American workers who have paid all their lives for retirement security are being cheated. The fear of running out of money in retirement is America's greatest financial concern. According to the National Institute on Retirement Security, almost half (45 percent) of working-age households do not own any retirement account assets. The average working household has virtually no retirement savings. Conservatives say that Social Security is too expensive, and that cutbacks and a later retirement age are necessary. The sum total of tax underpayments, tax haven losses, corporate tax avoidance, and tax expenditures (most of which benefit the very rich) is over $2 trillion. Social Security costs less than half of that.
Nearly $2 of every $5 in potential 401(k) earnings is lost because of bank fees. An individual investing $1,000 a year for 30 years (with the historical 6% return) and then holding the accumulated sum for another 20 years would end up with $269,000 in a non-fee fund, but just $165,000 with the industry average 1.3% fee. In the individual states, banks have their fee-absorbing tentacles wrapped around employee pension plans. In Rhode Island it is projected that $2.1 billion in fees will be paid to hedge funds, private-equity funds, and venture-capital funds over the next 20 years, about equal to the amount saved by freezing Cost of Living Adjustments for public workers. In Detroit, $250 million in bankruptcy expenses was doled out to firms that employ lawyers, accountants, financial analysts, and public-relations consultants. In South Carolina, the plunge by pension managers into private equity and hedge funds has resulted in $1.2 billion in fees since 2008.
Many US states are reneging on pensions that workers have been paying into for years. Illinois, Michigan, California and a slew of other states have mismanaged and squandered funds that belong to their employees, and then, in effect, have blamed those employees for the mess by penalizing them with pension cuts. One of the reasons for the shortfall is corporate irresponsibility. In 2011 and 2012, 155 of the largest companies paid just 1.8 percent of their total income in state taxes (3.6 percent of their declared U.S. income). The average required rate for the 50 states was 6.56 percent in 2011. Similar results were found in a Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ) report on 2008-10 state taxes, which found that 265 large companies paid an average of 3 percent in state taxes, less than half the average state tax rate. How much money is this? The missing 3% tax on over $2 trillion in profits is anywhere from $30 billion to $60 billion. Instead of taking on the delinquent corporations, states have increased sales taxes and property taxes, while building up their regressive lottery systems to the point that eleven states collected more revenue from their lotteries in 2009 than from corporate income tax.
On the pretense that their presence enriches the people of their home states, and that subsidy-green pastures lie right across the border, companies have cunningly negotiated tax-cutting deals in return for the promise to stay, even though the New York State Tax Commission, has said: "There is...no conclusive evidence from research studies conducted since the mid-1950s to show that business tax incentives have an impact on net economic gains to the states above and beyond the level that would have been attained absent the incentives."
A Good Jobs First report describes the process, which costs state and local governments up to $80 billion a year. Dozens of deals have been contrived, at least ten each in Michigan, New York, Ohio, Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, and New Jersey. Sixteen states have enacted the Private Income Tax (PIT) diversion, by which employers rather than governments get to withhold state income taxes from employee paychecks and to keep all or some portion of the funds.
Illinois' pension mess has its roots in corporate threats to bolt the state: $100 million to Motorola; $150 million to Sears; $56 million to Boeing to bring its headquarters to Chicago; and nearly $200 million to Caterpillar, which paid only 2 percent of its U.S. income in state taxes in 2011-12, and whose CEO called Illinois "unfriendly to business." Meanwhile, other Illinois companies are trying to get in on the handouts. Agribusiness leader Archer Daniels Midland is threatening to leave the state. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange made a big fuss over its tax bill in 2011, even though its 2008-10 profit margin was higher than any of the top 100 companies in the nation. Washington is another state being victimized, at the hands of Boeing, which according to Citizens for Tax Justice paid nothing in federal taxes over ten years and nothing to Washington in state taxes, despite $32 billion in pretax U.S. profits. Now, while engineering a bidding war among multiple states, the company has wangled the nation's single biggest state tax break ($8.7 billion over 16 years) while informing its employees that their pension and benefits will be slashed. In California, the tech giant Apple has its own way of dealing with state taxes, claiming residency in tax-free Nevada.
Taken from here
The whole system is rigged to favor capitalist profits. It's time to change the system! The corporations’ goal is Profits, Profits and more Profits. Profit is their oxygen. If you are sitting around waiting for the governments to make the world a better place you are going to be sitting for a very long time. Every thinking person knows all about the Wall Street swindlers, the greedy banksters, and the corporate thieves. The only problem is that despite this widespread knowledge of who the crooks are and what they're guilty of, nothing will be done about it. Time for us all to start fighting for socialism before it is too late.
Nearly $2 of every $5 in potential 401(k) earnings is lost because of bank fees. An individual investing $1,000 a year for 30 years (with the historical 6% return) and then holding the accumulated sum for another 20 years would end up with $269,000 in a non-fee fund, but just $165,000 with the industry average 1.3% fee. In the individual states, banks have their fee-absorbing tentacles wrapped around employee pension plans. In Rhode Island it is projected that $2.1 billion in fees will be paid to hedge funds, private-equity funds, and venture-capital funds over the next 20 years, about equal to the amount saved by freezing Cost of Living Adjustments for public workers. In Detroit, $250 million in bankruptcy expenses was doled out to firms that employ lawyers, accountants, financial analysts, and public-relations consultants. In South Carolina, the plunge by pension managers into private equity and hedge funds has resulted in $1.2 billion in fees since 2008.
Many US states are reneging on pensions that workers have been paying into for years. Illinois, Michigan, California and a slew of other states have mismanaged and squandered funds that belong to their employees, and then, in effect, have blamed those employees for the mess by penalizing them with pension cuts. One of the reasons for the shortfall is corporate irresponsibility. In 2011 and 2012, 155 of the largest companies paid just 1.8 percent of their total income in state taxes (3.6 percent of their declared U.S. income). The average required rate for the 50 states was 6.56 percent in 2011. Similar results were found in a Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ) report on 2008-10 state taxes, which found that 265 large companies paid an average of 3 percent in state taxes, less than half the average state tax rate. How much money is this? The missing 3% tax on over $2 trillion in profits is anywhere from $30 billion to $60 billion. Instead of taking on the delinquent corporations, states have increased sales taxes and property taxes, while building up their regressive lottery systems to the point that eleven states collected more revenue from their lotteries in 2009 than from corporate income tax.
On the pretense that their presence enriches the people of their home states, and that subsidy-green pastures lie right across the border, companies have cunningly negotiated tax-cutting deals in return for the promise to stay, even though the New York State Tax Commission, has said: "There is...no conclusive evidence from research studies conducted since the mid-1950s to show that business tax incentives have an impact on net economic gains to the states above and beyond the level that would have been attained absent the incentives."
A Good Jobs First report describes the process, which costs state and local governments up to $80 billion a year. Dozens of deals have been contrived, at least ten each in Michigan, New York, Ohio, Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, and New Jersey. Sixteen states have enacted the Private Income Tax (PIT) diversion, by which employers rather than governments get to withhold state income taxes from employee paychecks and to keep all or some portion of the funds.
Illinois' pension mess has its roots in corporate threats to bolt the state: $100 million to Motorola; $150 million to Sears; $56 million to Boeing to bring its headquarters to Chicago; and nearly $200 million to Caterpillar, which paid only 2 percent of its U.S. income in state taxes in 2011-12, and whose CEO called Illinois "unfriendly to business." Meanwhile, other Illinois companies are trying to get in on the handouts. Agribusiness leader Archer Daniels Midland is threatening to leave the state. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange made a big fuss over its tax bill in 2011, even though its 2008-10 profit margin was higher than any of the top 100 companies in the nation. Washington is another state being victimized, at the hands of Boeing, which according to Citizens for Tax Justice paid nothing in federal taxes over ten years and nothing to Washington in state taxes, despite $32 billion in pretax U.S. profits. Now, while engineering a bidding war among multiple states, the company has wangled the nation's single biggest state tax break ($8.7 billion over 16 years) while informing its employees that their pension and benefits will be slashed. In California, the tech giant Apple has its own way of dealing with state taxes, claiming residency in tax-free Nevada.
Taken from here
The whole system is rigged to favor capitalist profits. It's time to change the system! The corporations’ goal is Profits, Profits and more Profits. Profit is their oxygen. If you are sitting around waiting for the governments to make the world a better place you are going to be sitting for a very long time. Every thinking person knows all about the Wall Street swindlers, the greedy banksters, and the corporate thieves. The only problem is that despite this widespread knowledge of who the crooks are and what they're guilty of, nothing will be done about it. Time for us all to start fighting for socialism before it is too late.
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