🚀 go-pugleaf

Stuart Croall (umcroall@cc.umanitoba.ca) wrote:

: >Sounds reasonable... but how do you force businesses *not* to automate
: >their services? Unilateral decrees might work well in this newsgroup ;-),
: >but it's a little tougher to enforce them in the real world.

: Now I'm not saying we should force anyone to do anything, but governments 
: do offer incentives to do various things, and if automation is one of 
: them, perhaps it shouldn't be.  I'm not sure.

: >But remember, the unemployed are supported by taxes, and big businesses
: >don't give a damn as to where their tax money goes, mostly because they
: >don't pay any! So it's definitely more efficient for the taxpayers, but
: >the contrary for the businessmen. And, of course, the latter have more power
: >over government decisions.

: Well, tax the corporations through their nostrils then!!!  Maybe we can 
: tax foreign controled companies more to encourage companies not to 
: liquidate their assets to American (or other) investors.  Really, I just 
: came up with that, and no, I don't have any research or facts to back it 
: up.  It might be a little nutty.  I'll look into it for all you folks who 
: desperately want to debate me...

	Big business sure as hell pays tax!  In any corporation, the 
owners (shareholders) are taxed TWICE!  Once on the company's profits - 
thereby bringing down their dividends, and a second time (of usually 25%) 
on the dividends themselves!

	Everyone is this bleeding country raised a stink when they heard 
that Royal Bank earned in excess of $1.06B this year.  That is shit for 
them!  The have over $4B in current assets around the world, giving them a 
1:4 return on investment (current profits : current assets)....  In order for a 
company to stay solvent, they should at least have a 2:1 R.O.I., nothing more,
nothing less.  If they don't make at least twice the amount of their assets,
something's wrong with the way to do business.  If they make more, then they 
aren't re-investing their profits wisely.  Therefore, relatively speaking, 
Royal Bank had a terrible fiscal year!
	(By the way, a current asset is any asset that can be liquidated 
within one year, that is, turned into cash with a year.  Ie.  Cash 
itself, Vehicles, Buildings (sometimes), office furniture, etc)

	Stu, to refute you statement (to paraphrase, "Tax them through 
the nostrils then!").  What's going to happen if you tax a multi-national 
company to death?  obviously, they'll move out of Canada, to a less 
hostile country (ie. lower taxes), where they can make more.  Remember, 
tax breaks are just as much an incentive to stay in Canada to do business 
as tax hikes are to pushing company (and GDP) out.

Bye!
	
-- 
Mike Steele			| St. Catharines -- Canada's Canal City
msteele@freenet.niagara.com	|              Go Leafs!