What exactly is the point of that though brad? I'm not going to defend GE up and down, I'm sure they've cut some jobs like everyone. But - Sanders was asked simply to bring up a specific company in his attack on corporate America from the Daily News. He could've cited any company. and he had unnecessary, harsh words, here's the transcript: Daily News: I understand that. I wanted to draw a distinction, though. Because in your speech you mention the financial industry and you focused on corporate America, the greed of Wall Street and corporate America. So I wanted to get a sense of corporate America, as the agent of American destruction. Sanders: General Electric, good example. General Electric was created in this country by American workers and American consumers. What we have seen over the many years is shutting down of many major plants in this country. Sending jobs to low-wage countries. And General Electric, doing a very good job avoiding the taxes. In fact, in a given year, they pay nothing in taxes. That's greed. That is greed and that’s selfishness. That is lack of respect for the people of this country. http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/...-meets-news-editorial-board-article-1.2588306 --------- I think its pretty noteworthy that he could've named any company. In a discussion of corporate greed and companies leaving this country, surely countless examples! especially for someone so passionate about the subject! And he chooses to name one of the top 10 biggest employers in this country. And by top 10, that puts them in the company of the likes of Wal Mart, McDonalds, Kroger, Home Depot, etc.... certainly a job with General Electric, any job with General Electric, is going to pay better than those companies. (outside of CEO of course). Honestly IMO he chose to pick the one company I would NOT choose. GE pays their employees well, is one of the biggest employers in this entire country, spans multiple industries, which I think is noteworthy as well since it creates jobs for numerous other suppliers to GE. Their competitors, the likes of Siemens, Honeywell, UTC, they dont even compare to the history and current investment GE has in this country and its employees. To me it was Sanders just popping off like an idiot. And to suggest they pay NOTHING? in taxes?
But the things about GE he cites are true; they don't negate the things you cite which are no less factual and there was a year within the last decade, I believe, when GE's net income tax was indeed zero. The problems though, are not with GE and are with the tax code and laws that allows that to happen. Not just the tax itself, but with loopholes that allow industry to avail themselves of credits even as jobs are moved offshore and American jobs are abandoned. Certainly GE is not the only example of a multinational corporation that uses our laws to their own corporate benefit that often does not translate to a benefit for their workers or the public in general. Only seeing a snippet of the interview leaves one asking if Sanders actually intended to besmirch GE or was simply commenting on the system that allows, even encourages, such corporate actions. Immelt's comments, while strongly directed at Sanders' comment, certainly indicate he understands change is long overdue. That message needs to get to the American people but Sanders is not the guy to carry it, or anything other than that cardboard box out of his office.
Well the link to the entire interview is there in my post so you can try and decipher for yourself if Sanders is trying to make a well thought-out argument about the overall landscape or not. Having read the entire interview IDK how anyone can possibly see practically any good opinions myself and the GE comments were completely unprovoked. The point was he always attacks corporate america and the interviewers simply wanted him to explain a little of the 'hows' and 'whys'. The 'hows' were far, far, much worse than the whys. And the GE comments are an example of the 'whys' so you can see how he's lacking big time there as well. -- I am for the most part a liberal. I "get" the idea of trying to do something about corporate greed. A lot of my friends are Sanders people. I was never really a fan but I was keeping an open mind about him. After this interview there's no fucking way I would ever vote for that man. Its like they grabbed a guy straight from the front lines of the OccuCRY Wall Street protest line and made him a presidential candidate. His opinions are actually pretty "Trump like" in that he offers no solutions just bitching about the way things are, and he's got kind of a warped sense of the way things are as well.
We're not better off in a world where weak national governments are dominated by strong transnational corporations. That's the world we're moving towards and it's a world that GE is helping to bring into place.
bernie was at marist college today screwing up traffic for my commute home. coincidentally gas prices rose $.06 today. i feel like he is already costing me money
48,000 people (including me) in and around Washington Square Park for Bernie last night. Nothing to see here, folks.
It was 47k + 1,000 pickpockets who joined in when they realized nobody in the crowd had anything worth stealing.
I wasn't impressed until I saw that 48k included you. Bernie is losing the popular vote to Hillary by a couple million and will get smoked in NY Tuesday. Thank God we don't have to worry about that clowns tax plan ever becoming reality.
Actually Bernie's tax plan is the only plan that any candidate still running has that addresses the deficit, let alone the national debt. We're going to have to tax more moving forward. We can't cut our way out of $20 trillion dollars in debt. Everybody knows this. How reality has failed to penetrate the supply side thought bubble after nearly 4 decades of failure is beyond me.
Question for you: when do you think the US had the most effective tax system? Give me a time period or a specific year.
Yeah let's take 150$+ out of everyone's paycheck.. That'll really stimulate the economy. People can barely afford living now. Take away half of it? Goodluck.
