Tim Cook on Taxes

[Arthur Hanson]

Apple CEO Tim Cook on tax code during 60 Minutes interview - Business Insider

Apple as is well known has 200 billion off shore. Who would you trust to use the money to the best benefit of the future of our economy, the current administration or Apple? Imagine what even a good fraction of this money could do if brought back to the US. Tech and economics cannot be separated and US companies currently keep two trillion off shore. This is key to where our tech sector is going to go and how fast and where. Who would you trust to manage money effectively and efficiently without corruption, Congress or the board of Apple?

PS The government already has more than enough money if they use it strategically, efficiently, effectively and with less corruption. It is past time for government to look in the mirror and take a very hard look at itself and for us not to believe in the free lunch.

 

[Daniel Nenni]

Interesting chart. So I pay a higher effective tax rate than Apple?

 

[Bernard Murphy]

Dan - If you had a way to reinvest in R&D you could lower your tax rate

 

[Arthur Hanson]

Dan, I bet you didn't include sales taxes, gas taxes, property taxes, vehicle registration fees and numerous other hidden taxes. The government is on a massive money grab any way they can get it. I personally wouldn't mind if they increased taxes if I got true value for my dollar. The problem is massive waste, misdirected projects, policies with massive negative value and actually rewarding total incompetnence in many cases and allowing flagrant abuse of work and retirement rules. Every single transaction should be put on the web, it's the public's money. If employees demand privacy they have the right to leave and work for the private sector and if contractors want it, they can do the same. All contracts of all types and every financial transaction should be posted in real time. The tools of Silicon Valley have made this possible. The Silicon Valley culture, Mark Benioff/Saleforce offered to fix it for free. I wish the government would adopt the Silicon Valley mantra of faster, better, cheaper also. Applying the tools Silicon Valley already has out there could lower costs substantially in many areas while rebuilding the faith of the people.

 

[Daniel Payne]

Arthur,

Our government is a monopoly, and no monopoly has an incentive to provide excellent service or improve the level or efficiency of service, because there is no alternative to a monopoly.

 

[Arthur Hanson]

Dan, I agree and they are extending this monopoly through corruption. In the guise of regulation they have effectively eliminated much of market forces for utilities, mass transportation, medical and numerous other areas they are expanding regulations at a horrendous rate. Now 30% of fields need a government license. Just look at K street in Washington with 41,000 registered lobbyists. Transparency is our best hope, all government transactions should be posted real time on the web, as should all contracts. Corruption likes to hide in the shadows, if it wasn't for the web, things would be even worse, look how dictators and non democratic countries hate the web. I also feel like Switzerland, we should have the right to vote on government labor contracts, just like the employees, it's our money. The only money the government has is the money they take from us, there is no GOVERNMENT MONEY. I hope Tim Cook and the leaders of the Silicon Valley culture come forward and make the changes needed to have real transparency. Our medical is the most heavily regulated that has given us 400% higher costs and 37th in quality, so this is a serious issue as far as our future viability, especially when you look at the 27 trillion and rising unfunded Medicare liability.

 

[cpetras]

Whenever candidates for governor come stumping through my little section of the state, I always try to challenge them on what exactly is the purpose of govt. Always met with no response. The best government is the least government. Todays headline is "3,200 WA prisoners incorrectly released early since 2002" 3,200 WA prisoners incorrectly released early since 2002 all probability the software was developed through a sweetheart contract to a favored campaign donor.

 

[kevinbrace]

Hi Arthur,

You seem to have a strong libertarian, small government streak in your commentary I see from time to time.
While you certainly do have the right to have your sincerely held political views and even express it (First Amendment of the United States Constitution), I sometimes feel like your commentary is too political and partisan in nature, at least for this relatively politically neutral forum like SemiWiki.com.
Of course, you are free to express them, but please expect someone like myself to challenge your views.
The problem I have with many libertarian conservatives type people is that they often take the infrastructure of the United States for granted, and behave like "we can have a cake and eat it, too" type of free lunch attitude and mentality.
Like many libertarian conservatives, you seem to imply that private businesses and wealthy people are all altruistic, and can do no harm.
Well, maybe you need to go study what happened during Great Depression and Great Recession to see that this is a very naive view of the world.
As for taxation and size of the government, I tend to belong to the camp that thinks that taxation on MNC corporations like Apple and wealthy (i.e., Top 1%, which probably includes you) is not terribly high, and this is certainly true compared to 50 years ago when corporations paid 20% of the total federal taxes (now it is around 10%) collected.
Oh, by the way, back then both camps had far less political power compared to today, probably due to the lasting effects of the Great Depression.

Sincerely,

kevinbrace

 

[Arthur Hanson]

Dear Kevin,I'm agnostic as to size and form of government, it's about transparency, honesty and integrity coupled with effective, efficient use of resources. The Scandinavian countries do an excellent job and they are generally socialist with high taxes. Switzerland is more democratic than we are by a large measure and do an excellent job. Singapore and Taiwan have also advanced their people and countries in a short time and have systems far different from ours or other western countries. China that has horrendous problems has also taken more people out of dire poverty in a shorter period of time than any country in history and has very severe problems. Look at the youtube video on this "A Tale of Two Systems".The US as one of the greatest countries in history has now become an empire in decline. We were able to advance at a blistering rate at the end of WWII for the rest of the world was destroyed and we were at peak production, efficiency and education. This was a one shot very rare aberration in history and will not be repeated. We now have to compete with the rest of the world. We do have the privilege of printing currency which is holding us up. Things like this work, until they don't and this day is fast approaching.The US government has become highly inefficient, wasteful and immoral. We have the world's most expensive military spending as much as the next twenty countries combined and have not won a war since WWII if you don't count Kosovo and Granada. Except for South Korea we have left things a far bigger mess than when we arrived. Our medical ranks 37th in quality while costing 400% more than the average industrialized country and Medicare alone has a 27 trillion unfunded liability and growing fast. We rank 35th in primary and secondary education with very, very high spending. We have more people in prison than the police states of Russia and China combined through grossly unfair and uneven enforcement of morals laws. When 75% of the people(Gallup 9/15) feel our government is corrupt we have a very severe problem.Although not perfect, I feel the Silicon Valley culture of high speed, high efficiency and high effectiveness in attacking challenges is unparalleled in human history. Semis and semi techology have played a key role in the shale oil revolution, solar, batteries, etc. and advancing every field they touch. While delivering more, better, faster, cheaper at an ever accelerating rate our government has not only been delivering less and less at ever greater cost, but spending more and more money with negative consequences. The war of poverty, drugs and military wars have actually had a great negative return they resources have been handled so poorly. In education and medical which are keys to a healthy society we have been dropping like a rock. I feel it is up to the Silicon Valley culture to step up the plate and try and right the ship for it is a proven success unmatched any where else in the world for delivering ever greater results at constantly lower costs in ever declining time frames. SemiWiki is a key part of this culture and you can't separate it from the world it is striving to make a positive change in. I truly admire the founders of SemiWiki for the culture they have helped nurture that is more solution oriented and effective than any culture out there. This shows that the founders not only care about themselves and the semi/tech world, but the world as a whole and I applaud and respect them for this. This shows they are not set in a rut when it comes to making the world a better place.