Leo D.M.J. Aurini - July 21, 2015


Unlikely Economics： Destroy the Corporations


Episode Stats

Length

8 minutes

Words per Minute

122.20033

Word Count

1,013

Sentence Count

69

Hate Speech Sentences

2


Summary

I don't like corporations for a variety of reasons. They seek to only profit without considering the human consequences, the moral consequences of any of this. However, I'm in complete agreement with my colleague, Aaron Clary, the man who puts joy into the dismal science, that corporations should not be taxed. Why not? Well, the simple free market explanation is that everybody that works for the corporation is already being taxed. When you tax a corporation, you're double taxing them. And since most of the stuff we buy is made by corporations, all you're doing is raising the price of everything, but you don't notice it because people don't see it.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 I
00:00:29.980 Unlikely Economics Episode 2
00:00:32.540 Destroy the Corporations by Not Taxing Them
00:00:37.140 Now, folks, I don't like corporations for a variety of reasons.
00:00:44.640 I'm very suspicious of them.
00:00:46.920 They are effectively legal people that are complete psychopaths.
00:00:52.660 They seek out only profit without considering the human consequences, the moral consequences.
00:00:59.980 Of any of this.
00:01:01.980 And the people, they're essentially artificial intelligences whose operating system is written in the legal code,
00:01:11.340 but whose substrate, what they run off of, is human brains.
00:01:17.140 So everybody involved in the corporation is running a software algorithm that is a psychopath,
00:01:23.280 even if they themselves aren't.
00:01:25.140 And the net result is something that's nearly sentient and doesn't care about humanity.
00:01:32.140 So I am not a fan of corporations.
00:01:33.820 However, I'm in complete agreement with my colleague, Aaron Clary,
00:01:41.460 the man who puts joy into the dismal science,
00:01:44.760 that corporations should not be taxed.
00:01:47.600 Why not?
00:01:48.940 Well, the simple free market explanation is that
00:01:52.420 everybody that works for the corporation is already being taxed.
00:01:57.560 Corporations don't have money, okay?
00:02:02.560 The money they have, it all gets spent.
00:02:06.700 You know, like maybe they save some up for a large investment,
00:02:10.120 or they invest it somewhere else,
00:02:12.540 but the corporation itself,
00:02:14.640 even though it's legally equal to a person,
00:02:17.300 is not actually a person.
00:02:18.460 And now people,
00:02:22.760 everybody that works for the corporation,
00:02:24.280 from the lowliest employee up to the CEO himself,
00:02:28.160 they all pay taxes on this.
00:02:31.980 So when you tax a corporation,
00:02:33.840 you're double taxing.
00:02:36.000 And since most of the stuff we buy is made by corporations,
00:02:39.960 all you're doing is raising the price of everything.
00:02:42.940 But you're hiding the price.
00:02:45.780 There is nothing worse than a hidden tax.
00:02:47.680 Because people don't feel it.
00:02:49.620 They don't see it.
00:02:50.880 When you actually pay your taxes,
00:02:53.580 you are forced to ask yourself,
00:02:56.120 am I, and what I, what I'm getting?
00:02:58.640 Is it worth it?
00:03:00.680 Yeah, I'm paying 40% of my income in tax.
00:03:03.980 Am I getting good quality services because of this?
00:03:09.020 But when it's a hidden tax,
00:03:10.420 when it's a tax on the corporation,
00:03:12.180 you don't notice it.
00:03:14.720 So that's the pure free market argument.
00:03:17.680 Now, I'd like to take this a step further
00:03:19.800 and argue that we shouldn't tax corporations
00:03:22.400 because they're terrible.
00:03:25.580 When you tax a corporation,
00:03:27.980 you're doing two things.
00:03:30.360 First of all,
00:03:31.740 you're making the government
00:03:33.260 reliant upon the corporation.
00:03:36.840 Suddenly, the government,
00:03:38.380 if they're getting a substantial part of their revenue
00:03:40.720 by taxing corporations,
00:03:42.040 they're going to rely upon the continued existence
00:03:45.140 of those corporations.
00:03:47.640 And the corporations themselves,
00:03:49.500 especially with the growth of things going multinational,
00:03:54.180 they can seriously threaten the government.
00:03:56.620 Now, if they weren't being taxed,
00:04:01.420 you might say,
00:04:01.820 well, they could threaten to leave
00:04:02.980 and then nobody would have a job.
00:04:06.200 Bullshit.
00:04:07.520 The fact of the matter is that
00:04:09.040 if there is an industry that is profitable,
00:04:12.020 if there is oil to be dug out of the ground in Alberta,
00:04:15.840 if there are trees to be knocked down in BC,
00:04:20.380 somebody will be doing that.
00:04:22.960 And a corporation can't just up and disappear.
00:04:25.860 There are still going to be the infrastructure.
00:04:28.100 There are still going to be the skilled people.
00:04:29.820 If the corporation leaves,
00:04:32.460 then all those people can take up
00:04:34.300 doing exactly what was being done.
00:04:36.940 They can form their own businesses to do this.
00:04:40.020 It's going to be a disruption,
00:04:41.640 but it won't be fatal.
00:04:44.080 Whereas when the corporation is relied upon
00:04:46.840 to pay these taxes regularly,
00:04:49.100 then they can directly and immediately
00:04:52.460 threaten the government.
00:04:57.140 Second point is that
00:04:59.780 when the corporation is being taxed
00:05:01.940 and regulated and monitored,
00:05:05.100 because we voted in some Soviet-style
00:05:07.960 left-wing government
00:05:09.080 that hates business and hates success,
00:05:12.220 and it's this populist platform
00:05:13.980 that we're going to make the corporation
00:05:15.560 pay for all of your taxes.
00:05:17.580 You won't be taxed anymore.
00:05:18.700 We'll tax the corporation.
00:05:21.060 Well, all of a sudden,
00:05:22.020 now the corporation,
00:05:23.460 which again,
00:05:23.900 is a complete psychopath.
00:05:25.540 The corporation doesn't care
00:05:26.600 how the countries run.
00:05:27.940 The corporation will support
00:05:28.960 gay marriage if it's popular.
00:05:30.380 It will be opposed to gay marriage
00:05:31.600 if it's popular.
00:05:32.800 You know, it's a psychopath.
00:05:33.840 It doesn't care about anything.
00:05:35.700 All of a sudden,
00:05:36.540 now that you're regulating it,
00:05:38.460 now that the populist government
00:05:40.260 has all these opinions on corporations,
00:05:42.280 the corporate entity,
00:05:45.040 it's now interested in government.
00:05:49.540 And ultimately,
00:05:52.120 what this all comes back to
00:05:54.560 is what is a corporation?
00:05:56.720 It's a legal entity
00:05:59.500 that our governments created.
00:06:03.900 A limited liability corporation
00:06:06.160 exists only because governments
00:06:09.020 say it exists.
00:06:11.080 It's a legal fiction.
00:06:13.760 And I think that
00:06:17.080 with every corporation,
00:06:18.580 we should be looking at it
00:06:19.740 and saying,
00:06:20.880 is this legal fiction
00:06:22.080 good for our country?
00:06:24.420 Is this legal fiction
00:06:26.000 good for our society?
00:06:29.340 Now, as the individual shareholder
00:06:31.420 of a corporation,
00:06:32.300 certainly it makes a lot of sense.
00:06:34.200 You know,
00:06:34.480 you are no longer liable
00:06:35.880 for the damage
00:06:36.920 that your company causes.
00:06:38.720 You know,
00:06:38.940 you can wash your hands of it all.
00:06:43.340 And there's certainly cases
00:06:44.640 where corporations
00:06:45.400 do make a lot of sense.
00:06:47.700 For one thing,
00:06:48.760 they preserve knowledge.
00:06:50.360 They preserve patents
00:06:51.620 that with a small business,
00:06:53.800 with a family-owned business,
00:06:55.820 those patents
00:06:56.820 could easily be lost
00:06:58.300 if none of your kids
00:06:59.140 want to become a cobbler.
00:07:01.720 Corporations are very good
00:07:02.680 at preserving that.
00:07:03.340 They do have their uses.
00:07:05.460 But an over-reliance upon them
00:07:07.260 does kind of result
00:07:08.780 in this corporate
00:07:11.320 left-wing dystopia
00:07:12.560 that we have right now.
00:07:15.360 So, me,
00:07:16.340 I don't like corporations
00:07:17.380 for the most part.
00:07:18.540 Which is why I try
00:07:19.380 and use small businesses
00:07:20.540 whenever I have the choice.
00:07:23.200 And which is why
00:07:24.380 I don't think
00:07:25.000 they should be taxed.
00:07:26.380 Because if we stop
00:07:27.520 taxing corporations,
00:07:29.240 it's easier
00:07:30.180 to get rid of them.
00:07:32.440 Taxing them to death
00:07:33.380 just guarantees
00:07:34.660 their longevity.
00:07:36.380 If you actually want
00:07:37.860 to encourage
00:07:38.440 entrepreneurship
00:07:39.040 and small businesses,
00:07:40.580 you should be advocating
00:07:41.760 that we get rid
00:07:42.720 of the taxing corporations.
00:07:45.400 This has been
00:07:46.140 Unlikely Economics.
00:07:48.440 Irini out.
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