{"id":20603,"date":"2018-11-29T16:47:22","date_gmt":"2018-11-30T00:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=20603"},"modified":"2018-11-29T16:47:22","modified_gmt":"2018-11-30T00:47:22","slug":"open-the-door","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/open-the-door\/","title":{"rendered":"Open The Door!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scott Galloway is bold, and probably a bit brazen, in his attitude towards The Four \u2013 <\/em>Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple Tech companies.\u00a0 Galloway\u2019s edgy demeanor stems from his twenty plus years of experience with, and study of, these companies.\u00a0 Galloway is quick to admit he has personally profited from his investment in Amazon and Apple stock, and professionally Amazon is the largest recruiter for the business classes he teaches at New York University\u2019s Stern School of Business. Even so, Galloway has formed a singular conclusion: \u201cIt\u2019s time to break up big tech.\u201d[1]<\/a> \u201cHe’s angry that these companies create growth without prosperity. He knows that many people tend to blame global trade and immigrants for our problems, but he insists the tech economy and its “fetishization” is equally to blame\u201d.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

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In a time when this country is using approximately 21 percent of GDP to keep the military armed and parks open, Galloway highlights a startling statistic that The Four<\/em> tech companies paid the following tax percentages between 2007-2015:\u00a0 Amazon 13 percent, Apple 17 percent, Google 16 percent, and Facebook 4 percent (far lower than the 25 percent average needed for a thriving economy).\u00a0 My dad, a wise man, would be quick to tell you that the tax law, as it was written then, LEGALLY allowed companies to avoid taxes, so \u201cwhy blame the company\u201d? \u00a0Blame the government \u2013 essentially Congress \u2013 for writing and keeping the complex tax law\u2026 (Can you tell I\u2019ve had this discussion at the Thanksgiving table before?) Of course the profits of The Four<\/em> are significant and the country is still receiving a hefty tax payment. However, Apple (and by no means are they the only company implicated in this practice) has sheltered $250 billion overseas. \u201cApple, for example, uses an accounting trick to move its profits to domains such as Ireland, which results in lower taxes for the most profitable firm in the world. As of September 2017, the company was holding $250 billion overseas, a hoard that is barely taxed and should never have been abroad in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Galloway clearly establishes that above all, companies are profit driven (which is the foundation of Capitalism \u2013 remember The Protestant Work Ethic?)<\/em>. \u201cSince the turn of the millennium, firms and investors have fallen in love with companies whose ability to replace humans with technology has enabled rapid growth and outsize profit margins. Those huge profits attract cheap capital and render the rest of the sector flaccid.\u201d But for all the good a profitable company can contribute to society (and by all means society loves The Four <\/em>big tech companies and their personal benefits: connection<\/em> (Facebook), quick answers<\/em> (Google), shopping and groceries<\/em> (Amazon) and smartphone security<\/em> (Apple)) Galloway is throwing up a penalty flag claiming that The Four\u2019s <\/em>monopoly is “dangerous for our society, and it shows no signs of slowing down. It hollows out the middle class, which leads to bankrupt towns, feeds the angry politics of those who feel cheated, and underpins the rise of demagogues.”[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

Of grave concern to me and Galloway, and highly relevant to my research, is the ongoing (and highly inaccurate) rhetoric that refugees, immigrants, and globalization are harmful to the economy and society. According to the New American Economy Research Fund, the sample 2.3 million refugees who arrived in the United States since 1975, earned more than $77 billion in household income and paid almost $21 billion in taxes in 2015.[4]<\/a> Outside of the tax payments, refugees were left with $56 billion in spending power.\u00a0 The report,\u00a0From Struggle to Resilience: The Economic Impact of Refugees in America<\/em>,\u00a0shows:[5]<\/a><\/p>\n