"Corporate Social Responsibility" versus Ethical Tax Payer

The century-old myth, "What's good for GM is good for America," could not foresee the outlandish purchase of political leadership to prevent huge corporate contributions to the infrastructure and society of the USA today.

Today, too many workers live in near-poverty and below poverty "on the public dole" while shareholders and executives swim toward the infamous "one percent". The American Middle Class is being shattered, while the top-level one percent thrives. The contributions to our country via legitimate taxation of corporations, their shareholders, and their executives, small and large alike, have been steadily reduced.

This is particularly galling in light of the self-boasting preaching about the illusion of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

See "For the Wealthiest, a Private Tax System That Saves Them Billions" from the New York Times 12/29/2015, and see "Social Saints, Fiscal Fiends" from The Economist 1/2/2016 (Limited Free Subscription)

CSR implies a veneer of ethics that does not exist. That proclaimed veneer of ethics is self-serving salve for the elite who wallow in their riches, ignoring their rabid lobbying and purchase of political leadership to gut tax responsibility, preventing the infrastructure of the USA, and the viability of its middle class work force, from being fully functional.

The self-serving proclamations of so-called ethical behavior via narrowly-chosen CSR, and trying to paint a pleasant picture of ethical tax avoidance versus unethical tax evasion, is after-the-fact lying. Their public bragging is a cover-up for their immoral activity underlying the huge anti-tax lobbying in the first place, removing from the USA trillions of dollars for our society and infrastructure, including safety nets to prevent disasters such as the Great Recession.

Corporations are exceedingly greedy, investors are exceedingly greedy, but they want to sound benevolent so nobody notices and so they can sleep at night. That is the underlying premise of Corporate Social Responsibility.

Also on this subject: my blog post "KICKSTARTER Steps Up for Corporate Responsibility, Becomes New Benefit Corporation" 9/21/2015