Apple and the Low Standard

Apple's tax scam:

Apple used a “complex web” of offshore entities — with no employees or physical offices — that allowed it to pay little or no taxes on tens of billions it earned overseas, according to a Senate investigation unveiled Monday. Between 2009 and 2012, the company shielded at least $74 billion in profits from U.S. tax laws by setting up subsidiaries in Ireland under a special arrangement, the report said. While the practice of using foreign operations to avoid U.S. taxes is legal and common among multinationals, Apple’s scheme was unprecedented in its use of multiple affiliates that had no semblance of a physical presence. . . . One of Apple’s Irish affiliates reported profits of $30 billion between 2009 and 2012, but because it did not technically belong to any country, it paid no taxes to any government. Another paid a tax rate of 0.05 percent in 2011 on $22 billion in earnings, according to the report. The U.S. corporate tax rate is 35 percent.

Their defense:

Apple does not break any tax laws.

It would be unfair to single out Apple for condemnation. They are only doing what international companies all over the world are doing. The world's corporate leadership has decided that there is no such thing as ethics, or citizenship, or even common decency. There is only the law. As long as they can't be prosecuted, they think, they have done no wrong.