Apple and Google embody two alternative models of capitalism
I&#x27;m disappointed that two other large pieces of the economic puzzle are left out: workers and government. Corporations have more cash than they know what to do with? That means that 1) wages are too low, and 2) taxes are too low.<p>More specific to Apple&#x27;s case, the hoarding of cash overseas to avoid paying US taxes on it is one of many poisonous symptoms of our international capitalism. The amount of tax Apple would pay if those profits did come to the US would make a not-inconsequential dent in the federal deficit. The whole take-on-debt-to-pay-dividends strategy is so skeevy that while I don&#x27;t doubt it&#x27;s legal, it&#x27;s very questionably ethical.<p>All that said, I think US tax policy contributes to the problem. During the Bush administration, an effort was made to argue that taxes on dividends amounted to double taxation because the corporation had already paid taxes on that money, so why should the investors also pay tax on it. And while dividend income was not made tax free, it is now (or at least was for a while, I haven&#x27;t kept up) taxed at a significantly lower rate than &quot;earned&quot; income. But the fix that makes the most sense to me, and which would solve Apple&#x27;s problem, is to exempt corporations from paying taxes on the money they then pay out as dividends, and tax the individuals earning the dividends their normal marginal tax rate. This would encourage corporations to pay more dividends, end the &quot;double&quot; taxation, solve some percentage of off-shore hoarding, increase US government revenue, and put more money into the economy and not in corporate bank accounts.