Illegal Immigrants paid $11.2B in taxes in 2010 - GE paid nothing..

[Little_My 464]

"I bet most of you didn't know undocumented immigrants contributed more - much more - to the national treasury last year than General Electric. Surprised? Yet it's true.

While GE - which earned a whopping $14 billion last year - is reported to have paid nothing, nada, zero in taxes (GE denies it), the undocumented paid billions in state and local taxes in 2010.

No, it's not me talking; it's the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy (itepnet.org), a prestigious, nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization that works on federal, state and local tax policy issues."

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/04/20/2011-04-20_undocumented_unlike_rich_pay_plenty_in_taxes.html

I am most definitely against illegal immigration - but there are a lot of people around, including on this website, who very eagerly judge people who came illegally or came with a visa and overstayed, and often use the "I don't want you here taking my jobs and my benefits while I am paying for all that through my taxes" -argument. Not all illegals or overstays fail to pay taxes - General Eletrics did, however.

[patient2010 93]

[^_^ 5,021]

Not all illegals or overstays fail to pay taxes - General Eletrics did, however.

GE did not fail to pay taxes. That implies evasion which is not the case. What they practice is avoidance, which is perfectly legal.

[Little_My 464]

Well, in all honesty, I am not even really conserned about the legality of GE not paying taxes. I personally think it is absolutely ridiculous that they did not, and I also think that as long as this country passes huge tax breaks for the rich and these kinds of loop holes exist for companies like GE that allow them to make billions in profit and not have to pay a dime for it, cutting basic benefits, closing schools and laying off tons of people is an absolute disgrace. This country could afford to improve its helth care system, educational system, social welfare system, IMMIGRATION system, unemployment benefits, maternal benefits - if it choose to. It's not about the money not being there, it is about priorities.

In any case, according to this article, the illegal immigrants of this country did indeed contribute to paying for the services that most of us enjoy of - by 11.2 billion dollars.

[^_^ 5,021]

Not all illegals or overstays fail to pay taxes - General Eletrics did, however.

GE did not fail to pay taxes. That implies evasion which is not the case. What they practice is avoidance, which is perfectly legal.

Well, in all honesty, I am not even really conserned about the legality of GE not paying taxes.

First you imply they did something illegal. When it is pointed out they did not, you claim you don't care if they did or not.

I wish you'd make up your mind.

[Harsh_77 716]

Its same GE used the loopholes in the tax system - same way the illegal immigrant misuse the loopholes in the immigration system.

I do not think what GE did is right, but as per legality of it - its perfectly legal.

[Little_My 464]

First you imply they did something illegal. When it is pointed out they did not, you claim you don't care if they did or not.

I wish you'd make up your mind.

You seem to just love to pick a fight. We can get into the semantics of my post, and start a debate about what I said and what I meant, but that is not really what I was mainly interested in regarding this particular article. The point that I wanted to make was that contrary to general beliefs, illegal immigrants do pay taxes (very large portion of them at least), and do contribute to the social welfare, health care etc. services of this country.

GE did not pay taxes - i.e., GE "failed" to pay taxes, which, according to the Oxford Dictionary, means to "not be able to or choose not to do something". It was not a question of whether or not GE not paying taxes was legal or illegal - the point was, GE did not pay taxes, illegal immigrants paid 11.2 billion dollars in taxes. I am more than happy to agree that GE not paying taxes was within the law - whether or not that makes any sense is a whole other matter.

[^_^ 5,021]

You seem to just love to pick a fight. We can get into the semantics of my post, and start a debate about what I said and what I meant, but that is not really what I was mainly interested in regarding this particular article. The point that I wanted to make was that contrary to general beliefs, illegal immigrants do pay taxes (very large portion of them at least), and do contribute to the social welfare, health care etc. services of this country.

GE did not pay taxes - i.e., GE "failed" to pay taxes, which, according to the Oxford Dictionary, means to "not be able to or choose not to do something". It was not a question of whether or not GE not paying taxes was legal or illegal - the point was, GE did not pay taxes, illegal immigrants paid 11.2 billion dollars in taxes. I am more than happy to agree that GE not paying taxes was within the law - whether or not that makes any sense is a whole other matter.

GE satisfied its legal tax liability. You are choosing your words to paint them in a bad light when in fact they have fully complied with the law.

Why are you choosing your words this way? Perhaps you are a corporatophobe. I don't know. Maybe you could tell us.

Edited April 21, 2011 by \

[Little_My 464]

Hahaha. Anti-corporatist agenda? I don't know how many times I should make the point that this post was about the role of illegal immigrants as tax payers (since we are, after all, on an immigration web site..), not about GE.

However, yes, I do personally think that it is absolutely ridiculous that in a country that have pockets of population that have lower life expectancy than most African countries and a growing wage gap between the richest 20% and the poorest 20% of the total population, a company that made over $10 billion in profits does not have to pay taxes for those profits - while, at the same time, basic services like health care and education are suffering huge cuts because there "is not enough money" to keep the services on the current level.

If this makes me an anti-corporatist, by all means, call me that if it makes you feel good. I do not believe in "every man/woman for themselves" mentality, never have. And as a person who comes from a Scandinavian country and studies international affairs, development and human rights, I have certain values that do not always fit with the mentality of this particular society. Do I think it is a bad thing? No. Do I think it is a question of me being right and someone else wrong? No.

Do I think it is absolutely absurd that GE did not have to pay taxes of that $10 billion profit, and that tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires are still continued in this economy? Yes. Absolutely.

Edited April 21, 2011 by Mrs.Finland-USA

[^_^ 5,021]

If this makes me an anti-corporatist, by all means, call me that if it makes you feel good.

Feel good? Hardly. Your corporatophobia is but the latest incarnation of the kind of hatred and bigotry that led Americans of a previous generation to enslave black people and treat them like chattel. Far from making me feel good, it saddens me. If corporatophobia is not effectively addressed, it is only a matter of time before corporotophobes vote to strip them of their constitutional rights and ties a corporate-employee to the back of a truck and drags him or her for miles.

We know the consequences of such hate. We've all read the books and watched the documentaries. To see this level of hate persist in the face of all that ... boggles my mind.

Please stop.

[Little_My 464]

This is becoming an increasingly weird and unreal conversation. You are obviously not understanding what I am saying - and maybe I am not understandign the points you are trying to make. And from all I know, and based on the dictionaries I have, "corporatophobe" is not a word - so please do explain what it means.

The rest of your post I cannot for the life of me understand. I do not understand where there is a connection between a huge corporation like GE not having to pay taxes to black slaves. Vote to strip who of their rights? GE? The employees of GE did most certainly pay taxes out of their wages, they do not have anything to do with the company not having to pay taxes. Who is hating who? You think I hate GE? No, I do not hate GE. I dislike tax breaks for the rich and for big companies - which has absolutely nothing to do with GE employees, or former slaves for that matter..

I am confused. Very confused. And I feel like I should be insulted - but I am not quite sure what the insult actually was..

Edited April 21, 2011 by Mrs.Finland-USA

[^_^ 5,021]

Corporations have constitutional rights, as decided by the Supreme Court of the United States. A corporatophobe is someone who hates and maligns corporations. The end result of your corporatophobia, whether this is your intention or not, will be the infringement of the God-given constitutional rights corporations currently enjoy.

What white people once did to black people, what straight people once did to gay people, is precisely what people who use your type of corporotophobic rhetoric are doing to corporations today.

It is despicable and disgusting. And frankly, you should know better. It is inconceivable to me that after having seen what hate speech did to the Jews of Nazi Germany people continue to persist in it.

I ask you again, please stop.

[Little_My 464]

I am happy to stop. But before stopping, I have to say that I don't think I have ever been as insulted as you just did by comparing me any my opinions to 1) slavery 2) gay rights 3) holocaust. You are absolutely out of line, and I think anyone else whou would read this thread would agree that you are fully misinterpreting my words, and apparently just enjoy picking a fight.

Corporations have nothing to do with human rights. A corporation is not a human being. You are entitled to your opinions, and I have tried to mend this conversation by extending understanding towads you several times now - you seem to just like to fight.

[^_^ 5,021]

Corporations have nothing to do with human rights. A corporation is not a human being. You are entitled to your opinions, and I have tried to mend this conversation by extending understanding towads you several times now - you seem to just like to fight.

Corporations enjoy constitutional rights in this country. Speech that maligns them is designed to facilitate infringement of these rights. When you said they "failed" to pay taxes, that is what you did. The least you could do is apologize but given your obvious corporatophobia I won't be holding my breath.

[Ban Hammer 12,867]

another thread hijacked by aj.