Corporations can live anywhere! - Good thing people can't!

[vox]

"It's official: I've decided to move this column to Bermuda. But don't worry about getting me a house-warming present because I'm not really going anywhere. I'll still live in the U.S., earn my living here and enjoy the protection, technology, infrastructure and status of the land of the free and the home of the brave. I'm just changing my business address. Because if I do that, I won't have to pay for those benefits--I'll get them free!

"It's all perfectly legal. It's what accountants and financial advisors have dubbed "tax-motivated expatriation," which has a nicer ring than "sleazy tax-cheating loophole." It's the latest mega-trend in corporate America, with more and more U.S. companies reincorporating offshore as a way of slashing their tax bills. You see, Bermuda, along with sparkling water and beautiful pink-sand beaches, also has no income tax. None. Pop that into your Quicken and see how fast it fattens your wallet."

Read More (http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0515-05.htm)

It's starting to look like capitalism requires special rules for the rich in order to keep going.

vox

[Ernest Everhard]

its unfortunate, again, that people can't live anywhere. But free trade proposes that they should be. The freedom of movement of labor is one of the most politicized aspects of free trade, but it is necessary for capitalism to flourish. Think about it logically, the US is one giant free trade zone, people can legally move within it.

[I Will Deny You]

Ernest, that column wasn't about movement of labor. It was about movement of money in the bank. It's about getting away from government regulations, which seems to be even more important in free trade than movement of labor. This has nothing to do with free trade at all. The issue at hand is double standards, and corporations that get a free ride while single working mothers don't. Did you really think that we're talking about actually moving? Getting up and putting one foot in front of the other? The whole point was that no one's actually moving, they're just pretending to. If these corporations chose to relocate their headquarters to Bermuda then that would be one thing, but what's actually going on is quite another. You're right about one thing, though: Tax shelters are capitalism flourishing.