American corporations love to whine about the tax rates they normally find some way not to pay. They claim they cannot compete with foreign corporations because of these high tax rates. If you actually believe that argument, then you have been watching Fox news far too much. While the top tax rates for corporations are among the highest in the developed world, almost no corporation actually pays those rates (thanks to subsidies, loopholes, deductions, and foreign tax havens). The truth is that the actual tax rate paid by American corporations is the lowest in the developed world.And while I don't think any American corporations are having trouble competing with foreign corporations, there are two advantages the foreign corporations do have over American corporations -- executive salaries and universal government-run health insurance.
The chart above highlights the first of these reasons. Executive salaries are way too large and out of any reasonable proportion to worker wages. In most developed nations, the ratio of executive salaries (for CEOs) ranges from 11-1 (in Japan) to 22-1 (in Great Britain). In the United States, this ratio is 475-1 (meaning the average CEO makes $475 for every $1 paid to the company's average worker. Of course, this brings up the argument over whether the U.S. ratio is so out of whack because CEOs are overpaid or because American workers are underpaid. I suspect it is some of both, but it needs to be fixed.
The second advantage that foreign corporations have over American corporations is that they do not have to provide health insurance for their employees. While they may have to pay some into their country's government run universal health insurance system (which not only their workers, but all citizens qualify for), it is nowhere near as much as American corporations have to pay for private insurance contracts.
I am still amazed that American corporations (and other businesses) didn't fight for the establishment of a single-payer government-run health insurance system (like Medicare) for all citizens. They could be saving a ton of money -- most of the money they now spend on private health insurance for workers.
But the simpletons running American corporations are really interested in solving the real problems of American corporations. It's far easier to just whine about taxes (which they have no intention of paying anyway).
