how high can it go; most Americans pay over 50 cents on the dollar. 23% payroll taxes 22% imbedded taxes, around 10% state sales tax, tax on telephone, gas and utilitys. TAX TAX TAX… when will people wake up individuals are the only one who pay taxes… end of story

And to my brainwashed compatriots – Obama is providing an OPTION to a healthcare system whose cost has been driven up outrageously by complete corporate control. Healthcare should be affordable to EVERY citizen of the United States – period. The corps have not been able to achieve this. Time for a new strategy.

“Socialist” measures are the only thing that has kept “capitalism” around this long (See New Deal) We would have imploded long ago without them. You jerkfaces would have supported Hoover, I know it.

How is it that during the same year many businesses are struggling, oil refiners and weapon manufacturers record record profits, the most obvious being Exxon/Mobil which posted the greatest profit for any corporation EVER last year. Those oil-filled d-bags need to pay for the smog I breathe generated by their plants and the burning of their products – not to mention their fair share of taxes.

Google just did it quietly, whereas Microsoft is talking about it publicly.

Every other business in America must think about how to offshore as much as possible in order to protect it from the rapaciousness of the Obama administration.

Those businesses who fail to protect themselves will be unable to compete with foreign-owned firms and will simply disappear from the marketplace.

And if those things weren’t enough, he is taking major steps toward nationalizing many businesses. He has nationalized banks, car companies, and soon our health care. He and his cronies in congress want to pass legislation that will determine how much you and I can be paid for our jobs. And trust me, this is just the beginning. He is marching us toward his vision of socialism, and he will use fear, guilt, and oppresive taxation to get us there.

By the time he is finished, he will make George W. Bush look like the greatest president ever.

“freer markets have been leading us to plutocracy: The rule of the rich”

“What you get is money gaining a momentum that produces a kind of corruption. Part of it’s financial corruption, which we’re starting to see unfolding; part of it’s political corruption, which is that money moves in and corrupts the political system; and part of it, actually, is ideological- – that money rules, that those who have money are entitled. And this actually corrodes American democracy. And those who don’t make it get discouraged, and they think it’s unfair, and they’re right”

Just for added measure, a quote from the leftist CIA fact book

“Since 1975, practically all the gains in household income have gone to the top 20% of households”

I suppose to Plutocrats (Republicans) economic fairness is socialism.

Many companies will be going to Ireland…I’m Irish–maybe I’ll move too.

Its all propaganda from the 50’s. America is never going to be socialist. ( I hope so ) Do not let some take away your rights and funds that are for you saying this is “socialist” or that is “communist”.

Look at Europeans (sweden, france, germany) countries with moderate taxes. Look at Canada. They all have free health care. And they have innovation too. (fuel cells, airbus, bmws, etc). They have one of the best engineerings of the world. AND THEY ARE NOT SOCIALISTS!.

Taxes are needed to pay for education, health care and military (remember america has 2 wars) and they do stimulate the economy. MS has enough money. Gates is the number 1 rich in the world and ballmer is 2nd or 3rd. geez. They are only going to pay now that they always had to pay by law, not anything more.

Seriously of all the people here. are you all big corporations? do you all make more than $250,000 per year? If not this is actually going to be FOR you not against you. And even if you are big corporations if you are making a big ass profit it would not hurt you to contribute a little more for your country. It is called PATRIOTISM not SOCIALISM.

We get it.

We get the whole questioning the birth certificate of an individual who was born to an American citizen. We get the whole “he’s creating more socialist programs” argument. I honestly understand your concern however superannuated it may be.

The real fact of the matter is that this article, although lacking in technological advancements, is about a big technological player possibly threatening to move a portion of their business overseas to prevent paying the same taxes we all pay. I believe this is disappointing because of the status both within this country and abroad that Microsoft has as a leader, innovator, and model of a successful company. If what this article says is truly the stance of Microsoft, it shows others that will eventually have to pay higher taxes, however proportionate they may be, that simply cutting and running is the best way to go.

All this will eventually do is create more obstacles for the companies that choose to leave. Who really honestly believes that any government would happily allow its country-based businesses take their jobs abroad in order to avoid taxes?

What will eventually happen if this were to come to pass is the government would slap a fee on any product that is created abroad by the U.S. based company (for example) and enters the country of residence, (similar to what they began doing to Honda and Toyota until they built assembly plants in the U.S.)

Yes, one could say that the companies would simply pass on the governmental fees to the consumer- however when a lower cost alternative is made available (i.e. the companies who elected to pay their share of taxes and continue to be innovative – Apple, anyone?), the company saddled with the additional fees will be forced to do one of two things.

1.) Suck it up and pay their share of taxes, so that they can begin selling a cost-competitive product.

2.) Attempt to buck the trend and hold on to hope that consumers will elect to purchase their more expensive product.

It’s honestly as simple as making it more expensive to produce a product overseas than to stay and pay their share of taxes. I am a PC man at heart, and if this does come to pass, it will really make me do a lot of rethinking.

p.s.
I honestly don’t believe that Microsoft will move a significant portion of jobs overseas. With the fees associated with producing products overseas, It would be financial suicide. Part of their continued success was their ability to undercut the competition in price, and to saturate the market with low-cost, high-visibility products. Purposely making their products cost more because they did not want to pay taxes would do more harm than good to their partnerships with computer manufacturers.