Tax Rates on Mars
I think countries should work together. Yes, yes I know. They already do. Sort of.
First, lets address the UN (haha). At this point, it’s practically an American hegemonic tool where "veto power" is just a polite way of saying "we decide." It’s fundamentally defunct. Basically every country has missed or flat-out failed to uphold UN-agreed targets, and we all know it doesn't actually matter. There are no consequences.
I don't mean like that, and I don't mean some countries. I think all the countries need to get together and set aside certain things.
Companies/corporations have a lot of power right now. Even if we ignore the ability to use money to influence people and politics, they control our lives and the way we live them. They employ us, and act like that is doing us a favor, so they monitor us "to be fair to them".
Not enough deliveries? Too many toilet breaks? Your mouse stopped moving for 15 seconds?
You're lazy, you're taking advantage. Employment is not a benefit, it's essentially a mandatory part of the current system. Acting like it isn't is simply a lie. I don't even need to get into the fact that they are constantly trying to un-employ us anyway.
Automation, self checkout, self service, AI.
Yes, some of these things are more "efficient", but always at the cost of flexibility and human suffering. Medical insurance claims being rejected by automated systems or AI and being practically impossible to appeal are a great example.
Maybe I'll talk more about that another time but for now, power. Companies/corporations have a lot of weight to throw around. As a result, governments and politicians are... hesistant to tax or punish them in any impactful way. "They'll leave" is a common excuse used whenever wealth or corporate tax rates are brought up. Though there is very little evidence of that actually happening. (turns out they like being where the money is) Even if it was the case, there's a very clear issue with that in my eyes. If they would leave, they have to go somewhere, and if that somewhere had any sense they would ALSO have a reasonable(high) wealth and corporate tax.
There is a global(ish) agreement to set a minimum of 15% corporate tax but 15% is a ridiculously small amount. Without a unified front it'll be incredibly easy for these companies to push the tax onto us. You can't just not buy a smartphone, you lose the ability to participate in life in some parts of the world.
Try accessing your bank account or ordering food from a person in a restaurant these days. (These complaints might be specific to my region but you get what I mean)
The issue being of course that this is not the case, now we all know that there are some countries that are still lacking in the infrastructure we would consider basic for the modern age. Corporations certainly would not go to these countries, regardless of the tax rate. I'm not sure how they would function in war zones or areas with no electricity, documentation, lawyers and internet.
Paper tax havens are an obvious loophole that I hope most people would agree shouldn't exist. A company should not be able to pretend they exist on Mars or some island in Bermuda where the tax rate is zero and therefore avoid tax. Where the workforce sits, where the sales happen and where the assets are is where the company actually operates. A globally enforced tax that is distributed to countries would effectively close that loophole. Funny as the idea of a pile of tax money sitting in Bermuda or on Mars may be.
This is why I say countries should work together, there should be a few issues we all agree are real. Big international corporations benefit and exploit countries globally, so there needs to be a unified stance against them to balance things. I'm not going to use the words world government (oops!) because I don't think that is actually a good idea but an actual functional body that can take action and set a global stance against corporations seems practical. There is no way for companies to "punish" a country if every country is in agreement. Once again, I will emphasise that historically companies have not left or punished countries because they go where the money is. Starbucks has no intention of fucking off to Sudan and closing all their US or UK branches. Similarly, you wouldn't see Facebook doing the same thing.
Now I know what people are going to say, shouldn't we look out for ourselves? If I'm British or Singaporean or whatever, I would prefer a huge multinational company stay and pay taxes to my country. That way I can benefit even if we could get more out of them. My answer is yes, go ahead and look out for yourself. But you need to think about it. Looking out for yourself "right now" is not the same as looking out for yourself tomorrow. Things aren't as simple as do they stay or go. Corporations having free reign allows them to take actions that we would generally disapprove of. Stock buybacks, mass layoffs and wage stagnation are just some of the tactics they use to inflate stock prices and enrich investors. The money that enriches investors is coming from us, all of us. All the people too poor to have a sizable amount of investment in stocks. What you think is a sizable investment is probably a drop in the bucket to them.
The obvious worry is that the administrative burden of a system like this would be insane. The real insanity is that the estimates for the amount of money corporations are avoiding paying NOW are so staggering it would easily cover the administrative costs. Don't forget that because they have all the leverage right now, the rates are lower than they should be anyway.
And to be honest, while I do think you should look out for yourself, maybe... just maybe, it would be nice if you could look out for your parents, your sibling, your cousin, the guy who lives next door, the old lady down the street...
It's not wrong to look out for yourself, but maybe if we had more, and the rich had less, you'd have the space and peace to look out for others too.