A Big Tax Bill and Big Bonuses

oops… did i say big… i meant tiny…

 

As you’ve probably heard, America’s ever brilliant and hard-working legislature has passed a BIG, HUGE, AMAZING tax bill that significantly simplifies the tax code and helps the impoverished escape the ever greedy hands of the Federal Bureaucracy…

L O L.

ahem…

 

He isn’t wrong.

Especially when you consider the companies so far announcing bonuses… they are all large, entrenched, suffer little to no competition, offer little to no innovation to society, refuse to provide customer service, and refuse to maintain their own infrastructure. They are simply put, abusive by nature.

People have every right to be suspicious of others who behave like that…

 

What’s more, all of the companies so far announcing bonuses absolutely could’ve been paying them out for years now without issue. The amounts are not huge. For the year 2016, AT&T had net income before tax of nearly $20 billion ($19.812).

A $1000 bonus for 100,000 people adds up to $100 million dollars… which is one half of one percent (0.005) of AT&T’s net income.

If all 256,800 employees at AT&T were to get a $1000 bonus… that would add up to a whopping… ~ $256 million dollars. Or a little over a single percent of AT&t’s net income before tax. The bonuses are a rounding error to these companies.

Frankly these bonuses sound like cover. They provide large entrenched companies with plausible deniability (it wasn’t just a big tax break for us! look at the bonuses we gave!) and good PR.

These companies also get in the good graces of Mr. Trump, who is simply too intellectually lazy or possibly senile to know just how meaningless the bonuses are.

The companies also get positive media coverage… because let’s face facts, as much as media companies say otherwise, they often don’t have the time or resources to immediately put news like this in context. So there’s just a bunch of media coverage repeating “*big company* gives bonuses!!! *chuckle chuckle banter* and just in time for the holidays huh Jan!” That is all that is needed to make them look good.

The bonuses also give cover to the politicians involved who now get to claim that their tax bill is already so wonderful… look at these bonuses!!! It doesn’t matter what they actually did, what matters is what it sounds like they did. Voters won’t discover or understand the effects of these changes in the tax code for years to come.

 

And don’t forget the future… people will inevitably forget just how much more money these big companies have next year when it comes to things like salaries and bonuses. If you think that upper management isn’t going to refuse to make anything more than token gestures like a $1000 bonus then you are a sucker. It will be difficult for employees to get more appropriate salaries out of this ordeal.

 

Have you started to notice how this change in law is starting to sound really great for a very slim minority of people?

It’s all bullsquirt.

 

AT&T plans to lay off and fire more than a thousand workers starting early next year, according to local reports.

Across the Midwest, an estimated 600 workers were notified they were being laid off by the company on December 16, a week before AT&T announced it was doling out $1,000 bonuses to 200,000 of its employees in celebration of the Republican Party’s tax overhaul.

Source: http://www.newsweek.com/christmas-att-layoffs-midwest-bonuses-trump-758391

 

Fun! AT&T is already firing employees.

Oh and I do hope you noticed that the number fired is the same as the amount they’re paying out in bonuses…

It’s almost like they know that people will see the 1000 in the headline, assume it’s about the bonus, and dismiss it…

Noooo…

That can’t be right…

That’s too devious for a company that allowed its customers to be fraudulently charged and sells access to its customers data to the Federal government

 

 

Comcast’s announcement yesterday said the following:

Based on the passage of tax reform and the FCC's action on broadband, Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Comcast NBCUniversal, announced that the Company would award special $1,000 bonuses to more than one hundred thousand eligible frontline and non-executive employees. Roberts also announced that the Company expects to spend well in excess of $50 billion over the next five years investing in infrastructure to radically improve and extend our broadband plant and capacity, and our television, film and theme park offerings.

Big investment increases under net neutrality rules
How does $50 billion over five years compare to what Comcast already spends on infrastructure? The company’s quarterly earnings reports answer that question.

In Q3 2017, the most recent quarter, Comcast’s capital expenditures were $2.4 billion. Continuing to spend at that rate, even if Comcast doesn’t increase spending to account for inflation, would push Comcast to $9.6 billion a year or $48 billion over the next five years.

Source: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/12/comcasts-network-investments-soared-with-net-neutrality-rules-in-place/

 

Oh and about those big investments in infrastructure… yeah they’re pretty much irrelevant. Comcast will not be spending significantly more money on infrastructure then they already were.

 

This is all bullsquirt. We live in a world of constant dissembling and outright lies… and when that world is confronted with the truth… all that happens is the liars become enraged and hateful. Nothing changes.

 

It is all bullsquirt.

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