You’re a serf bound to the land, doncha know?
U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has been a member of Congress for almost 28 years, and yet has never heard of the term “voting with your feet.” She sent a tweet out late Friday afternoon that “American families can’t just change their address to avoid paying taxes.” Huh?
The tweet was prompted by her anger directed at U.S. corporations that change their base of operations in order to keep their tax obligations down–a practice becoming more popular given that the United States has the world’s highest marginal corporate tax rate.
The most recent example is Burger King’s proposed merger with Canadian coffee and donut chain Tim Hortons, which has outraged Congressional Democrats, according to The Hill. Hence her tweet:
An American family can’t just change their address to avoid paying taxes. @HouseGOP, why can corporations? Let’s put the #MiddleClassFirst!
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Your analogy of Americans viewed as serfs is spot on, DrJohn.
In Europe, ethnic Europeans were no better than slaves when they were living under the serfdom system of governance.
Black Americans seem oblivious of that part of history.
So, what is it, willful blindness, that their favorite politicians want to impose slavery on them (and all the rest of us) yet they still vote Democrat?
Because Pelosi and her comrades don’t want people to start asking the simple question: “If all these companies keep leaving because of the US having the highest corporate tax rate in the world, why can’t we lower taxes to bring them back?”
See, these damned politicians cannot have people start paying attention to the lavish lifestyles these parasites live off our tax dollars. Evil, disgusting, selfish liars like Pelosi and Reid do not want citizens to come to the realization that these scumbags need high taxes to ensure sufficient numbers of lower income people for the politicians to bribe with sugar daddy government welfare handouts, thus maintaining a sizable voting base addicted to their government crack.
Remember, Pelosi was using DoD aircraft as her private airline for herself and family members to fly back and forth between SF and DC when she was Speaker of the House. These leftist scum – along with the damnable RINOs – consider themselves the American aristocracy, entitled to royal treatment and never to be questioned by the rest of us serfs. Orwell’s Napoleon describes Pelosi’s mindset perfectly:
“All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others.”
I can only hope I live long enough to see those like Pelosi get the karmic payback they so richly deserve when the dependent masses turn on them.
No doubt any representative of California would want as many California residents as possible to believe just that.
@Pete:
Just to clarify, before some leftist can pounce upon this and redirect the entire topic, the Speaker flying on a military plane was mandated by the Patriot Act. However, Pelosi could have used one of the Air Force’s Hawkers or Falcons; she didn’t HAVE to utilize the 767 every time. Also, she didn’t have to cart so many friends and family around with her. But, the Patriot Act mandated the use of Air Force jet.
Burger King corporate officers and owners might be more likely to view their workforce as serfs than Nancy Pelosi. Consider their employees’ rates of pay.
Pelosi’s actual point, of course, was that while corporations can move their corporate headquarters to minimize their tax obligations, the families of the minimum wage employees that make their corporate profits possible don’t have that option.
Great title for this….Pelosi: Americans aren’t free to move to avoid taxes
Consider this as Bill brought up:
Paid your taxes on time? Good, ’cause Nancy Pelosi needs to pay her tab.
Documents uncovered via a FOIA request show that Pelosi racked up over $101,000 of taxpayer dollars for “in-flight services.”
And by “services,” she clearly meant alcohol. Look at all the booze on this receipt pictured right! (Click link at bottom)
That single receipt makes up just part of the more than $101,000 taxpayers paid for “in-flight services” – including liquor, for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trips on Air Force jets over the last two years. That’s almost $1,000 per week.
Pelosi incurred expenses of some $2.1 million for her use of Air Force jets for travel over that same time.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/nancy-pelosis-in-flight-food-and-drink-costs-101000-2010-1#ixzz3DKnNX7FT
I wonder, IF our tax dollars meant anything to Pelosi, how much we could have saved?
Obviously she looks at our tax money as her private little slush fund.
And it’s odd, too, because, according to Obama, she is one of those people who have enough money already.
@Greg:
Tell us, Greggie, what do you think a hamburger flipper who has no high school education and can barely add or subtract single digits is worth in hourly wages? Hell, even the cash register tells then how much change to give when a person pays in cash and debit/credit cards are swiped by the customer.
But I guess you think all those Berger King workers are supporting a dozen kids instead of the reality that most of them are high school kids who work part time or high school drop outs.
Been to a Jamba Juice lately?
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-06/as-smoothie-store-sales-slow-jamba-juice-turns-to-machines
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-11-12/biggest-threat-minimum-wage-restaurant-workers-everywhere
Jamba Juice decided to radically transform its entire retailing strategy by getting rid of labor, cheap, part-time or otherwise, altogether.
Presenting the biggest threat to minimum-wage restaurant workers everywhere: the JambaGo self-serve machine that just made the vast majority of Jamba’s employees obsolete.
Other food franchises will watch closely and soon decide to roll out their own version of just this: a self-contained dispenser of a la carte prepared fast-food food, either liquid or solid, and in the process let go tens of thousands of their own minimum-wage employees, also known to shareholders as “costs.”
What happens after that should be clear to everyone: more unemployment, lower wages for the remaining employees, worse worker morale, but even higher profits to holders of capital.
And so on.
Because in a world in which technology makes the unqualified worker utterely irrelevant, this is what is known as “progress.”
What about Applebees?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-05/fast-food-workers-go-strike-100-cities-applebees-unveils-waiter-terminator
http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-applebees-presto-tablets-20131203,0,5940819.story#axzz2mRo2aKlj
“Applebee’s steps into the future to redefine and enhance the guest experience through the installation of 100,000 E la Carte Presto tablets, powered by Intel, on every table and multiple bar positions at more than 1,800 Applebee’s restaurants in the United States by the end of next year.”
The E La Carte Presto tablets – powered by Intel – will allow patrons to pay from their seats while also adding food and beverages to their existing orders. A pilot program helped customers save time, according to Applebee’s Glendale-based parent DineEquity.
“Let’s face it, everyone who has ever been to a restaurant has been frustrated by waiting for their check,” said Mike Archer, Applebee’s president, in a statement.
Eventually, the gadgets will also feature an expanded lineup of games, video streaming capabilities, music options, gift card sales and social media interaction. The Presto tablets, which were developed at MIT, have been “ruggedized” to deal with the spills and rowdy children common in such restaurants, according to the company.
Applebees is already taking steps at outsourcing its minimum wage waiters with tablets. Which incidentally is a brilliant idea, especially in a cost-cutting environment. So brilliant in fact that others are already joining in..
DineEquity said it might consider introducing the tablets at its IHOP restaurant chain as well. The company joins many others in the industry that have begun incorporating technology into the customer experience, installing ordering kiosks, equipping servers with mobile devices and more.
In other words, a funny thing happened as fast food workers were striking across the land – they were all just made obsolete courtesy of iPads.
We have a smaller chain in Utah called The Training Table.
They already have table phones to call in your order.
No servers.
Fast food employees who have allowed the UNIONs to trick them into these strikes have fallen for an old trick.
The UNION workers benefit if it works, the fast food employees lose their jobs if it doesn’t.
@retire05, #6:
That sound a bit like contempt.
@Greg: “What is he worth?” You were asked and, instead of providing an answer, you copped an attitude.
Let’s say wages get as untied from a mutual bargain as marriage has from family recently.
The government simply decides what a marriage is.
Now the government simply decides what a fair wage is…..$15/hour.
How would fast food eaters respond?
Pay all that much more for junky food?
Go to better restaurants?
Cook at home?
Buy from grocery store delis?
They have lots of options.
But the bottom line at the fast food places would drop.
So…..
Some few workers would come out ahead from a $15 fast-food wage: those with the most experience and the highest efficiency.
Sadly, employees who have no high school education and can barely add or subtract single digits, you know, marginal workers would be left behind.
See how the McDonalds in France replaced all the counter people with kiosks:
IIRC Obama wanted to force businesses to explain why they fire people…..so if they blamed ObamaCare he could go after them.
This one would be easy.
Profit/Loss.
@Greg:
Their workers aren’t forced into those jobs. They also aren’t forced to stay in those jobs. They can move onto other jobs that pay better. They can better themselves instead of waiting for government to come along and force higher wages on their employers. Most people have figured that out, you are a late bloomer I guess.
Maybe American families should simply pay their taxes with bad checks…
Meanwhile, far too many families and people on public assistance pay their taxes with other people’s money.
@Greg:
For those who squandered their free education, want nothing more than a stress-free job of packing fries and flipping burgers, then go out and march for a wage 3 times what they should be paid, they are contemptuous. Many, however, are zit-faced school kids working for gas money that are seeing a bonanza headed their way… until their jobs are deleted from the system.
What you and, apparently every other liberal (except those who have business and feel those rules don’t apply to them; the liberals who pay women less and use unpaid interns to the max) don’t realize or won’t accept is that business will not allow itself to be dictated that they should make unwise business decisions. That business will not be mandated to lose money. They will either eliminate jobs or move to an atmosphere in which they can flourish.
Business owners are not going to take on all the stress and worry, the risks of losing their investments and the ever present risk of a lawsuit for this or that for what they could make working for someone else. They will simply go do something else. The government may be able to pay people far more than they are worth and expect next to nothing out of them as far as productivity, but a for-profit business (that is not allowed to simply print more money or take it where it is available to cover short-falls in revenues) but real-world, real-life enterprises don’t get that free ride.
Businesses don’t care how hard up Democrats are for votes.
@FMB42:
They should be able to, indeed. Then when the IRS comes for their money, we should be able to simply say, “sorry, my hard drive crashed.”
@Greg: No, reality. A person is paid by the amount of contribution they can make to a business or organization. If those high school kids work hard and learn, they can become a manager with what they earned. Then maybe they can get a degree in hospitality and get a better job. None are slaves. They can all quit and pull down the government giveaways.
@Greg: Greggie, what’s your point?? Are you telling me that the option for minimum wage employee’s is hampered by our government?? Greggie, many of them illegally entered our country from Mexico and beyond!! Corporations move thanks to the corporate tax rate. Please tell me who in our government is stopping minimum wage workers from moving?? I’m sure you will tell be that along with Reid’s proof that Romney cheated on his taxes. You are an amazing liberal wacho with NO clue of reality!!
@Greg:
People move all the time over taxes. Don’t like the taxes in California, move to Utah or Texas. Don’t like the taxes in Illinois, move to Florida.
A minimum wage job is meant for people to become accustomed to going to work. Showing up on time and learning teamwork is all you’re supposed to be getting paid for. People that work at Burger King for the most part put condiments on sandwiches. I’m not demeaning their labor, I worked at a convenience store stocking shelves when I was 15 and 16. It’s a good experience. You’re supposed to move on and let the next group of people that want to learn basic skills get their shot.
A minimum wage job is not something that should be glorified as a career. People should know they are more valuable than that and start searching for a career path.
I believe what Pelosi said had more to do with the topic of tax avoidance than with the minimum wage.
@Common Sense, #14:
I think the word you’re looking for is wacko. It’s best to get this right, particularly if you’re going to complain about illegal immigration in the same paragraph.
@Greg: Thanks wack0 is the word!! Works best like liberal wacko!!
You have to love liberal hypocrisy.
If moving to an area with lower taxes is bad/unpatriotic, etc., why aren’t liberals/socialists attacking StartUp New York? (http://startup.ny.gov/tax-break-information )
These are all predicated on a business being ‘100% located in a tax-free area’; – but still, if a business relocates from a different state to one of NY’s new ‘tax-free’ zones in order to take advantage of the lower tax rate, why isn’t that an ‘inversion’?
Of course, it also means that even though they really don’t want to admit it in public, at some level, liberals *DO* understand the negative impact of high taxes.
@Greg: Then why did you bring up minimum wage!