The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

How to Save Billions in Taxes

Jul 14, 2008

Over 800 of the biggest companies in the country have made an extra 265 billion dollars as the result of a complicated law passed in 2004. The law was touted as encouraging U.S. companies to bring foreign profits home where they would invest and create more jobs.

Here’s what companies did instead: They bought back company stock, enriching stockholders and speculators in financial markets. For example, Pfizer in those years paid out 17 billion dollars to its stockholders and Hewlett-Packard paid out 13 billion dollars. They invested in “labor-savings” plans to cut jobs.

The one thing they didn’t do was create more jobs–and nonetheless the politicians dared call this tax law the “American Jobs Creation Act”!