Summary: Microsoft insists on spending billions of dollars of taxpayers' money (Microsoft hardly pays any tax) building a bridge that helps Microsoft; these efforts from Microsoft go a long way
MICROSOFT IS avoiding tax using corrupt officials who used to work for Microsoft (there is Mr. Hunter for example). At the same time, Microsoft insists that taxpayers should build bridges for Microsoft at their own expense. Who would permit such outrageous behaviour to carry on? Probably those who are simply not informed. There are many who fall under this category (some people near Microsoft have lost their houses and now live in tents, so newspapers are not a priority to them).
To make matters worse, Microsoft officials are now lobbying for the spending of $4,650,000,000 on a new bridge. Microsoft is going beyond lobbying and has just launched some kind of an advertising/
PR campaign. Needless to say, Microsoft won't contribute to this bridge financially; after all, Microsoft is a tax dodger [
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9] and imminent bankruptcy of Washington is of no concern to Microsoft executives who can always just travel.
There is
obviously opposition to the spending of almost $5 billion in a debt-saddled state:
The cost to replace the 520 bridge is $4.65 billion. One group, including Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, opposes the current bridge replacement plan. They want light rail on the new bridge, which is not part of the plan.
"Let's take another, closer look at this bridge. Let's take another look at what we're planning, and let's get it right, not just for ourselves but for our children," said McGinn.
He has to fight against
the lobbying machine of Microsoft.
Now watch
what Microsoft is doing:
Although Microsoft has made its position clear on local and regional issues in the past, it's uncommon for the company to launch a campaign in support of its views. Microsoft is holding a news conference on the topic later this morning in Redmond, and we're planning to attend, assuming we can get across the bridge in time.
Microsoft says "spend, spend, spend," but it's not actually among those who pay for it.
Microsoft is often perceived as a source of jobs and prosperity in this area, but considering the
Abramoff visas, the benefits to foreign workers and their families, and also the massive tax evasion, how deluded need people be? Microsoft is a leech but PR staff continues to deceive a lot of people.
⬆
"In the fall of 1982, Pam Edstrom [of Waggener Edstrom], a diminutive woman with piercing blue eyes, was recruited by Microsoft. [...] In modern-day business, flacks were responsible not only for avoiding bad press, but for spinning the good. [...] Hanson and Edstrom would spin a whole new image for Gates himself. They would tap the best and worst of Chairman Bill, changing his clothes, his voice, and his allegiances, driving him to become not just the boss, but, essentially, the company mascot—a sort of high-technology Colonel Sanders."
--Pam's daughter
Comments
satipera
2010-02-24 20:49:09
Roy Schestowitz
2010-02-25 11:39:59
your_friend
2010-02-27 19:11:15
Microsoft is trying to create the impression that they are a net contributor to the state. They want to make the scale of their tax dodge look small by demanding another huge outlay but it just goes to show that the state is giving more than it gets. The infrastructure built and maintained by the state for Microsoft is expensive but the majority of the wealth is sucked up by it's ultra rich owners who dodge personal taxes the same way the company dodges sales taxes. It may be that the state has paid out the nose for decades and now sits helpless as the company collapses with it's fraudulent business model [2, 3]
your_friend
2010-02-27 19:27:02
Roy Schestowitz
2010-02-27 20:04:02
Another one is that there is a "lack of American engineers". It's only true if they complete the sentence: "lack of American engineers who are cheap to employ."
your_friend
2010-02-27 22:43:05
Roy Schestowitz
2010-02-27 22:45:53
satipera
2010-02-25 19:17:41
"At the same time, Microsoft insists that taxpayers should build bridges for Microsoft at their own expense."
I think you do more than a good job and do not want to be arguing with you about an over egged pudding that should have been binned and definitely not defended as edible.
Roy Schestowitz
2010-02-25 21:18:48