It's not, because Ireland chose to be part of the EU which its actions are undermining. Also, we accept the fact that in capitalism companies have the goal to maximize profit, but the purpose of a country is not to maximize tax income compared to others
A country purpose is to give the best living conditions to its population if that means collecting more tax without directly taxing it population then they are using the most optimum method just like apple with its shell corporations. My problem is with neither rather people giving apple and other corporations hand away absolution for their behavior just because capitalism
> we accept the fact that in capitalism companies have the goal to maximize profit
Not by committing tax avoidance.
This is why stronger regulations and tax laws are welcome. I fully expect every corporation to pursue profit no matter how illegal their actions are, and no matter gow much damage they cause to society.
Yeah the purpose of a country is to maximize the opportunity of its citizens which is exactly what Ireland is doing. They're not trying to maximize tax income otherwise they would have a higher rate
And it is welcome to leave the EU and cut whatever deals they like if they think that's gonna benefit their citizens. But they're not going to do that, because the value of being in the EU vastly outstrips the inconvenience of this judgement.
Ireland is part of much bigger bloc, and milking it hard since Apple couldn't care less about some irrelevant tiny island nation. The only interesting part of it, it can 'hack' into EU via dodgy tax deals that circumvent EU policies.
Not 100% sure if its illegal, but its highly amoral, no questions there. Here in Europe we don't like that, money is not above else, greed is not good.
The view on this topic boils down largely where your opinion on above stands.
At the end, Apple is just another greedy amoral corporation, just like the rest. Which is fine on its own, but would be nice if some folks would be less fanatical about that brand and got a bit more... balanced view on reality.
And what part of Germany or the Benelux do you hail from?
Also "money is not above else, greed is not good" is absolutely not the policy of the major economic powers in the European Continent. The 2008 banking crisis and the subsequent austerity imposed on Ireland by the IMF as a consequence of bailing out unsecured bondholder in European Banks in order to stop a contagion effect completely refutes that notion.
Absolute nonsense. The Netherlands does the same stuff and calling Ireland an irrelevant nation is an incredibly ignorant statement to label a country that vastly punches above its weight in science, technology, and research.
Here in Europe competition is good and you have some countries that don't like losing out.
