A feeling of...

Do companies have a moral obligation to the places where they make most of their profits?

I was looking at moveon.org and found out that there is protest planned in Apple stores on June 4th. I have no idea what this protest would look like (how many people there will actually be) but was telling Warren about it mostly because I liked the suggested protest chants (“I can sync my iPhone with my Macbook. Why can’t I sync it with my values?” ouch! biting.) and because they knew how to spark my ire/interest linking unpaid taxes to schools and police men. (I find this to be especially interesting because there is always a Spokane Policeman sitting in the Apple Store when I walk by it.) Warren does not trust the validity of the info on move on so I did some looking around on the internet. Does Apple really want to be a part of this so called "tax holiday"?

Here is what I found.
Apple along with many other big name/big money companies (including Microsoft, Cisco, and other tech and big pharmaceutical companies) are a part of this lobbying group called Win America (sweet name!). Their mission being to influence Congress to "pass legislation to offer an immediate reduction of taxation on income earned overseas by innovative American businesses to allow that money to be brought home and invested in the United States." Now mind you there is no law stating that they can't bring the money back themselves but they are hindered by the fact that they want to make as much money as is humanly possible and not lose any money to taxes. This 60 Minutes report byLesley Stahl helps to shed some light on why the companies choose not to return to the US and keep more of their profits. I like when someone calls the tax lawyers maneuvering, "shenanigans".

Now, I am far from an investigative journalist but I am glad that I was able to find more information and educate myself. I am also left feeling a little hopeless because it all seems so crazy. Trillions of dollars, so much money that I don't really even have a concept of it, money that could really be helping people in the U.S. ( I know that one could also argue that this money would just go towards the military budget which is insanely large and towards politicians wacky agendas). But that money is just a percentage of what these companies made just last year. It is mind-boggling.

It is all so frustrating and leaves me feeling perplexed and a little mad at my iPod. Perhaps instead of protesting on June 4th I will just make a conscious effort not use my iPod. Take that Apple.