Trump bullied Canada over ‘digital taxes’ – and Ottawa submitted
Trump bullied Canada over ‘digital taxes’ – and Ottawa submitted
The question now: will countries cave in to these threats or stick together and collect the billions they are rightly owed?
This is an excellent piece from Joseph Stiglitz.
Everyone should read it.
I agree with the Nobel Laureate in economics, Joseph E Stiglitz, who wrote this.
Of course, when the most profitable companies in the world don’t pay their fair share of taxes, it just shifts the burden on to others.
Apple was so successful in avoiding taxes in Europe that it is estimated that it paid in some years a tax of just 0.005% on its European profits.
Apple was so successful in avoiding taxes in Europe that it is estimated that it paid in some years a tax of just 0.005% on its European profits.
And that is why stealing from a corporation is not a crime. They have deprived you, personally, of benefits and services that your government can not afford because of tax dodging. They are killing you, personally, by privatizing your health care, by opposing electrification, by using single use plastics for nearly all packaging. They are keeping you, personally, poor by suppressing wages, raising prices, and outsourcing labour to markets where slavery is not only tolerated but the norm.
You can not injure a corporation, you can not hurt it's feelings. Pirate, lie, steal, cheat, get every penny you can from the 1% and use it to help the other 99.
Incredibly well said about corporate harms, thank you!
it is a basic human right to steal from those who haven't paid their fair share?
And that is why stealing from a corporation is not a crime.
Well, it literally is a crime because law is law and law is not ethics, but you could argue that it is morally okay due to the reasons you provided.
At that point it's not theft, it's reappropreation.
Apple can only pay so few in taxes? Goddamn they must be on the verge of bankruptcy. /s
You cannot believe how sick it is to open Lemmy and the first thing you see is a picture of Zuckerberg.
I hope Carney reintroduces it after these trade talks fail.
Carney isn't going to do any favors. He's leaning toward austerity measures to pay for the 5% budget pledge for NATO that he was strong armed into accepting and now has acquiesced to the demands of the Broligarchy.
He's not a leader, he's a banker
Don't forget, he's not just a banker, he was also the vice chair and chair of Brookfield, one of the world's largest residential real estate landlord, the largest residential landlord in San Francisco, accused of repeatedly violating indigenous rights in multiple countries.
But hey, I'm absolutely convinced he can fix the housing crisis in Canada!
He can... As in he knows very well how to, since he was one of the main culprit for years. I will eat my hat if he does though. But hey when I pointed that out during the election I was a Tankie and Trump supporter or something.
That's what I was hopingmthe plan was. We'll have to wait and see.
The last thing you do when a toddler throws a tantrum is give in to their demands. You reinforce their behaviour and teach them it works. Every child phsychologist can tell you that.
So why the fuck are world leaders, with the resources of an entire country, enabling this whiny man-child?!
Because they are also whiny man babies. Just a bit quieter about it.
The last thing you do when a toddler throws a tantrum is give in to their demands.
But when it's a toddler with a (nuclear) gun, you do have to tread very carefully and choose your battles wisely.
I can't say yet if Carney has currently made all of the most wise choices. I don't think anyone has enough information (including him) yet to make that call. Time will tell.
I certainly don't envy him this task.
The collective delusion of social power is being tested. I don't see the current configuration passing.
The media can keep bashing the Canadian government scrapping the tax. The last minute "capitulation" as many in the media is framing it as, while true, is also disingenuous on how Canada has to deal with the US given the cards it has in hand. Canada right now still relies heavily on exporting things to the US and keeping the US at the table talking is the best it can do right now until it can secure other trade deals around the world. Proximity matters and even more so when they are still is a superpower.
Canada still has many options despite this digital tax. What about banning US big tech? What about changing the rules about tech companies entering Canadian job space (and it doesn't have to be a tax)? Other countries have managed (eg. China, Denmark), so why can't Canada? The government can fight on one front, but Canadians themselves also have to. The boycott of travel to the US and of US goods clearly has made impact, but Canadians can do more. Support open source software like Linux, move away from Adobe and so forth. There are alternatives and some even Canadian ones. If we are to truly give the Canadian government good tools to fight, we too must do our jobs individually.
What did we get, cause it sure does seem like nothing.
I think the point is that by capitulating on this, Canada has gained time. Time to make deals with other countries as trade partners, time to source necessities (that they have gotten from the U.S. for literally decades) from other countries, and time to build up their own military might in case Trump makes good on his idiotic "51st state" bullshit.
We're in the middle of discussions right now. We don't find out what we gained or lost for a few more weeks.
Canadian companies, schools and government have deals with microsoft
Increasingly European governments are moving away from Microsoft to open source software.
That is an example (and a proven path) that Canada can follow.
And it's possible to push for change much more easily at this level instead of the federal overnight. TBH - microsoft is used because of the history of how computers were introduced in the NA market. If you look to China for example, they skipped the entire PC generation and went straight to mobile. Windows is not big player but rather things like 'superapps' that act more like an OS than an app. That's only scratching the surface because these apps are much more because they even have financialization (see WePay, AliPay). The other big alternative is MacOS which seems to be catching on in the post-secondary and consumer market this may lead to a change in the business playing field as the older generation retires and younger people move into the workforce.
What about reveting media ownership limits back to what they were previously?
Ask 10 economists, you'll get 10 different answers. But opinions are news now because we need to keep that train rolling in the new 24/7 news economy. My own opinion is that he "capitulated" to get the trade talks started again se he can get past that July 21st deadline and then proceed accordingly.
I also think it gives him a small bit of leverage too. They can always be reinstated the taxes since it was a 2020(?) bill with a deferred effective date
Yes if they don't get what they want or Trump is unreasonable they can certainly bring them right back.
This is a huge bargaining chip, and the Americans know this too...
Carney hasnt given us a reason to not believe in his ways yet, as much as the conservative opposition scream foul before anything has begun.
Yes, this hasn't closed the door forever (as far as I can tell), and Carney doesn't seem like an idiot, so I hold out hope this is some kind of maneuvering, and he's still as "elbows up" as he was on the campaign trail.
These companies have also devastated local news media markets, peddle propaganda and disinformation in our societies which they claim is not their job to moderate, through their investments in AI are poised to become some of the biggest polluters, and many of them profit a lot from the ongoing genocide in occupied Palestine which is being used as a warfare and AI training lab
We are clearly in the appeasement phase, I think that has been apparent for a while now
It isn't appeasement. It's negotiating with terrorists.
Rolling over and showing your belly never ever helps.
The answer: countries will cave in to these threats. For now, at least.
Alternative theory, the people pulling the strings are already in control, and Trump is the useful idiot who can be the bully/lightning rod for international ire.