Transición Estructural .NET
General => The Big Picture => Mensaje iniciado por: Currobena en Diciembre 12, 2011, 10:22:53 am
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Informe de la organización Public Campaign donde detalla los gastos en lobbying ("conseguidores") y la evasión de impuestos de las grandes empresas en los Estados Unidos (en formato pdf):
http://publicampaign.org/sites/default/files/ReportTaxDodgerLobbyingDec6.pdf (http://publicampaign.org/sites/default/files/ReportTaxDodgerLobbyingDec6.pdf)
Recomiendo leerlo completo, porque es muy interesante. Sólo unas perlas:
- Treinta multinacionales gastaron más en lobbying (pagos para convencer a miembros del Congreso) que en impuestos durante los años 2008-2011.
- Por hacernos una idea, dicho gasto equivale a unos 476 millones de dólares, o unos 400.000 dólares diarios, incluyendo fines de semana.
- Durante dicho periodo ganaron dinero (más de 160 billones de dólares) y no pagaron impuestos en términos netos, recibiendo una ayuda estatal por valor de 11 billones adicionales.
- Mientras tanto, sus ejecutivos se pusieron unos salarios y bonuses por valor de más de 700 millones de dólares sólo en 2010.
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Pero la culpa de todo la tienen los funcionarios, que no trabajan. Y los autónomos por no declarar.
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Bueno, viéndolo así, la verdad es que el estado es una herramienta muy útil para esta gente. Más que para nosotros. Vamos, que Luisito tenía más razón que un santo.
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No se la quería quitar, todo lo contrario.
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(http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/PVpFY1.jpg)
Crowd-sourcing the revolving door
This chart of Venn Diagrams (New Year’s Day links) is a nifty visualization[1] that shows how many, many people, through the operations of Washington’s revolving door, have held high-level positions both in the Federal government and in major corporations. To take but one example, the set of all Treasury Secretaries includes Hank Paulson and Bob Rubin, which overlaps with the set of all Goldman Sachs COOs. The overlapping is pervasive. Political scientists and the rest of us have names for such cozy arrangements — oligarchy, corporatism, fascism, “crony capitalism” — but one name that doesn’t apply is democracy. On the flip, you’ll find a larger version of the chart (and a discussion of its provenance).
However, as at least one reader pointed out in mail, this visualization raises a methodological concern which, readers, I’m hoping you can help address. Here’s the big version:
The provenance of the chart:
ldsgeek [http://ldsgeek.tumblr.com/post/14479671292/this-is-crony-capitalism], to whom I linked, who got it from….
David Kramer [http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/101143.html], who got it from…
Stephanie Herman [http://www.geke.us/VennDiagrams.html], who created the diagrams and licensed them under Creative Commons.
(Kramer’s version consolidates Herman’s diagrams into a single file). Here’s Herman’s graphically dynamic Facebook page: Exposing Progressive Corporatism.
Which brings me to a methodological concern with Herman’s visualization: The dataset.
Herman’s honest: Her goal is to “expose progressive corporatism,” and — assuming for the sake of the argument that Ds are progressive, and that “progressives” are progressive — her chart does exactly that, and very effectively, too.
But what her data does not do is expose corporatism as such; there are very, very few Rs listed; it strains credulity that Hank Paulson was the only high-level GS alum operative in the Bush administration, for example, and if GS isn’t the Rs’ favorite bank, there’s surely another.
Hence, Herman’s chart, if divorced from context[2], might lead somebody — say, a child of six — to conclude that the only corporatists in Washington DC are Ds. Personally, I’d never assume that, but then I see the legacy parties as a single integrated system of shape-shifting weasels anyhow. And I don’t think NC readers need Child-Prufe™ caps on their links of the day. Pragmatically, however, from the standpoint at least of the Occupiers, the chart would be a good deal more effective if the dataset was more inclusive.
Revela, probablemente de forma incompleta, como comenta al final del artículo, el grado de "interrelación" entre los ejecutivos de las grandes empresas y los cargos políticos de alto nivel en los Estados Unidos.
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Hablando del pago de impuestos, los propios políticos y trabajadores públicos no los pagan en su totalidad...al menos en los Estados Unidos:
36 Obama aides owe $833,000 in back taxes
Posted 01/26/2012 08:18 AM ET
Pete Souza / White House (Obama addresses his White House staff, file)
Pete Souza / White House (Obama addresses his White House staff, file)
How embarrassing this must be for President Obama, whose major speech theme so far this campaign season has been that every single American, no matter how rich, should pay their "fair share" of taxes.
Because how unfair -- indeed, un-American -- it is for an office worker like, say, Warren Buffet's secretary to dutifully pay her taxes, while some well-to-do people with better educations and higher incomes end up paying a much smaller tax rate.
Or, worse, skipping their taxes altogether.
A new report just out from the Internal Revenue Service reveals that 36 of President Obama's executive office staff owe the country $833,970 in back taxes. These people working for Mr. Fair Share apparently haven't paid any share, let alone their fair share.
Previous reports have shown how well-paid Obama's White House staff is, with 457 aides pulling down more than $37 million last year. That's up seven workers and nearly $4 million from the Bush administration's last year.
Nearly one-third of Obama's aides make more than $100,000 with 21 being paid the top White House salary of $172,200, each.
The IRS' 2010 delinquent tax revelations come as part of a required annual agency report on federal employees' tax compliance. Turns out, an awful lot of folks being paid by taxpayers are not paying their own income taxes.
The report finds that thousands of federal employees owe the country more than $3.4 billion in back taxes. That's up 3% in the past year.
That scale of delinquency could annoy voters, hard-pressed by their own costs, fears and stubbornly high unemployment despite Joe Biden's many promises.
The tax offenders include employees of the U.S. Senate who help write the laws imposed on everyone else. They owe $2.1 million. Workers in the House of Representatives owe $8.5 million, Department of Education employees owe $4.3 million and over at Homeland Security, 4,697 workers owe about $37 million. Active duty military members owe more than $100 million.
The Treasury Department, where Obama nominee Tim Geithner had to pay up $42,000 in his own back taxes before being confirmed as secretary, has 1,181 other employees with delinquent taxes totaling $9.3 million.
As usual, the Postal Service, with more than 600,000 workers, has the most offenders (25,640), who also owe the most -- almost $270 million. Veterans Affairs has 11,659 workers owing the IRS $151 million while the Energy Department that was so quick to dish out more than $500 million to the Solyndra folks has 322 employees owing $5 million.
The country's chief law enforcement agency, the Department of Justice, has 2,069 employees who are nearly $17 million behind in taxes. Like Operation Fast and Furious, Attorney General Eric Holder has apparently missed them too.
As with ordinary people, the IRS attempts to negotiate back-tax payment plans with all delinquents, whose names cannot be released. But according to current federal law, the only federal employees who can be fired for not paying taxes are IRS workers.
Incluyendo varios asesores de Obama, que deben al fisco más de 800.000 dólares.
Enlace:
http://news.investors.com/Article/599002/201201260818/obama-white-house-staff-back-taxes.htm (http://news.investors.com/Article/599002/201201260818/obama-white-house-staff-back-taxes.htm)