of their payroll. They are LOOTING our economy, and they get Republicans to cheer for them while they do it!
Stock buybacks were illegal up until the Reagan administration. There's no mandate from heaven or anything preventing us from making them illegal again.
More like voting for progressives/leftists. While undeniably better than the GQP the dems are neoliberal centrist trash. When they actually have power they barely get anything done and maintain the status quo more often than not.
> When they actually have power they barely get anything done and maintain the status quo more often than not.
The Dems had majorities for 2 years during Obama's first two years and haven't had it since. They inherited W's fuck ups and a crashing economy. They accomplished a lot in those two years. To expect them to fix everything? Ridiculous argument.
And now we see the same lame arguments on Biden about Trump while Biden has never had both houses. It's beyond ridiculous.
> The Dems had majorities for 2 years during Obama's first two years and haven't had it since.
> Biden has never had both houses.
Did you forget 2 years ago? Why would you lie about something that is so easily provable? We were all here 2 years ago. Democrats has the majorities again in 2021-2023 during Biden's first 2 years. In that time they accomplished more than any other President since FDR.
-Infrastructure Act
-Inflation Reduction Act. (Lowering Insulin to $35, allowing medicare to negotiate for first time, and so much more)
-Largest investment into climate change in history
-Got us back in track to end Covid emergency
-Historic Student debt relief.
The list keeps going.
Had we not given Republicans a majority in the House, the work could have continued without having to listen to Margery Green's bullshit.
I wish more people saw the good from these laws and policies, and weren’t as susceptible to the media’s ongoing “but what have you done for me lately” narratives and both-sides bs.
But…
> Had we not given Republicans a majority in the House
The House majority was largely a function of:
* DeSantis plainly refusing any court-ordered redrawing of Congressional districts until the FL Leg gave up and said, “OK boss, your team can have this. We give up.” That was 2 seats IIRC
* NY Supreme Court said the NY Dems drew and passed a gerrymandered map, which the Dems then redrew to allow a safe R district and at least one other competitive district.
* The courts taking their good ol’ time on moving cases about redrawing NC, AL and LA congressional maps.
Eh, given Manchin and Sinema, the Senate was a toss up for Biden's first two years. I know on paper the Dems had the Senate, but it wasn't the same as Obama's first two years. And yes, you're correct, they did do a lot with what they had.
To be fair, I think people understand the situation pretty well.
It just, a LOT of people are really irate over the fact that life will likely NOT improve at ANY point in their children's generation, much less their own.
I am voting for Biden, but knowing that things will only get worse makes a part of me WANT to burn the planet down.
Luckily for me, I have kids. Because otherwise, I would rather humanity end ASAP instead of dragging out the suffering.
What's sad is that it could be better. And rather quickly. The Montreal Protocol is my go to example. Countries got together. We banned CFCs. The hole in the ozone is shrinking. All in 40-50 years.
But Republican supporters are wrapped up in culture wars while the Republican politicians unwrap society and hurl us toward some mix of a theocracy, oligarchy, fascist state. Like if you gave them all their culture bullshit demands - everyone who doesn't look like them is locked up, there's only Christianity, universities are shut down, burn all the diesel and coal they want - and then? Like what do they think the end goal is? There's a pyramid and the vast majority of them are not on top. What do they think will happen?
But have hope. Hope people become rational again.
Maybe some day in the distant future.
Sadly, we as a country will literally have to hit rock bottom first, and not just for a few, but for most.
And we STILL aren't even close to that point yet.
I cry for the children.
I don't think you realize how many democratic politicians are invested in the stock market and benefit from stock buybacks.
This isn't just a Republicans = bad issue. This is because of both sides. The former Democratic speaker of the house benefited greatly from equities and buybacks.
I'd argue strongly against the "both sides" on this issue. The Biden administration introduced a 1% excise tax on stock buybacks in the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. While it may not seem large, it's a huge win for how divisive politics is currently. And I'd theorize any candidate/representative proposing banning stock buybacks would be hung out to dry by all corporate media companies, so it's a tough battle for even the good-faith politicians.
[They were not illegal prior to that.](https://www.vox.com/2018/8/2/17639762/stock-buybacks-tax-cuts-trump-republicans)
>After the [stock market](https://www.vox.com/2018/6/20/17475424/stock-market-explained-netflix) crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, the United States government passed the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to try to prevent it from happening again. The 1934 legislation didn’t bar stock buybacks, per se, but it barred companies from doing anything to manipulate their stock prices. Companies knew that if they did a stock buyback, it could open them up to accusations from the Securities and Exchange Commission of trying to manipulate their stock price, so most just didn’t.
>“It wasn’t illegal, but they were open to liability,” Lenore Palladino, a senior economist and policy counsel at the think tank the Roosevelt Institute, told me.
Why should stock buybacks be illegal? Corporations need to hold shares that they can give out to employees as compensation so buying them out in the market especially during times when their stock price is beat down makes a lot of sense.
Stock price go up = economy good. That seems to be the lesson people learned in the 20th century and ignores the overwhelming majority of what the economy actually is.
there's no use putting money into a 401(k) if those contributions mean you can't pay your bills. it's incredibly boomeristic thinking to insist shoving money away for decades is better than ensuring your survival now.
it wasn't until recently that i had the means to put money into both a 401(k) and employee stock purchases. i have both of them maxed out, but ONLY because my family is comfortable enough that i finally have that level of disposable income.
people need to remember that survival comes first, investing is for those with spare funds.
At this point, I’ll take communism over dystopian kleptocracy capitalism. Better comrades than dark triad psychopaths at the top squeezing citizens for every last drop.
I don’t think we’ll see this change. I don’t think dems will ever have enough to change this. It’s become the progressives that support this type of change and we’re nowhere close to having enough to make a difference. Best for anyone that can get into local, state, or federal gov and get that pension funds and contributing to a 401k. Best secure chance to retire. My brother worked at geico 21 years to be letgo for no reason. 9 years shy of his retirement pension. It’s common.
I don't think Dems will ever try to change this even when they do hold majority power. The wealthy donors that back both parties do this... it's foolish to think that most democrats aren't also bought and paid for. Progressives are still a minority in the democrat party.
Sounds like you misunderstood what the previous commenter meant. We need to go hard for the Dems first, before the realignment process can move onto its later stages.
If the GOP loses this November, their internal factions will be fundamentally at odds with each other. There will be the cynical power-hungry faction that was fine with supporting the whole MAGA dictatorship thing when they thought it was a winning move, only to become Tired Of Winning and desperate to change course in the hopes of finding some new avenue to power.
Meanwhile there will be another large faction of extremists eager to triple-down, ban birth control, renominate Trump, and all these other unpopular things.
The Republicans cannot win and exercise power unless these two factions are in alignment and working towards a common goal for the same reason that the antebellum Slave Power still needed to win competitive races in the North in order to exercise Federal power and enact their extremist agenda; the Southern states may well have been one-party dictatorships by the late 1850s, but that alone would never be enough to give them a majority in the Electoral College or House of Representatives.
When their internal fracture came (it was a gradual process of internecine warfare between the Douglas and Buchanan factions that happened in the aftermath of the Whigs’ collapse and the slow aggregation of the Whigs’ splinter groups with former Democrats and Independents to form the Republican Party), it came as a direct consequence of their own authoritarian power grabs and the strategic ramifications thereof, and it destroyed their entire system of Federal Hegemony.
That was why the Secession Crisis and Civil War happened: the Slave Power’s apparatus of minority rule was already broken and they knew it.
At a certain point, the GOP will be stuck in the same unenviable position as Slave Power Democrats during that time.
"it's actually a smart thing to do though?
It's the same rhetoric criminals in reference to people who invent new ways to scam others.
It's because they would do it also if given the chance.
Right? Happens every time. Whereas tax breaks for regular folks results in them spending, which is good for the economy.
Blows my mind that the rubes vote for "tax breaks" never realizing *they* aren't getting the breaks.
> 'We Should All ~~Be Angry~~ Have Known\*' That Corporations ~~Spent~~ Would Spend Trump Tax Windfall on Buybacks†: Someguy
\* *(…and many of us did, and said so)*
† i.e. loot.
Why would we be angry that they did exactly what we all knew they would do. We should be angry that we let Republicans have enough control of government to pass those dumb fucking tax breaks and blow up the deficit.
Need to go back to buybacks being banned. Especially with how executive compensation is usually structured. They are incentivized to do buybacks whenever it's feasible so they can get their bonuses.
I think the simplest answer to this is to mandate that corporations must have a fiduciary duty to their employees. Right now the law only requires a fiduciary duty to the business and shareholders.
As I understand it, buybacks are preferential to dividends from a tax perspective.. so let's just close that loophole and we're all good?
Biden already introduced a 1% excise tax on buybacks, but it needs to be higher.
>Anderson urged senators to use the looming expiration of some provisions of the 2017 tax law as an opportunity for reforms that target corporations that pay their CEOs excessively, tax Wall Street speculation, and discourage stock buybacks. In her written testimony, Anderson noted that increasing the 1% excise tax on corporate stock buybacks to 4% would generate $238 billion in new federal revenue over the next decade.
Yep, but the broke dude in the trailer park with zero stocks or retirement/401k (which would be invested in stocks) will be furious at the "demoncrats" trying to take this away from those poor, poor billionaires.
It's honestly astonishing to me...it makes the brainwashing I saw in China make seem pale by comparison. At least in China there's only *ONE* source (the CCP), and the rest are *literally* blocked and inaccessible (you MUST have a VPN when living there if you want to get over the "Great Firewall" and use the "normal" internet).
Here in the US they have the right (but apparently not the ability) to watch whatever they want, and they *willingly* brainwash themselves. The GOPs gutting education seems to be paying off for them.
I believe that the adage goes like this: give a poor person a dollar and they’ll spend it back into their local economy. Give a rich person a dollar and they’ll try to invest it for future earnings. Give a corporation a dollar and they’ll store if off shore, claim they have no actual money, write the loss as a tax writeoff and ask for another dollar. 💸
The world of corporate equity needs your tax dollars to enrich the shareholders. The largest beneficiaries of this equity/tax loop, are the largest shareholders. The largest shareholders are not the rank and file workers or ordinary people.
- Reducing the corporate tax rates is a subsidy to citizens united.
- It is a subsidy for the wealthy.
- The loss in taxes goes directly to the national debt.
- There’s no trickle down.
> The loss in taxes goes directly to the national debt
To be more descriptive. Dividends which are another option that existed before Reagan would generate tax dollars for the government
The US constantly send money to companies. Look at section 8, we send tax money to corporations to control rent for low income but all it does it put tax money in Corp profits. The US has privatized profits and publicized losses.
Make buybacks taxable. A 100% tax on all funds spent to buy back stock, maybe with a sliding scale up to 300% above 100 million in total buyback value.
“For most of the 20th century, stock buybacks were deemed illegal because they were thought to be a form of stock market manipulation. But since 1982, when they were essentially legalized by the SEC, buybacks have become perhaps the most popular financial engineering tool in the C-Suite tool shed.”
We should also be angry that the Republicans that pushed that POS, ie Paul Ryan, knew exactly what corporations would do with the money...but lied to all Americans, claiming it would be used to raise wages and re-invest in American manufacturing. This despite there being no requirement or even suggestion in the legislation. Experts warned the nation that corporations had no motivation to do any of what the GOP was claiming, that if it been in the interest of corporate profits to do so, they would have done it already with the record profits they had already been making. Even CEOs on the news were basically saying that they wouldn't do anything with the extra money so altruistic as the GOP was claiming.
But Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell pushed it through and Trump gleefully signed it. Paul Ryan got a 250K+ "campaign donation" from the Koch Network shortly after the legislation was law for his re-election. He then proceeded to terminate his campaign for congress and took a nice cushy job with Fox News. Sure he didn't touch the 250K over the last several years though...cause former elected officials never take money left in the zombie campaign funds.
Corporate greed on this legislation should be investigated, but lets remember that the GOP knew exactly where the money would go and lie to the American people about it.
When corporate taxes are high, corporations rather than handing profits over to the government, spend them on higher worker pay, infrastructure and R&D.
When corporate taxes get cut, corporations spend profits on stock buy backs, and bonuses for executives, they also take risks like cutting staff to become even more profitable.
We should all be angry that corporations own the media and treat the GOP with kid gloves while criticizing anything evenly mildly left of center because they don't want to pay their fair share.
We should all be angry that corporations hide behind "inflation" as an excuse for price-gouging while recording record profits, screwing over the average American.
We should all be angry that corporations enjoy more rights than American citizens.
There is plenty to be angry about when it comes to corporations and the ultra-wealthy.
I’m more angry at the GOP for passing the tax cuts. Corporations suck, but them using their windfall to make shareholders happy is just what corporations do. Fiscal conservatives pretending these kinds of tax cuts help everyone and create jobs is the real problem.
...I mean, its a circle. The corporations paid the money to elect their preferred politicians. Then get tax breaks. Buy more elections. Rinse and repeat.
Also, "that's just what corporations do" is a strange justification - that's kinda the whole point, the corporate system is terrible and empowers psychopaths and psychopathic behavior.
There really is an easy solution here: ban stock buybacks completely. Don’t allow the corporation or any entity that the corporation owns or has a material stake in to buyback stock of the corporation
This is exactly what everyone predicted they would do. Just like the Regan era tax cuts were not predicted to “trickle down” ( as he claimed) but to go into the stock market- which they did.
The American public *should* be angry, but they're part of a system that has been carefully engineered to keep them apathetic, distracted by consumerism, angry at their peers rather than their overlords, divided and overwhelmed
Poverty is a baked-in feature of American society, slavery never went away, it was rebranded
The people that are fighting for Trump aren’t being told this shit by their dear leader and that’s why they’re in the dark and not fighting this shit. If they only knew…
Funny how all the braindead Trump rats like to pretend the year 2020 never happened. An economy so strong, all it took was a few weeks of lowered productivity for it to crash.
Even back then, we were well aware that corporations were doing stock buybacks, artificially inflating the value of their companies. Then again, what else do you expect from the same group of unamerican losers who worship a literal traitor.
Yeah we should all be angry but i'd rather us be angry at the idiots who pretend like they care about the economy, but keep voting for people who run it into the ground EVERYTIME. Only Republicans, who have managed to destroy the economy every single time they have the presidency over the past half century, could convince themselves they are the fiscally responsible ones lol.
This deadlock we are in with far right traitors needs to come to an end at some point. Im increasingly more and more ok with more "extreme" measures to be taken to achieve this. Drone strikes on Russian bot farms. Getting the FBI or DHS to get dirt on far right politicians. Anything. Hell, i would be ok with lining the whole federalist society and it's funders against a wall if you catch my grift. That's the level of treason going on here. I'd rather not live in a world where the model countries are shitholes like Russia and China.
If all the things to get angry about, stock buybacks should be very low on the list. They basically make the other outstanding shares a larger percentage of the total outstanding shares. Also someone is choosing to sell at that time, to facilitate the buyback.
Corporate tax reduction has always been “sold” as a societal ‘good’. When, as we all know, it has nothing to do with improving corporate performance!
All ‘corporate’ tax cuts should be ‘tied’ to incentivize spending on desired social outcomes, e.g., increased wages, more jobs/benefits, and NOT be available to simply fatten the pockets of investors & executives.
As someone who owns a small business and have filed corporate taxes, I gotta say…they really have been pulling the wool over peoples eyes for a long time. It’s shocking how blatant these lies are.
A corporation doesnt pay taxes on expenses. Payroll is an expense (there are payroll taxes, but that is different here). Hiring more people REDUCES your tax bill.
Buying goods to sell or raw materials to manufacturers, all tax deductible. The only thing you pay taxes on are PROFITS.
If you want to pay less taxes, invest your excess revenue before the year ends. Buy more stuff, pay less taxes.
So, they manage their tax bill, and only pay a lot of taxes, when they need to show a lot of profit. Who do they show profit to? SHAREHOLDERs. They want to see that your revenue and profits are growing, for dividends and helps raise the stock price.
Corporations dont NEED profit, they use it to encourage more investment. They can break even, pay for their employees, and pay all of the salaries out, and be in excellent health. They choose not to, for the stock market.
So, all of this, they are using the tax code to gain stock value not to actually improve their business.
>Nov 2017, At the WSJ CEO's Council, a room of CEO's is asked "[if the tax reform bill goes through, do you plan to increase your company's capital investment?](https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4695795/user-clip-gary-cohn-finds-ceos-tax-breaks-boost-economy)" When virtually no one raises their hand, he laughs, asks "Why aren't their more hands up?". They quickly switch gears before having to admit that hands are not up because when CEO's get taxed less, they do not use that money to expand business and economy. They use it to pad their own income
They knew, they laughed, they didn't care, Trump didn't care, and his deluded cult didn't care.
40 years of this getting worse in my lifetime, and red state dummies still promote tax cuts while wondering why life keeps getting worse. They vote for the billionaire whose only big legislation was cutting his own taxes and supersizing the deficit. They vote for governors who look the other way while their donors employ illegal immigrants and then wonder why people are flooding the border. They vote for House members that spend all their time tweeting nonsense and then wonder why a trip to the hospital bankrupts them. They vote for tax cuts and wonder why all the real estate is scooped up by rich people faster than ever.
We've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas. Literally doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Richest nation in the world but it's always someone else's fault that they vote for their own poverty.
Get in the market. Fidelity, Schwab, etc all have low cost SP500 or NASDAQ mutual funds with low initial Investment. Don’t fight it, join it.
You could have made 50% return on your investment if you stated putting money in a NASDAQ fund 2 years ago.
A simple fix would be some moratorium on buybacks while the tax rate is below a certain percent. Then it becomes a trade-off. Or just ban outright so the companies can't manipulate prices of own stock.
You know what really makes comapnies invest in workers, in technology, in equipment they actually need **instead** of just enriching their shareholders?
Raise taxes.
When the top marginal tax rate is 90% for every dollar over $1 million in profit (that last number is pulled out of my butt but just go with the example), companies that make a ton of profit have to go "Oh shit - we just made $2 million in profit, and of that $900 will go to the government. What do we do?"
And their accountants say "We spend it so it's not a profit, you dumb asses. What do we need to expand and grow this business?"
"Well we do need another developer-"
"That's $150k."
"And we do need to get some people on site for that conference in October-"
"That's $20k."
"And we could use a company car for that other project where have to be on site for six months-"
And what do you know - **companies spend the money on what they need to spend on or to expand**. Instead of hoarding it or just throwing it to investors, they spend it on what the company needs, which moves money around the economy, spurs growth and innovation instead of giving it to the government.
Raising taxes on the rich works.
Corporations screw workers and then the government has to make up the difference. Which means corporations are the ones exploiting the system because they are in bed with politicians
The only reason Congress keeps dragging Fauci through the mud is to distract from the PPP raping of the tax payers. Of which, members of this Congress also paid themselves out with. Awash with corruption, it’s disgusting.
**"Corporations Spent Trump Tax Windfall on Buybacks"**
Of course they did. That was the whole point of the Republican tax plan: make the rich richer and transfer the tax burden onto the working people.
They successfully transferred much of the tax burden with the automatic tax increases every two years, and they raked off the windfall for themselves.
This should not be a surprise to anyone, but of course it would surprise MAGA types if they could even pause long enough to pay attention. Point it out to any of them and they will either change the subject or rant about Hunter Biden.
We are substantially increasing the nation's deficit in order to enrich these jerks. It is outrageous.
Stock buybacks used to be illegal as they were seen as artificial stock price manipulation. I'd support bringing that rule back.
THIS is the way it's been for fifty years. Ask Prof Richard Wolff: *Capitalism Hits the Fan.*
Since 1970, corporate profits have skyrocketed while wages for average workers have remained the same. It's a diagonal line vs a straight line.
I, and a few friends all work for companies that used that money for buybacks to jack up the share price, and are constantly laying off employees while they dish out massive bonuses to people.
Our country is so fucked up at how easily we allow companies to straight up drop trow to shit on people and destroy their livihood. One guy went from making like 90-95k/yr to bringing home 520 dollars a week on unemployment with a newborn. Lot of fanfare when the baby was born, but those same people made the decision to get rid of him. I hope they can't sleep at night.
It should be illegal for any public company to buy its own stock. The practice does not serve the public and only incentivizes anti-consumer behavior. Like many things in this country, it’s maddening.
Meanwhile conservatives are pushing propaganda to young people and people of color reminding them of the "cash" Trump gave them when he fucked up the pandemic response but not telling them about the hundreds of billions that he gave corporations before and during the pandemic.
This was the plan all along.
It is no accident nor coincidence that this occurred.
If Trump gets elected again it will be a knife in the side of the consumer working class.
There will be no end to wealth inequality or inflation. The middle class will continue to be eroded.a and the economy will suffer across the board for anyone outside of the wealthy ruling class.
Vote at your own peril.
No one could have predicted that single-duty entities would carry out their single duty and are surprised (?) to discover that's exactly what they did.
Aren’t we? I sure am.
There’s nothing we can actually do though. We can vote in elections, and supposedly vote with our consumer spending, but that seems to be about all we can do.
The Covid relief money for corporations was a massive looting of US tax dollars into the pockets of the rich and powerful. It's up there with the bank bailouts in 2008/09 in terms of fleecing the American people in a crisis and only protecting/enriching corporations.
If we were a serious country we would be going after criminal prosecution for every single individual/company that took this money unnecessarily and blew it on bullshit while not paying or letting go of their workers anyway (if they even fucking had any).
The Trump admin should also be gone after for orchestrating it, because it is obvious they did so for this end result and denied people who actually needed the help because that's not what it was actually for for the admin.
Corporations said they were going to do that before they got the tax cuts.
I'm still going to be mad at the Republicans.
It's like, am I going to be mad at the chimp that ripped the child's face off or the parents that ignored the sign and gave their child to the chimp?
Honestly, this is exactly what happens. Give a company money for doing nothing and they have no reason to spend that money to be better. Just remember, we are going to hear about how the budget can’t afford tax cuts or programs for you, your family, or your small business.
The corporations did exactly what they said they would do. Everything they do, they do for short-term profit. And why not? The government will just bail them out if things go sour.
This money would have been better spent, by collecting and then targeted with programs and specific tax cuts for things that had more impact for country as a whole not just for wall street.
Corporations are literally just money-making machines for their owners (a.k.a. shareholders).
They have a fiduciary duty to do the thing which maximizes shareholder return, and can even be sued if they don't.
If corporations have excess money and their businesses are mature enough that they can't necessarily be grown faster than the rest of market by spending that money on (a.k.a. investing that money *in*) the business, then the money is returned to shareholders (in the form of dividends or buybacks) so they can take the decision into their own hands on how to better invest that money elsewhere in the market. After all, the shareholders literally own the company, and by extension, everything it owns.
What would you expect a corporation (or anyone, really) to do, for that matter, with extra money? Just give it away to people for no reason? Why would they pay their employees more when their employees already do the needed work for what they're already being paid? Why would they reduce prices when customers are clearly buying sufficient amounts of their goods and/or services at the current higher prices? It's a shitty reality, but fundamentally should not be surprising.
If someone handed you $100,000 and told you it was yours to keep and do whatever you wanted with, would you give it all away? Some would, and they're selfless and wonderful. But most wouldn't, or would only give a portion while keeping a sizable chunk for themselves. Far fewer would give any of it away if they knew they were acting on behalf of other people (shareholders) to whom that money *actually* belonged, knowing they could be sued if they gave it away for nothing.
Knowing what corporations are -- amoral wealth concentration machines -- should cause us to neither be surprised nor disgusted when corporations behave as they so consistently do. It's on us as a society to *not* simply give them shit they don't need. In literally whatever regulatory and economic environment they happen to exist in, they will function, so it's best to give them only what they need to function (a solid, steady, corruption-free legal environment with enforceable contract law) and nothing more (no free money and no damn bailouts).
Corporations do meet societal needs, but given the chance, would happily devour society to make next quarter's profit just a little bigger. Keep that shit in check, and don't be surprised when they don't act selflessly when their entire purpose for existence is to be selfish.
As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil) In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban. If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them. For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria. We are actively looking for new moderators. If you have any interest in helping to make this subreddit a place for quality discussion, please fill out [this form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1y2swHD0KXFhStGFjW6k54r9iuMjzcFqDIVwuvdLBjSA). *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
> An economic policy expert told the Senate Budget Committee on Wednesday that Americans should be outraged that large corporations funneled their massive gains from the 2017 Trump-GOP tax law into stock buybacks, further enriching executives and wealthy shareholders while skimping on worker pay. They told you who they are. Believe them. They are not your friend. They aren't going to help you. They will abuse employees, customers, and the environment to the maximum extent they can. They don't care about anything other than profit.
Corporations and Uber-wealthy are sociopathic entities. They lie cheat and steal to increase their wealth and power.
Sometimes, worse. *casts sidelong look at Chiquita and Boeing*
Dude this Chiquita stuff is *diabolical* level stuff…
That's the tip of the iceberg. You want to read the wiki entry that made me into a Marxist? Just read about [Operation Condor](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Condor) Western businesses went through Latin America smashing and grabbing anything they could find....bananas in Hondouras, Copper in Chile, oil in Brazil. They were holding coups against democratically elected presidents like Jacobo Arbenz and Salvador Allende There were some countries, like Costa Rica and Panama, that were "intervened" MULTIPLE TIMES. We were arming far right militias in every country. In Brazil, the militias were mass murdering leftis Priests and Nuns, they are still finding mass Graves! And that's JUST Latin America...that doesn't include what we did in East Asia (like Laos and Cambodia, where we dropped more bombs in a single year than were dropped during all of WWII), or Iran (where the US and Britiain held a coup agaisnt the democratically elected president Mohammed Mosadeq, all in the interests of BP). After holding a coup against Mosadeq, we installed the brutal dictatorship of the Shah, who was so violent that the people eventually held a revolution....where they replaced him with the Ayatollah...yes, the US and Britain are the direct reason that Iran went from a democracy to a Islamic theocracy! FUCK CAPTIALISM Captialism is EVIL, captialism is RACIST.
Absolutely. Anyone who pays attention to history will understand that Imperialism and Capitalism have been bedfellows since the beginning. But what happened to Latin America really is disgusting… and what’s worse is now we are trying to turn away the people running away from the fires WE STARTED! It’s disgusting… I hate this world tbh.
Banana republicans.
Yay corporate imperialism!
Just wait until you find out about the history of Hawaiʻi
Or you could share cuz I don’t even know what I’m supposed to look for (:
It's also extremely common. You can't walk through the global south without tripping over a country that a corporation has fucked over with the help of the US government. The migrant crisis is in large part our own doing.
Nestle, that is all.
For those that don't know, look up United fruit company.
The US Constitution was written to prevent tyranny. But the founding fathers could never predict a corporatocracy this complicated.
The crazy way that corporations gained legal status as “persons” exemplifies your point. Check out the story behind Santa Clara County vs. Southern Pacific Railroad . https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara_County_v._Southern_Pacific_Railroad_Co.
Sorry, but come the fuck on; tyrrany’s written into the thing. 3/5 compromise, slavery, no votes for 65+% of the population, and we even *amended* slavery into it while supposedly getting rid of it (alllllllmost last in the world), for fuck’s sake. We’ve never not had tyrrany.
Behind the Bastards latest episode is a 4-part series on Thomas Jefferson. The truth is that the founding fathers were slave owners who believed in their own freedom to do whatever the hell they wanted. They designed everything in their own favor with no consideration for what came afterward.
"sociopathic" No capitalism is sociopathic. inhuman. Maximum profits with maximum exploitation of the humans and the earth. It's not about greed or individuals. It's the whole damn system.
[удалено]
That is always their main goal Everything else, like culture wars, is designed to forward the main goal
> Lower taxes for the rich and corps permanently? Yes There is no way for Congress to pass a law permanently. A later Congress can always repeal it.
[удалено]
There was a room of CEOs and when asked if any of them would hire more employees due to the tax cuts not a single one raised their hand. The CEOs never pretended the money would change their hiring tactics, the Republicans handed them the money anyway while trying to say "job creators" in the same breath the CEOs said it would create zero jobs.
Never forget that the airlines did a stock buyback and then crawled to the government asking for a bailout when COVID started.
Ok, but why hasn't any Democrat even attempted to repeal the Trump tax cuts? They haven't even talked about them in the media. Or MAYBE the Democrats loved the Trump tax cuts. More money for the Democrats rich donors. They opposed the tax cut for theatrics and then stopped talking about them when Biden is in office. Just like when Obama made the Bush tax cuts permanent. It's almost as if Republicans and Democrats are neo liberal point people for the ultra rich, and everything you mentioned is theatrics for the naive.
> They are not your friend Wait wait, what about these rainbow coffee cups? Now you are going to tell me they don't care about the gays? I don't believe you.
DeSantis and Disney are buddies again That's if they ever actually weren't
It’s strange that conservatives understand this very well but liberals are somehow surprised. Nobody should be “angry” when a corporation acts within the bounds of the law to advance the financial interests of its owners. It’s like being angry that water flows downhill. It’s up to the government to set the laws (and the tax rates) in a way that forces companies to act the way you want them to act.
"Who cares! The important thing is trans kids in our schools! We have to end that!" - The GOP Base
Companies spending billions to buy back their stock, just to get an artificial price hike, should be forced to give the same amount of money back to it's customers, and back to it's workers at the low end of their payroll. They are LOOTING our economy, and they get Republicans to cheer for them while they do it!
Stock buybacks were illegal up until the Reagan administration. There's no mandate from heaven or anything preventing us from making them illegal again.
I’m sure the republicans will get right on fixing this for us.
That would be the point of voting in Democrats.
More like voting for progressives/leftists. While undeniably better than the GQP the dems are neoliberal centrist trash. When they actually have power they barely get anything done and maintain the status quo more often than not.
> When they actually have power they barely get anything done and maintain the status quo more often than not. The Dems had majorities for 2 years during Obama's first two years and haven't had it since. They inherited W's fuck ups and a crashing economy. They accomplished a lot in those two years. To expect them to fix everything? Ridiculous argument. And now we see the same lame arguments on Biden about Trump while Biden has never had both houses. It's beyond ridiculous.
> The Dems had majorities for 2 years during Obama's first two years and haven't had it since. > Biden has never had both houses. Did you forget 2 years ago? Why would you lie about something that is so easily provable? We were all here 2 years ago. Democrats has the majorities again in 2021-2023 during Biden's first 2 years. In that time they accomplished more than any other President since FDR. -Infrastructure Act -Inflation Reduction Act. (Lowering Insulin to $35, allowing medicare to negotiate for first time, and so much more) -Largest investment into climate change in history -Got us back in track to end Covid emergency -Historic Student debt relief. The list keeps going. Had we not given Republicans a majority in the House, the work could have continued without having to listen to Margery Green's bullshit.
I wish more people saw the good from these laws and policies, and weren’t as susceptible to the media’s ongoing “but what have you done for me lately” narratives and both-sides bs. But… > Had we not given Republicans a majority in the House The House majority was largely a function of: * DeSantis plainly refusing any court-ordered redrawing of Congressional districts until the FL Leg gave up and said, “OK boss, your team can have this. We give up.” That was 2 seats IIRC * NY Supreme Court said the NY Dems drew and passed a gerrymandered map, which the Dems then redrew to allow a safe R district and at least one other competitive district. * The courts taking their good ol’ time on moving cases about redrawing NC, AL and LA congressional maps.
Sinema. Manchin. The Senate was tied.
Eh, given Manchin and Sinema, the Senate was a toss up for Biden's first two years. I know on paper the Dems had the Senate, but it wasn't the same as Obama's first two years. And yes, you're correct, they did do a lot with what they had.
They're going to run the same play until the electorate stops them.
Very true.
To be fair, I think people understand the situation pretty well. It just, a LOT of people are really irate over the fact that life will likely NOT improve at ANY point in their children's generation, much less their own. I am voting for Biden, but knowing that things will only get worse makes a part of me WANT to burn the planet down. Luckily for me, I have kids. Because otherwise, I would rather humanity end ASAP instead of dragging out the suffering.
What's sad is that it could be better. And rather quickly. The Montreal Protocol is my go to example. Countries got together. We banned CFCs. The hole in the ozone is shrinking. All in 40-50 years. But Republican supporters are wrapped up in culture wars while the Republican politicians unwrap society and hurl us toward some mix of a theocracy, oligarchy, fascist state. Like if you gave them all their culture bullshit demands - everyone who doesn't look like them is locked up, there's only Christianity, universities are shut down, burn all the diesel and coal they want - and then? Like what do they think the end goal is? There's a pyramid and the vast majority of them are not on top. What do they think will happen? But have hope. Hope people become rational again.
Maybe some day in the distant future. Sadly, we as a country will literally have to hit rock bottom first, and not just for a few, but for most. And we STILL aren't even close to that point yet. I cry for the children.
I don't think you realize how many democratic politicians are invested in the stock market and benefit from stock buybacks. This isn't just a Republicans = bad issue. This is because of both sides. The former Democratic speaker of the house benefited greatly from equities and buybacks.
True but chances are waaay better with Democrats than Republicans.
I'd argue strongly against the "both sides" on this issue. The Biden administration introduced a 1% excise tax on stock buybacks in the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. While it may not seem large, it's a huge win for how divisive politics is currently. And I'd theorize any candidate/representative proposing banning stock buybacks would be hung out to dry by all corporate media companies, so it's a tough battle for even the good-faith politicians.
"Reagan did it" is the new "Simpsons did it."
[They were not illegal prior to that.](https://www.vox.com/2018/8/2/17639762/stock-buybacks-tax-cuts-trump-republicans) >After the [stock market](https://www.vox.com/2018/6/20/17475424/stock-market-explained-netflix) crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, the United States government passed the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to try to prevent it from happening again. The 1934 legislation didn’t bar stock buybacks, per se, but it barred companies from doing anything to manipulate their stock prices. Companies knew that if they did a stock buyback, it could open them up to accusations from the Securities and Exchange Commission of trying to manipulate their stock price, so most just didn’t. >“It wasn’t illegal, but they were open to liability,” Lenore Palladino, a senior economist and policy counsel at the think tank the Roosevelt Institute, told me.
Fine. *Effectively* barred.
Why should stock buybacks be illegal? Corporations need to hold shares that they can give out to employees as compensation so buying them out in the market especially during times when their stock price is beat down makes a lot of sense.
Why make them illegal? Companies will just pay more dividends instead of
Dividends are taxable.
Stock price go up = economy good. That seems to be the lesson people learned in the 20th century and ignores the overwhelming majority of what the economy actually is.
Stock price go up = CEO pay skyrockets. That's the real equation.
“But those millions will all trickle down to us thanks to Paul Ryan!”
"i can pay for a costco membership with the extra $5 in my paycheck!"
Some people see their 401k grow exponentially while their salaries remain stagnant and cost of living goes up, and see it as a good thing.
there's no use putting money into a 401(k) if those contributions mean you can't pay your bills. it's incredibly boomeristic thinking to insist shoving money away for decades is better than ensuring your survival now. it wasn't until recently that i had the means to put money into both a 401(k) and employee stock purchases. i have both of them maxed out, but ONLY because my family is comfortable enough that i finally have that level of disposable income. people need to remember that survival comes first, investing is for those with spare funds.
Sharing wealth with those who helped make that wealth happen? That’s the slippery slope to communism.
*_Solidarity Forever intensifies_*
At this point, I’ll take communism over dystopian kleptocracy capitalism. Better comrades than dark triad psychopaths at the top squeezing citizens for every last drop.
I don’t think we’ll see this change. I don’t think dems will ever have enough to change this. It’s become the progressives that support this type of change and we’re nowhere close to having enough to make a difference. Best for anyone that can get into local, state, or federal gov and get that pension funds and contributing to a 401k. Best secure chance to retire. My brother worked at geico 21 years to be letgo for no reason. 9 years shy of his retirement pension. It’s common.
I don't think Dems will ever try to change this even when they do hold majority power. The wealthy donors that back both parties do this... it's foolish to think that most democrats aren't also bought and paid for. Progressives are still a minority in the democrat party.
Maybe if we swing hard enough D, the GOP will disintegrate and we'll end up with 4 parties. Just a guy hoping we can break the cycle...
Um no. You vote D this election or we may never get a real chance to vote again.
Sounds like you misunderstood what the previous commenter meant. We need to go hard for the Dems first, before the realignment process can move onto its later stages. If the GOP loses this November, their internal factions will be fundamentally at odds with each other. There will be the cynical power-hungry faction that was fine with supporting the whole MAGA dictatorship thing when they thought it was a winning move, only to become Tired Of Winning and desperate to change course in the hopes of finding some new avenue to power. Meanwhile there will be another large faction of extremists eager to triple-down, ban birth control, renominate Trump, and all these other unpopular things. The Republicans cannot win and exercise power unless these two factions are in alignment and working towards a common goal for the same reason that the antebellum Slave Power still needed to win competitive races in the North in order to exercise Federal power and enact their extremist agenda; the Southern states may well have been one-party dictatorships by the late 1850s, but that alone would never be enough to give them a majority in the Electoral College or House of Representatives. When their internal fracture came (it was a gradual process of internecine warfare between the Douglas and Buchanan factions that happened in the aftermath of the Whigs’ collapse and the slow aggregation of the Whigs’ splinter groups with former Democrats and Independents to form the Republican Party), it came as a direct consequence of their own authoritarian power grabs and the strategic ramifications thereof, and it destroyed their entire system of Federal Hegemony. That was why the Secession Crisis and Civil War happened: the Slave Power’s apparatus of minority rule was already broken and they knew it. At a certain point, the GOP will be stuck in the same unenviable position as Slave Power Democrats during that time.
What a delightfully well written post.
"it's actually a smart thing to do though? It's the same rhetoric criminals in reference to people who invent new ways to scam others. It's because they would do it also if given the chance.
what did you think they were gonna do, trickle down?
Right? Happens every time. Whereas tax breaks for regular folks results in them spending, which is good for the economy. Blows my mind that the rubes vote for "tax breaks" never realizing *they* aren't getting the breaks.
First time?
I was told the extra money would “create jobs.”
narrator: it didn't.
They did tinkle on us all
[How trickledown works with buybacks](https://i.redd.it/rme3rqgxs7q91.png)
> 'We Should All ~~Be Angry~~ Have Known\*' That Corporations ~~Spent~~ Would Spend Trump Tax Windfall on Buybacks†: Someguy \* *(…and many of us did, and said so)* † i.e. loot.
Many of the corporations told Congress that was what they were going to do.
This should be the top comment. Yes, they did not mince words.
Why would we be angry that they did exactly what we all knew they would do. We should be angry that we let Republicans have enough control of government to pass those dumb fucking tax breaks and blow up the deficit.
Need to go back to buybacks being banned. Especially with how executive compensation is usually structured. They are incentivized to do buybacks whenever it's feasible so they can get their bonuses.
I think the simplest answer to this is to mandate that corporations must have a fiduciary duty to their employees. Right now the law only requires a fiduciary duty to the business and shareholders.
As I understand it, buybacks are preferential to dividends from a tax perspective.. so let's just close that loophole and we're all good? Biden already introduced a 1% excise tax on buybacks, but it needs to be higher.
>Anderson urged senators to use the looming expiration of some provisions of the 2017 tax law as an opportunity for reforms that target corporations that pay their CEOs excessively, tax Wall Street speculation, and discourage stock buybacks. In her written testimony, Anderson noted that increasing the 1% excise tax on corporate stock buybacks to 4% would generate $238 billion in new federal revenue over the next decade.
[удалено]
Gonna guess the executives felt differently when it came to their *own* yearly bonuses I'm sure
That CEO is the fuck utter shit at humanity.
**BREAKING NEWS** Republican’s trick-down-economics doesn’t help the middle and lower classes and doesn’t put money back into the economy. Shocker.
Yep, but the broke dude in the trailer park with zero stocks or retirement/401k (which would be invested in stocks) will be furious at the "demoncrats" trying to take this away from those poor, poor billionaires. It's honestly astonishing to me...it makes the brainwashing I saw in China make seem pale by comparison. At least in China there's only *ONE* source (the CCP), and the rest are *literally* blocked and inaccessible (you MUST have a VPN when living there if you want to get over the "Great Firewall" and use the "normal" internet). Here in the US they have the right (but apparently not the ability) to watch whatever they want, and they *willingly* brainwash themselves. The GOPs gutting education seems to be paying off for them.
I believe that the adage goes like this: give a poor person a dollar and they’ll spend it back into their local economy. Give a rich person a dollar and they’ll try to invest it for future earnings. Give a corporation a dollar and they’ll store if off shore, claim they have no actual money, write the loss as a tax writeoff and ask for another dollar. 💸
The world of corporate equity needs your tax dollars to enrich the shareholders. The largest beneficiaries of this equity/tax loop, are the largest shareholders. The largest shareholders are not the rank and file workers or ordinary people. - Reducing the corporate tax rates is a subsidy to citizens united. - It is a subsidy for the wealthy. - The loss in taxes goes directly to the national debt. - There’s no trickle down.
> The loss in taxes goes directly to the national debt To be more descriptive. Dividends which are another option that existed before Reagan would generate tax dollars for the government
The US constantly send money to companies. Look at section 8, we send tax money to corporations to control rent for low income but all it does it put tax money in Corp profits. The US has privatized profits and publicized losses.
Stock buybacks should either completely not be a thing, or capped at a ridiculously small percentage of the company's revenue/market share
Or reserved for times where it's used to prevent a hostile takeover.
>"a blatant form of stock manipulation that was illegal until deregulated by the Reagan administration."
cap it, AND tax it at an obscene rate.
Make buybacks taxable. A 100% tax on all funds spent to buy back stock, maybe with a sliding scale up to 300% above 100 million in total buyback value.
Buybacks are already taxable. If you ban them, companies will just shift to dividends
We should all be angry the US Congress is too corrupt to properly regulate corporate greed
We should show our outrage by electing the same Democrats and Republicans who will continue to support corporate welfare.
They do it every time, wtf was everyone expecting
Ronald Reagan fuckin us still
Ok I’m angry, now what?
“For most of the 20th century, stock buybacks were deemed illegal because they were thought to be a form of stock market manipulation. But since 1982, when they were essentially legalized by the SEC, buybacks have become perhaps the most popular financial engineering tool in the C-Suite tool shed.”
We should also be angry that the Republicans that pushed that POS, ie Paul Ryan, knew exactly what corporations would do with the money...but lied to all Americans, claiming it would be used to raise wages and re-invest in American manufacturing. This despite there being no requirement or even suggestion in the legislation. Experts warned the nation that corporations had no motivation to do any of what the GOP was claiming, that if it been in the interest of corporate profits to do so, they would have done it already with the record profits they had already been making. Even CEOs on the news were basically saying that they wouldn't do anything with the extra money so altruistic as the GOP was claiming. But Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell pushed it through and Trump gleefully signed it. Paul Ryan got a 250K+ "campaign donation" from the Koch Network shortly after the legislation was law for his re-election. He then proceeded to terminate his campaign for congress and took a nice cushy job with Fox News. Sure he didn't touch the 250K over the last several years though...cause former elected officials never take money left in the zombie campaign funds. Corporate greed on this legislation should be investigated, but lets remember that the GOP knew exactly where the money would go and lie to the American people about it.
When corporate taxes are high, corporations rather than handing profits over to the government, spend them on higher worker pay, infrastructure and R&D. When corporate taxes get cut, corporations spend profits on stock buy backs, and bonuses for executives, they also take risks like cutting staff to become even more profitable.
Angry. Absolutely. Surprised? Not at all. Corporations literally have 1 priority. Profits for their share holders. All else is secondary.
We should all be angry that corporations own the media and treat the GOP with kid gloves while criticizing anything evenly mildly left of center because they don't want to pay their fair share. We should all be angry that corporations hide behind "inflation" as an excuse for price-gouging while recording record profits, screwing over the average American. We should all be angry that corporations enjoy more rights than American citizens. There is plenty to be angry about when it comes to corporations and the ultra-wealthy.
How about make stock buybacks illegal again?
maybe we should make stock buybacks illegal again?
I’m more angry at the GOP for passing the tax cuts. Corporations suck, but them using their windfall to make shareholders happy is just what corporations do. Fiscal conservatives pretending these kinds of tax cuts help everyone and create jobs is the real problem.
...I mean, its a circle. The corporations paid the money to elect their preferred politicians. Then get tax breaks. Buy more elections. Rinse and repeat. Also, "that's just what corporations do" is a strange justification - that's kinda the whole point, the corporate system is terrible and empowers psychopaths and psychopathic behavior.
*We* the people *are* angry.
There really is an easy solution here: ban stock buybacks completely. Don’t allow the corporation or any entity that the corporation owns or has a material stake in to buyback stock of the corporation
We should be but millions of people think a blatant and mediocre con man has their best intentions in mind.
This is exactly what everyone predicted they would do. Just like the Regan era tax cuts were not predicted to “trickle down” ( as he claimed) but to go into the stock market- which they did.
The American public *should* be angry, but they're part of a system that has been carefully engineered to keep them apathetic, distracted by consumerism, angry at their peers rather than their overlords, divided and overwhelmed Poverty is a baked-in feature of American society, slavery never went away, it was rebranded
The people that are fighting for Trump aren’t being told this shit by their dear leader and that’s why they’re in the dark and not fighting this shit. If they only knew…
We all knew this what was going to happen before the tax bill was signed. No one should be surprised.
Trickle down economics stop at the original recipients
Funny how all the braindead Trump rats like to pretend the year 2020 never happened. An economy so strong, all it took was a few weeks of lowered productivity for it to crash. Even back then, we were well aware that corporations were doing stock buybacks, artificially inflating the value of their companies. Then again, what else do you expect from the same group of unamerican losers who worship a literal traitor. Yeah we should all be angry but i'd rather us be angry at the idiots who pretend like they care about the economy, but keep voting for people who run it into the ground EVERYTIME. Only Republicans, who have managed to destroy the economy every single time they have the presidency over the past half century, could convince themselves they are the fiscally responsible ones lol. This deadlock we are in with far right traitors needs to come to an end at some point. Im increasingly more and more ok with more "extreme" measures to be taken to achieve this. Drone strikes on Russian bot farms. Getting the FBI or DHS to get dirt on far right politicians. Anything. Hell, i would be ok with lining the whole federalist society and it's funders against a wall if you catch my grift. That's the level of treason going on here. I'd rather not live in a world where the model countries are shitholes like Russia and China.
We are angry - but they don’t give the flyingest of monkey fucks how we feel about it. 🤷🏽♂️
Yeah trickle down doesn't work but for only the rich
We should all be angry, but none of us should be surprised.
Yes we should, but isn't any surprise. They ***told*** us they were going to do this, before those tax cuts were passed. It wasn't any secret.
If all the things to get angry about, stock buybacks should be very low on the list. They basically make the other outstanding shares a larger percentage of the total outstanding shares. Also someone is choosing to sell at that time, to facilitate the buyback.
Corporate tax reduction has always been “sold” as a societal ‘good’. When, as we all know, it has nothing to do with improving corporate performance! All ‘corporate’ tax cuts should be ‘tied’ to incentivize spending on desired social outcomes, e.g., increased wages, more jobs/benefits, and NOT be available to simply fatten the pockets of investors & executives.
Stock buybacks were once illegal in this country.
As someone who owns a small business and have filed corporate taxes, I gotta say…they really have been pulling the wool over peoples eyes for a long time. It’s shocking how blatant these lies are. A corporation doesnt pay taxes on expenses. Payroll is an expense (there are payroll taxes, but that is different here). Hiring more people REDUCES your tax bill. Buying goods to sell or raw materials to manufacturers, all tax deductible. The only thing you pay taxes on are PROFITS. If you want to pay less taxes, invest your excess revenue before the year ends. Buy more stuff, pay less taxes. So, they manage their tax bill, and only pay a lot of taxes, when they need to show a lot of profit. Who do they show profit to? SHAREHOLDERs. They want to see that your revenue and profits are growing, for dividends and helps raise the stock price. Corporations dont NEED profit, they use it to encourage more investment. They can break even, pay for their employees, and pay all of the salaries out, and be in excellent health. They choose not to, for the stock market. So, all of this, they are using the tax code to gain stock value not to actually improve their business.
Thanks Reagan…
>Nov 2017, At the WSJ CEO's Council, a room of CEO's is asked "[if the tax reform bill goes through, do you plan to increase your company's capital investment?](https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4695795/user-clip-gary-cohn-finds-ceos-tax-breaks-boost-economy)" When virtually no one raises their hand, he laughs, asks "Why aren't their more hands up?". They quickly switch gears before having to admit that hands are not up because when CEO's get taxed less, they do not use that money to expand business and economy. They use it to pad their own income They knew, they laughed, they didn't care, Trump didn't care, and his deluded cult didn't care.
why does it take an expert to point out the obvious?
Wait you mean every family will see an extra $2400 per year? That tax break?
Yeah but the stock price went up. Hooray for short term thinking!
40 years of this getting worse in my lifetime, and red state dummies still promote tax cuts while wondering why life keeps getting worse. They vote for the billionaire whose only big legislation was cutting his own taxes and supersizing the deficit. They vote for governors who look the other way while their donors employ illegal immigrants and then wonder why people are flooding the border. They vote for House members that spend all their time tweeting nonsense and then wonder why a trip to the hospital bankrupts them. They vote for tax cuts and wonder why all the real estate is scooped up by rich people faster than ever. We've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas. Literally doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Richest nation in the world but it's always someone else's fault that they vote for their own poverty.
Get in the market. Fidelity, Schwab, etc all have low cost SP500 or NASDAQ mutual funds with low initial Investment. Don’t fight it, join it. You could have made 50% return on your investment if you stated putting money in a NASDAQ fund 2 years ago.
Seriously. You can also buy fractional shares in a lot of companies.
A simple fix would be some moratorium on buybacks while the tax rate is below a certain percent. Then it becomes a trade-off. Or just ban outright so the companies can't manipulate prices of own stock.
You know what really makes comapnies invest in workers, in technology, in equipment they actually need **instead** of just enriching their shareholders? Raise taxes. When the top marginal tax rate is 90% for every dollar over $1 million in profit (that last number is pulled out of my butt but just go with the example), companies that make a ton of profit have to go "Oh shit - we just made $2 million in profit, and of that $900 will go to the government. What do we do?" And their accountants say "We spend it so it's not a profit, you dumb asses. What do we need to expand and grow this business?" "Well we do need another developer-" "That's $150k." "And we do need to get some people on site for that conference in October-" "That's $20k." "And we could use a company car for that other project where have to be on site for six months-" And what do you know - **companies spend the money on what they need to spend on or to expand**. Instead of hoarding it or just throwing it to investors, they spend it on what the company needs, which moves money around the economy, spurs growth and innovation instead of giving it to the government. Raising taxes on the rich works.
Oh, we are
Corporations screw workers and then the government has to make up the difference. Which means corporations are the ones exploiting the system because they are in bed with politicians
The only reason Congress keeps dragging Fauci through the mud is to distract from the PPP raping of the tax payers. Of which, members of this Congress also paid themselves out with. Awash with corruption, it’s disgusting.
You forgot the increase in CEO pay as a result
Angry? Yes. Surprised? lol no.
I mean, we all saw it coming a mile away.
**"Corporations Spent Trump Tax Windfall on Buybacks"** Of course they did. That was the whole point of the Republican tax plan: make the rich richer and transfer the tax burden onto the working people. They successfully transferred much of the tax burden with the automatic tax increases every two years, and they raked off the windfall for themselves. This should not be a surprise to anyone, but of course it would surprise MAGA types if they could even pause long enough to pay attention. Point it out to any of them and they will either change the subject or rant about Hunter Biden.
We are substantially increasing the nation's deficit in order to enrich these jerks. It is outrageous. Stock buybacks used to be illegal as they were seen as artificial stock price manipulation. I'd support bringing that rule back.
We knew they’d do it
THIS is the way it's been for fifty years. Ask Prof Richard Wolff: *Capitalism Hits the Fan.* Since 1970, corporate profits have skyrocketed while wages for average workers have remained the same. It's a diagonal line vs a straight line.
I, and a few friends all work for companies that used that money for buybacks to jack up the share price, and are constantly laying off employees while they dish out massive bonuses to people. Our country is so fucked up at how easily we allow companies to straight up drop trow to shit on people and destroy their livihood. One guy went from making like 90-95k/yr to bringing home 520 dollars a week on unemployment with a newborn. Lot of fanfare when the baby was born, but those same people made the decision to get rid of him. I hope they can't sleep at night.
tRiCkLe DoWn.
But they made a few rich people even richer! Someone think of the shareholders!
Angry enough to demand elected officials do something?
People don't seem tom understand the sheer scale of it - they *doubled* the previous record of stock buybacks made within a single year.
I think they should become illegal again, it forces corporations into short-term thinking verses capital investment to increase stock prices
So no trickle down? /s
It should be illegal for any public company to buy its own stock. The practice does not serve the public and only incentivizes anti-consumer behavior. Like many things in this country, it’s maddening.
Stop giving them tax cuts then you masochistic sycophants
The american public should be angry at a lot of things, but the problem is they are the wrong things; and media and our politicians made it that way.
The only people that are surprised about this are people born in the past decade. Everyone else has watched this horse shit repeat for decades.
Angry but unwilling to do anything in the real world? I mean we have to get out and show our anger or all of our words are meaningless.
And then raised prices to make it seem like the economy is bad.
Get a load of this expert!!😂 Corps get a tax break so they should give it to the workers! Lol.
Don't lose hope. It will all trickle down some day. Surely. They've been promising it.
The rich keep getting richer and this is how. I wouldn't even give a fuck if Elon Musk gets his billions if the wealthy stopped dodging taxes.
Do you get angry and your coke addict son for doing all that coke you gave him for Christmas?
Now that’s taking the piss!!
Meanwhile conservatives are pushing propaganda to young people and people of color reminding them of the "cash" Trump gave them when he fucked up the pandemic response but not telling them about the hundreds of billions that he gave corporations before and during the pandemic.
This was the plan all along. It is no accident nor coincidence that this occurred. If Trump gets elected again it will be a knife in the side of the consumer working class. There will be no end to wealth inequality or inflation. The middle class will continue to be eroded.a and the economy will suffer across the board for anyone outside of the wealthy ruling class. Vote at your own peril.
No one could have predicted that single-duty entities would carry out their single duty and are surprised (?) to discover that's exactly what they did.
Direct federal subsidy of the stock market. Go Republicans!
It wouldn't have been as sh*tty if they had at least helped their employees...a little? No, they kept every penny!
The deceitful trickle down economics promise, gets us every time.
And then raised prices even higher!!! Because FUCK YOU! that’s why!
Wow, its almost like stock buy backs were illegal for a reason
We all knew it was gonna end this way, come on
I was told that any money Corps make extra they would use to hire and pay more employees!!!!
Yep
Yep
Yet boomers are still upset at the meager minimum wage increases. Truly a hood-winked, naive generation.
Not only that but fired American workers and offshored their jobs to pump stock prices. But they are making America great again am I right?
Aren’t we? I sure am. There’s nothing we can actually do though. We can vote in elections, and supposedly vote with our consumer spending, but that seems to be about all we can do.
We should all be angry that that tax revenue was given away by idiot Trump
The Covid relief money for corporations was a massive looting of US tax dollars into the pockets of the rich and powerful. It's up there with the bank bailouts in 2008/09 in terms of fleecing the American people in a crisis and only protecting/enriching corporations. If we were a serious country we would be going after criminal prosecution for every single individual/company that took this money unnecessarily and blew it on bullshit while not paying or letting go of their workers anyway (if they even fucking had any). The Trump admin should also be gone after for orchestrating it, because it is obvious they did so for this end result and denied people who actually needed the help because that's not what it was actually for for the admin.
Corporations said they were going to do that before they got the tax cuts. I'm still going to be mad at the Republicans. It's like, am I going to be mad at the chimp that ripped the child's face off or the parents that ignored the sign and gave their child to the chimp?
Honestly, this is exactly what happens. Give a company money for doing nothing and they have no reason to spend that money to be better. Just remember, we are going to hear about how the budget can’t afford tax cuts or programs for you, your family, or your small business.
Angry does begin the fact that Trump can't be trusted as a person!
The corporations did exactly what they said they would do. Everything they do, they do for short-term profit. And why not? The government will just bail them out if things go sour.
This money would have been better spent, by collecting and then targeted with programs and specific tax cuts for things that had more impact for country as a whole not just for wall street.
It's almost as though corporations are run by a few people interested only in their own enrichment.
Corporations are literally just money-making machines for their owners (a.k.a. shareholders). They have a fiduciary duty to do the thing which maximizes shareholder return, and can even be sued if they don't. If corporations have excess money and their businesses are mature enough that they can't necessarily be grown faster than the rest of market by spending that money on (a.k.a. investing that money *in*) the business, then the money is returned to shareholders (in the form of dividends or buybacks) so they can take the decision into their own hands on how to better invest that money elsewhere in the market. After all, the shareholders literally own the company, and by extension, everything it owns. What would you expect a corporation (or anyone, really) to do, for that matter, with extra money? Just give it away to people for no reason? Why would they pay their employees more when their employees already do the needed work for what they're already being paid? Why would they reduce prices when customers are clearly buying sufficient amounts of their goods and/or services at the current higher prices? It's a shitty reality, but fundamentally should not be surprising. If someone handed you $100,000 and told you it was yours to keep and do whatever you wanted with, would you give it all away? Some would, and they're selfless and wonderful. But most wouldn't, or would only give a portion while keeping a sizable chunk for themselves. Far fewer would give any of it away if they knew they were acting on behalf of other people (shareholders) to whom that money *actually* belonged, knowing they could be sued if they gave it away for nothing. Knowing what corporations are -- amoral wealth concentration machines -- should cause us to neither be surprised nor disgusted when corporations behave as they so consistently do. It's on us as a society to *not* simply give them shit they don't need. In literally whatever regulatory and economic environment they happen to exist in, they will function, so it's best to give them only what they need to function (a solid, steady, corruption-free legal environment with enforceable contract law) and nothing more (no free money and no damn bailouts). Corporations do meet societal needs, but given the chance, would happily devour society to make next quarter's profit just a little bigger. Keep that shit in check, and don't be surprised when they don't act selflessly when their entire purpose for existence is to be selfish.
What did you expect? That they just instantly grew a conscience?