toddasmith

13 yıl öncediscuss

Filling up a Toyota Camry with gasoline (say 15 gallons) adds about 90 pounds of fuel. A lithium-ion battery with the same energy content would weigh about 5,800 pounds. Clearly electric vehicles will have a difficult time competing with gasoline vehicles no matter how much charging times are reduced or how much better the software gets. It seems that without some breakthrough the sweet spot for battery-electric vehicles is urban driving done after charging overnight at home.

toddasmith

14 yıl öncediscuss

How is it unethical for companies to legally pay low taxes? First, realize that a company's tax isn't money growing on trees. Companies pay these taxes by decreasing profits for shareholders, decreasing wages for employees, or increasing the prices of goods and services to consumers (and usually all three). Someone is hurt by collecting these taxes. The idea that government can then go on to spend this money in a way that is more beneficial to society than the cost imposed underlies the assumption that it somehow a good idea to take from some to benefit others.

Most people believe that the State must collect some taxes from its subjects, but is this corporate income tax the best method? Increasing the cost of goods essentially taxes consumers in a regressive manner, irrespective of their ability to bear these increased costs. Lowering wages of company employees discourages work and lowers the income taxes collected by the government on these reduced wages. Finally, reducing the profits of shareholders reduces the taxes that would have been collected on dividends and capital gains when the shares are sold; more significantly, reducing the value of investing in companies discourages the creation of wealth and jobs for all of us by reducing the incentives to start and invest in companies.

If you think it is unethical to pay few taxes (and realize that for the reasons in the previous paragraph all other countries of the world tax their companies at lower rates than the USA), then you must believe that it is somehow more ethical to pay higher taxes (than is actually owed). If this is so, why aren't you sending in double what you owe in taxes? By your own statements aren't you acting unethically?

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