Link (here) to the full article by Fr. Fred Krammer, S.J. at The Jesuit Social Research Institute
Monday, May 2, 2011
Fr. Fred Krammer, S.J. On Taxes
Link (here) to the full article by Fr. Fred Krammer, S.J. at The Jesuit Social Research Institute
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Funny stuff coming from a guy who has never paid a dime in taxes in his life, doesn't have a mortgage, all education expenses paid, gets free room, board, clothing allowance, car allowance, etc., etc.
I worked for Steve Jobs. He didn’t stay in hotels, instead he bought houses every place he might travel. He had closets lining his office wall and often changed several times a day, simply throwing his expensive custom clothes into the office trash can. He abandoned his 140K Porsches everywhere since he had a standing order to have new ones delivered each month. He would park anywhere, and allow them to be ticketed and towed away. He hid money in indirect ownership of offshore corporations (pre-buying offshore parts and computers at low cost and reselling them to the company, lowering company profit, lowering company taxes, and transferring wealth to him) so that he would not have to pay taxes – legally. The people I spoke with estimated that half his billions in wealth is hidden offshore. Of course, the wealthy have set up laws so that we cannot track this money.
The executives that I’ve spoken with (at two other Fortune 500 companies) tell me that this use of offshore corporations is standard practice. All these corporations use the same few accounting firms, and hide the profits in a maze of offshore corporations owned by bankers, executives, and investors.
Steve is believed to be “self-made”. But he hires lots of PhD’s from schools in order to try to make products from their research. Like other businesses, he literally built his fortune on the resources provided by our society – the very society where he avoids paying taxes.
I support either raising or lowering taxes if that is what our society wants. But we are being deceived. No one knows how much money corporations hide, bankers hide, investors hide, and executives hide. Instead, we have laws that guarantee that we cannot track or stop these practices. Perhaps more important to Jesuit concerns, if we changed education practice, we could change business practice and change government practice.
Very interesting Tony D!
JMJ
Joe
Unfortunately, I have many similar stories of corruption in corporations and government. But we have the opportunity to improve the situation. We have the opportunity to give direct public control to government, education, and corporations.
This improvement will involve sacrifice. Sacrifice of interpretations. Sacrifice of truth. Sacrifice of life. But these sacrifices are desired, and are consistent with God’s most important commandments. I should point out that these sacrifices are small compared to the sacrifices that have already been made to make this opportunity possible. Those costs have been higher than I have the ability to communicate.
If this is his money, Tony D., how can this possibly be corruption? If I choose to buy a home in the country with money from what I have spent my entire life saving, and then burn it, as long as I am not endangering anyone's life or property, why is this of your concern?
I know people who worked directly for Steve Jobs (which I suspect is not your experience) and they speak about him as being a brilliant, hard-driving boss. Your comments demonstrate a naivete that is incredible. Do you think that two (unnamed) "executives" for Fortune 500 companies represent a statistically representative sample? There are 27.5 million businesses in the U.S. (http://web.sba.gov/faqs/faqindex.cfm?areaID=24) and if each only had one executive (that's not accurate, obviously), a sample of 2, or 20, or 200 is irrelevant.
You just want wealth redistribution according to what you believe is "fair". Well come on over to my home and you can feed me, maintain my home, pay for my grandchildren's schooling, wash and wax my car, clean my butt when I'm old and sick, and take care of me in retirement. Then I will distribute to you what I believe to be "your fair share".
Tony D., the problem that you have is that you repeat other people's stories without factual back up and these stories get bigger and bigger. You may question Steve Job's use of personal resources, but he has made a far greater positive impact on the world's society than you could ever dream of making.
Defending Fr. Fred Krammer on taxes is like defending Hugo Chavez's Venezuelan wealth distribution programs; Chavez skims the first $10 billion and spreads the rest around in alcohol, T-shirts and $10 bills. Krammer is a Jesuit intellectual fraud; he speaks neither for the Society of Jesus, the Catholic Church or Loyola University of New Orleans, where he politely receives room, board, health care and retirement benefits while adding little to society.
It is said that you can tell people from the friends they choose; think about that.
And just remember: it's always less painful to sacrifice other people's wealth than your own. Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of Great Britain (probably before you were born) said it well: "The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."
Now, clean yourself up, brush your teeth, take a shower, put on some clean clothes and go get a job. And when you have spent a lifetime building a family, a business or your own intellectual and skill capital, then come back and state your opinion, which will surely have changed. And forget about Krammer; he's just another arrogant Jesuit intellectual, who lives free from everyone else's donations, particularly from those of us in the business community, who contribute more than the freeloaders. Krammer teaches in the Liberal Arts College, a body that loses money year after year and is subsidized by the successful Business School and Law School. Don't you think that he's conflicted? Use that God-given head for a minute!
But that debate is going to change; Catholic business women and men are going to fight the Krammers of the world in a new scholastic trench warfare. We will cut the donations, fund-raising and subsidies.
Remember: When a parasite gets too big, it kills the host. Unless, of course, the host kills the parasite first. It's time for a strong dose of medicine to cure the socialist disease that Krammer-types continue to expound, even thought the rest of the world has been running from it as a viable solution.
Good luck as you adjust to the realities of life.
Here, I do not actually consider it is likely to have effect.
Post a Comment