[Discuss] Effort to repeal Mass Tax on Software Services

[jack at coats.org (Jack Coats)]

In the long run, we are all in this together.  Even if you or your
industry is not 'directly' taxed, we the taxpayers still pay for
government spending.

It seems lots of people only want 'others' to pay, but we are the
others.  IMHO, corporations don't 'pay', their customers do.  For my
purpose, I will take one of the most flagrant 'fine the corporate
culprits' suit in recent history, the tobacco industry.  Yes, they
paid the fine, but it is their customers that paid for it (in higher
prices, that won't come down even after the 'fines are recovered'.

There is only one entity to pay.  Taxpayers.

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I just reread my diatribe, and you can stop reading here.  What
follows is at this point off topic, I think.  The rest is just
examples of govt 'punishing' companies, the law of unintended
consequences being applied, and what I saw as a 'ultimate' outcome.


Breaking up Standard Oil did no good in the long run.  The siblings
from Standard still exist and in some cases have grown, taken over
others, or have been taken over.  If you want to go chase them down,
you will find they are still, added together, the largest oil/gas
conglomerate world wide.  Some of the corporate pursuers like BP
(previously British Petroleum) purchased Amoco (one of the old
siblings of Standard Oil) and from friends still working there have
noted the corporate change that has made it a less friendly place to
work, even though they spend a LOT more on public relations.  Oh, if
you buy stock in BP, it is an ADR (a pseudo stock set up to allow US
citizens to by 'deposit receipts' of foreign companies, without having
to claim they own stock in a foreign company on their tax returns).


The Bell Telephone breakup was odd to watch.  Yes, the original AT&T
died eventually, but the most prolific of their siblings, Southwestern
Bell, started out by eating some of their sisters, then eventually
eating mommy, and assuming the AT&T name and deathstar logo.   The
current AT&T is larger than it ever was before $$ wise.  And without
the threat of being broken up like the old AT&T was, it has no need to
even display 'corporate good' or interest in the public as part of its
mission.  This has just turned the worst of AT&T into even a darker
company.


SUN computers was pretty good corporate citizen.  Not perfect but
pretty good.  Oracle has eaten it and killed the life of the vision of
SUN.  But IMHO there isn't much difference in Oracle and M$ ... both
are unclean in the area of corporate ethics and morals.


Yes, all these 'punished' the 'corporations', but really all it does
is shuffle desk chairs and for small shareholders, well they do get
punished and often loose everything.  Like in the GM and Chrysler
government takeovers.  There were several documented cases of
'lifetime' workers there investing their savings in 'corporate bonds'
that for years were considered 'safe' investments. (Yes, they screwed
up and did not diversify so if something did get 'wiped out' it would
be typically 10% that got wiped out. But that is another diatribe.)


Ok, now it is time to take a breath and go put on my pointy tin hat. :)