0 likes

Rob Atkinson
President
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

   0 likes

   0 likes

Having heard similar comments regarding the repatriation tax in the past, my reaction thus far has been that this repatriation tax, while important, is more of a “cover” for company executives to justify their outsourcing activities to the US population (i.e. “we’d love to create jobs in the US, but we just can’t do it because we can’t bring our profits back to the US for re-investment”), while rewarding the shareholders by achieving the record profits enjoyed by majority of the S&P500 companies in the past 2 quarters due to the resulting lower cost of labor of off-shoring.

In light of John’s comments, the above cynical view will need to be re-examined. BUT, I’m having a very difficult time squaring the current level of profits of the US Companies (not that there is anything wrong with that, it just tells me that the companies are “happy” with status quo though it’s not PC to say so), the fact that off-shoring trend has been in place for the last 10 years (regardless of which administration or which tax policy), and the fact that innovation is now a global phenomenon and not solely an American competence, and come to the conclusion that the fix (from a US employment perspective) is much more involved than any single act. A structural shift seems to be in order if we want to get the unemployment down to 5%. My humble opinion.

   0 likes

The US should lead the world’s economy, it is not just because we know how to do business, and respect (mostly) human rights, but because of our respect for democracy. America needs to be strong in order to balance China.

thanks for what you are doing. I am proud of you guys!

nicole

   0 likes

What’s the split? How would the new revenue get spent between paying dividends, buying back stock, buying companies and capital spending and job creation?

Is there a way for the legislation to get specific? Perhaps legislated performance measures come to play where each year job creation and US capital spending is reported against dividend pay-out etc. and returned to the Fed if the targets aren’t met…

Perhaps community college education support is part of the equation as a win-win for company training needs coupled with a free workforce education program. Students (old and young) would be accountable too. They pay the community college back if they don’t finish their classes.

Seems like Cisco could be uniquely qualified to provide tele-classes as part of the deal, eh? I would even enjoy a little Indian accent from a good teacher.

   0 likes

   0 likes

I agree that this is a smart move to inject some life into the economy. Plus it is fair as companies like Cisco already paid taxes abroad on this income.

On Wednesday I suggested this approach in a Huffington Post commentary: (Government should) address these issues and take fundamental actions to encourage investment and job creation such as providing tax rate stability, allowing repatriation of dollars taxed overseas and reducing the federal deficit.

Here’s the link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-shapiro/the-lesson-americans-care_b_778172.html

Regards,

Gary

Gary Shapiro
CEO
Consumer Electronics Association

   0 likes