Power In American Politics

Throughout years large American industrial companies have been running away from U.S. taxes, but there has been a new change. Companies such as Apple and Google have been affected by a change foreign countries are going through collecting higher taxes than before. It seems as if no longer can these companies get away with paying low taxes. This is happening because the European Commission have passed an order to collect high taxes. One example is Ireland who was ordered to collect fourteen billion dollars from Apple, which brought a surprise to this company. Companies have run out of places to run and pay one percent or less of taxes in foreign places, instead of paying back home.

Aristotle once said that “Man is by nature a political animal.” What could he have possibly meant? Well, if there is anything that a student who had taken Politics 135, at Northern Virginia Community College with Professor Smith, knows it is that people like two things-- money and power. However, money and power was not always the answer, back in the 1780’s it was definitely not the answer. Over two hundred years ago our, America’s, economy and political systems were nothing compared to what they are today. From Federalists against Democratic Republicans to Democrats against Republicans, America has raised its citizens in complicated homes of various political parties.

Politics at its core is fundamentally about the struggle for who has power in the system. From the beginning of groups of mankind, individuals have struggled to determine who has control, and that has essentially been the ruling elite class. Traditionally, that has been people from four traditional classes. First, the dominant religions and religious theocracies, such as Iran, the Church of England, etc. Secondly, they tend to be the dominant race of ethnic groups who control the land, wealth, and power – although this is not always the case (South Africa for example.) Third, they tend to the military acting on behalf of the fourth category, the Government.

Power can come in many forms. Great power, however, comes in fewer forms. For the most

Americans may ponder the thought of struggling economy barely gaining momentum while corporations have witnessed some of the largest quarterly profits ever recorded. The driving force behind the extreme profits gained by many corporations is simply put as tax inversion. Tax inversion is nothing more than an American firm combining with a foreign firm in a country with beneficial and lucrative tax laws (Financial Times, 2014). The American headquarters will now be moved to the new foreign firm where they will enjoy the lower taxes and evade the taxation of the United States government (Financial Times, 2014). More and more American firms have been taking advantage of inversion while still being able to enjoy sales in the American market.

Another good point that has been made is, the average global tax rate on multinational corporations is about 27 percent, compared to 39 percent in the United States (Wolverson, 2011). Given this information it would seem that instead of penalizing our multinational corporations for increasing international trade, maybe the United States government should focus more on bring in multinational corporations from other countries. This would not only create more jobs in the untied states to compensate for the ones that are being lost overseas but also

also cause profits to be managed and inflated. For an example, Starbucks avoid paying tax in

There are many different views. One being that laws and policies could be formulated allowing political power. However, this power would need

In a way, I agree with you that these three forms of power have different influences and don’t necessarily trump one another in theory, because they all have different consequences. But for most of the world’s societies where states have the ultimate power to govern people’s lives, I think political power has the upper hand. That is not to say that economic and cultural power don’t influence societies just as much; it’s just that political power can more effectively change how other forms of power will operate. Although, I definitely agree that these three forms of power work differently for each country. Depending on the state, economic and cultural power can directly shift political power. But in a strong state, other forms of power will

In “Life in Debt” Dr. Michael Witter talks about “IMF wanted to de value currency” (0:14:17) the devaluing of the currency impacts the business and social life of Jamaican. It also gives the IMF the power to make sure that Jamaica’s economy cannot recover and grow. American corporation use “Free zone” this is a place that embodies a sweat shop. These corporations use the Caribbean because there are no laws against the way they treat the employs and there are no union to help the employs get what they deserve. In the video of “Life in Debt” it is said the average “two-week wage is thirty dollars” (0:53:00) This is not the American dollar the employs get paid but instead they are paid in the Jamaica currency. Early in the video we found out that “exchange rate is huge the American dollar but can only by little with the exchange given” (0:04:00). The power that and American driver’s license carries when entering Jamaica is second to none. When a Jamaican citizen want to travel to America they travel with “card board boxes carrying supply that are needed for relatives.” (0:03:00) While Americans can breeze through customs with no problem. The power that is present that customs scrutinize a citizen when trying to get into their home country but yet a foreigner can waltz right in with no problems. The World back was set up to help countries recover and grow. The “U.S. Bank granted a loan of 50 mill to help with

The U.S. has the highest marginal tax rate on business. It follows that if U.S. businesses are leaving profits overseas because of high business taxes, then the solution to this problem is to lower the business tax, and make it more competitive with countries

Business organizations increasingly look to globalization to increase profitability and maintain competitiveness. Income from such operations is taxed differently in the United States (US) dependent upon type of income and the levels of said income. Such foreign corporations that are controlled by US shareholders are considered controlled foreign corporations (CFC) which must comply with tax rules instituted in 1962 (Doupnik & Perera, 2014). Wholly owned subsidiaries of US companies such as Bahamamama, Ltd, the subsidiary of Mama Corporation, are considered a CFC, and as such companies such as Mama Corporation must determine income taxed by the US. Additionally, global organizations seek to reduce tax liabilities through transfer pricing. Transfer pricing is used to determine the price of transactions between subsidiaries and parent companies and is used to reduce tax liabilities of US parent companies. As such, tax authorities intervene to ensure US corporations report correct tax liabilities.

However, if all Americans had the power we would be constantly trying to overrule one another. Therefore, structures forms and create power at a community level and a national level.  Power is what drives a nation; to compete in the market, to create motivation and most importantly to make money. Unfortunately many people's success correlates with the fact that they have wealth. Majority of the wealthy during mid-1800's to early 1900 where white men who could afford an education and land which gross income. Black men had no power what so ever and were considered less than a man and treat as is. The wealthy and political men were focused on their destiny to proclaim every land America and grow their power and wealth through property, whether it be land or man.

top of this, the government was given the responsibility to protect the property and lives of

Our political system is a way to serve checks and balances to members of society so that one group’s opinions aren’t the rule without discussion from other members. It is not a perfect system and sometimes (maybe most of the time) it would appear that the same groups of people keep coming up on top and in control of how society is molded and laws that are made.