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DannyB chased by a bunch of wild rabid kangaroos writes . . .
Bernie Sanders introduces 'Stop BEZOS' bill to tax Amazon for underpaying workers
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) have introduced a bill that would tax companies like Amazon and Walmart for the cost of employees' food stamps and other public assistance. Sanders' Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies Act (abbreviated "Stop BEZOS") . . . would institute a 100 percent tax on government benefits that are granted to workers at large companies.
The bill's text characterizes this as a "corporate welfare tax," and it would apply to corporations with 500 or more employees. If workers are receiving government aid through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps), national school lunch and breakfast programs, Section 8 housing subsidies, or Medicaid, employers will be taxed for the total cost of those benefits. The bill applies to full-time and part-time employees, as well as independent contractors that are de facto company employees.
Sanders announced his plans for the proposal last month. He emphasized today that "this discussion is not just about Amazon and [Amazon CEO] Jeff Bezos." But as the bill's name would suggest, he's been particularly critical of Amazon and Bezos who became the richest person in the world (and modern history) last year. "The taxpayers in this country should not be subsidizing a guy who's worth $150 billion, whose wealth is increasing by $260 million every single day," [ . . . rest omitted . . . ]
Food stamps, School Lunch, Medicaid, great . . . but what about employees who must shop at Walmart?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by jelizondo on Thursday September 06 2018, @02:37AM (10 children)
I’ll tell you a true story. The company will remain unnamed as I did sign an NDA upon leaving, but the story is true.
I was put in charge of three stores owned by this corporation. The stores had been losing money or not making much more than rent and wages. I changed the sales people commission structure, revised the inventory jettisoning low turn items and made some other changes. First year, profits up 70% (not sales, profits). Second year, profits up 30%.
On the second year the board got in a fit over the amount of money sales people were making. Too much, they cried, we must reduce the commissions! I argued and argued to no effect. Look at the profits! Forget the commissions! They are making you money! They cut the commissions. I resigned. A couple of years later, two of the stores have closed and the other one barely makes a profit.
And on the board sits a gentlemen who has a PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago! Some people are too stupid to live, even if they are smart enough to get a PhD.
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Thursday September 06 2018, @03:11AM (5 children)
Yes. And notice the happy ending to your tale? They were stupid and they paid the price of failure. Odds are the sales reps you had built up found new opportunities since there is always a demand for proven high performing sales types. I have tried sales, I sucked hard at it but I saw some naturals at work and see what they bring to the world. That is how the game is supposed to work. The "invisible hand" of the marketplace is supposed to redistribute capital from the hands of the incompetent into the hands of the competent through the power of competition. Stupid is supposed to hurt.
Yes it means a lot of other people get hurt along the way but when stupid people have a lot of capital they HAVE to somehow be parted from it or that potential is locked up doing stupid things.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 06 2018, @03:37AM (4 children)
The price of failure is very expensive. Just think of how much gold is needed to make the parachute when they fail.
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Thursday September 06 2018, @03:59AM (3 children)
See another post nearby for details. Yes I see the problem with Officers being divorced from the risks out of proportion to their potential for big rewards for short term gains, even paper gains. But the ownership class is the ones who must take losses when they suffer a fool to lead a company into oblivion, and they do indeed suffer. So that part of the system still mostly functions.
Most people's philosophical problems come from mistaking our current system for Capitalism. They need to understand that we are closer to Communism than Red China, most of our remaining public displays of Capitalism are for show and for tradition. In short the world would be a lot better if people read some Moldbug.
Reading any measurable portion of Moldbug's output is a massive undertaking, but if everyone here would at least try a taste and comment, this one is pretty relevant to what I' trying to say:
Moldbug: Technology, communism [unqualified-reservations.org]
and the Brown Scare
The almost five years since it was written changes nothing, not even the upheaval of Nov 2016 or the shitshow since.
(Score: 2) by jelizondo on Thursday September 06 2018, @04:18AM (1 child)
Indeed, thanks! My point is precisely that capitalism has gone wrong, at least in the U.S. and many other places as well, but let’s not go there.
I think we agree that (true) capitalism has given humanity the most advances both scientifically and ethically, and should be considered the most efficient economic system, bar none.
Probably you will enjoy reading a pamphlet by Frederic Bastiat [bastiat.org] (published in 1848!) that in mind sums up pretty well what I think we should strive for.
(Score: 2) by Pav on Friday September 07 2018, @12:40AM
pffft... you mean post-WWII "golden age" USA? 90% top marginal tax rate, ~52% corporate tax rate... paying welfare not only for itself, but for Europe and Japan as well (through the Marshalll plan)? Or do you mean the roaring 20's (sandwiched between the Long Recession and the Great Depression)?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Dr Spin on Thursday September 06 2018, @08:52AM
Never underestimate the pain of being tickled with a soft pillow.
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by canopic jug on Thursday September 06 2018, @03:20AM (2 children)
And on the board sits a gentlemen who has a PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago! Some people are too stupid to live, even if they are smart enough to get a PhD.
That is just further evidence that degrees in economics or in business administration are fantasy-based and not grounded in empircal facts. Short term they are money makers for the grifters who acquire such degrees but long tem, they are killing the country. The anti-science trend has continued to become an anti-knowledge trend which has continued to become an anti-competency trend.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by jelizondo on Thursday September 06 2018, @03:53AM (1 child)
You are quite correct. Indeed, I worry that the anti-science trend will effectively kill the U.S. faster than any attacks from Russia or China.
The Russians and particularly the Chinese, have gone from the idiotic idea that peasants should run everything (look up the Great Purge or the Cultural Revolution for details) and understood that Science is the only way. Watch Yuval Harari [youtube.com] expound this view better than I could.
The advantage they have is that both Russia and China have authoritarian governments, so what Joe Sixpack thinks is irrelevant while in the U.S., Joe is electing representatives that want to bring back the 16th century.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday September 06 2018, @04:26AM
It's also a huge disadvantage. Science doesn't work so well in authoritarian societies.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 06 2018, @05:21AM
You call *him* stupid? You took the "high road" and had to look for a new job, the people in the stores along with the rockstar sales people either lost their jobs or had to find new employment, but Mr Economics PhD still sits under the moose's head. Profits have dropped, but so have costs, risk of key employees leaving and endangering profits has been eliminated, and his income has probably gone up. Furthermore, having a PhD on a board is sexy, so after a United Way dinner, his neighbor at the table set up a sweet new board position for him.