Apple CEO Tim Cook waved a magic wand in front of America on Tuesday, vanishing our outrage over how shamelessly companies avoid paying taxes, leaving the rest of us to foot the bill. As a public service to you, here is a chart that should enrage you about corporate tax rates all over again! What this shows is how dramatically corporate tax contributions have shrunk in the past several decades, and how our personal taxes have risen to fill the gap. Payroll taxes now make up 35 percent of all federal government tax receipts, up from 11 percent in 1950. Corporate income taxes, meanwhile, now make up less than 10 percent of federal revenue, down from about 26 percent in 1950. To 'splain those numbers a little more clearly: We who are on the payrolls of companies now bear way more of a tax burden than those companies bore decades ago. Those companies, meanwhile, bear less of a burden than we ever did.
Napoleon Bonaparte once famously observed "history is a set of lies agreed upon." For those who look for the truth, it is often far too easy to believe in fraudulent history and science when they tell us what we want to hear.
You see, there are things they never tell you when you become a parent. One is that, from the day you give birth, some part of you will be afraid -- always and forever. The other is that, someday, the child you love will love someone else even more than they love you.
I'm curious to see how this all looks in 3D, and I'm curious to know what a paying audience will think. But for now, at least, the dark rumors that World War Z would be dead-on-arrival appear to have been greatly exaggerated.
The goal of Universal Access to prevention, treatment care and support and to ensuring zero transmission of HIV in children may appear to be a daunting task. But it is achievable. The driving force for realization of this goal is the mobilization of resources for implementation.
Even if you're short on time, don't skip these six steps. They can make all the difference.
I sat down to talk with Anne Heche about her new comedy, Save Me -- what looks to be a very funny, brave and timely series that puts God on primetime in a way that we have never seen him/her before.
When Anders Breivik, self-styled member of an 'international Christian military order', massacred 77 innocent Norwegians, most them children, in July 2011, did we indict Christianity? Sadly, we hold Islam and Muslims to a separate standard...
While a very slight glimmer of hope existed after the fraudulent elections in 2009 that the negative trajectory could be reversed through the ballot box, even that small probability may now have been eliminated.
Who is the real you? The happy, focused, vital woman who made the drastic choice to "mutilate herself" and then move on? Or the physically intact, "natural" woman who lives in dread of the next round of surveillance?
To destroy our planet with malice aforethought, with only the most immediate profits on the brain, with only your own comfort and wellbeing (and those of your shareholders) in mind: Isn't that the ultimate crime?
We are sitting idly, watching, and suffering, as our nation disintegrates into a run-down backwater. At the same time, over 20 million people are in need of full-time work. Yet instead of grabbing this opportunity to rebuild the country, Washington is focused on cutting budgets.
"I would say we'll probably have him in next time," Vogel said after the Pacers' 103-102 defeat. Paul George added: "[Hibbert] does an amazing job of protecting the rim. I'm 100 percent sure he would've been there."
What is mystifying is why almost all of America's political class is willing to support a set of policy decisions whose outcomes will be to impoverish most Americans and weaken the nation.
Technology and tax law have led to the emergence of what international tax analyst Ed Kleinbard calls "stateless income," a phenomenon that was on full display at the Apple hearing yesterday.
The president is either moping or muttering defensively about the abuses by the IRS and the tragedy of Benghazi. As I see it, if he wakes up tomorrow and is willing to speak up, there are a few things he could fairly state. First, any suggestion that "the IRS" went after the Tea Party are bogus.
Although the increasing visibility of LGBT people and gains in equality may be associated with short-term rises in homophobic violence, these changes are merely triggers. We must move beyond superficial and individualistic analyses of such heinous events and target their root causes.
Free market economics is touted by conservatives, and yet almost routinely now we are seeing legislation being introduced designed solely to block the competition that Tesla is bringing to the old guard.
Apple's $100 billion in offshore profits is managed in Reno, tracked by accountants in Austin, and stored in Manhattan banks. That's called having your apple and eating it too. It's up to our leaders, not corporate executives, to fix this problem.
Success in college and life comes from gaining knowledge and skills. The more you take responsibility for carving your own path of adventure, the more your true abilities will emerge.
Unlike many rappers in hip-hop who are obvious industry pinheads just trying to cash into the bank, Kanye West knows more. Yet, that is perhaps the very problem: he knows more and yet does nothing to actually fix the problem.
He had his arms around his new wife, protecting her, as if she was a tiny delicate flower and a strong wind was approaching. They were clearly in love in a way that we had never been. It was riveting to behold and yet also tremendously liberating.
Kanye West is white America's worst nightmare. Because as much as one may attempt to dismiss him, you still have to turn on your regularly scheduled late night comedy program and stare him in the face. You can't avoid Kanye. He's made very sure of that.
Much like Matthew Shepard's death in 1998, the recent violence in New York will hopefully inspire some people who have been on the fence, and believe that LGBT rights is not their problem, to understand that regardless of your skin color, or sexual orientation, the fight for equal rights matters to all of us.
Whatever the variation on this theme of the holocaust as punishment, let's be clear. These theories are ignorant, repulsive, and wrong.
Has the culture of stats, nudies and decapitated men begun to spill over into the rest our dating lives, making everything else look a little... cheap?
The 1980s were a blissful decade full of cringe-worthy fashion trends and pop music. The movies from the '80s are haunting in a good way; they leave us enamored and begging for more. Many of them have hidden messages, and some are more obvious.
When you are asked to work at something because that is simply what one does, many of you ask "Why should I? So-and-so made this thing and it went mad viral." A few people are genuine overnight sensations -- results of our spectacle-hungry, media-addicted culture.
Doctors and therapists often encourage people to decrease stress and "stop and smell the roses," but how can you accomplish this when your day-to-day life is hectic and overwhelming? Here are a few simple lifestyle changes you can make to help reduce stress and improve your quality of life.
When I think about how lucky I am that my husband survived, it only reinforces my dedication to taking action against this disease. My wish for every man faced with a cancer diagnosis is to have the same success story.
In his years in office, Obama has retreated from the moral argument against Guantánamo. If he is serious about closing the prison and not repeating the errors of the past, then he should reclaim that moral high ground.