The Independent View: Corporate profits and inflation

Corporate Profits and Millionaires tax breaks have been the subject of discussion from letters to the editor to dinner parties.

As I have previously stated Jeff Bezos, Mark Zukerberg, and Elon Musk paid little or no taxes last year and years before. All of these people employ millions of people who do pay taxes. They get tax relief by reinvesting earnings in their companies which helps the company grow and employ more people who pay taxes. When they take profits and don’t reinvest, their tax bill is enormous. Example: Elon Musk said he paid more taxes this year than any American in the history of the country, an estimated 11 Billion. I’m in favor of putting a limit on executive salaries, which board of directors of public companies control. The company also pays corporate taxes. Public traded companies pay dividends which are also taxed to the owner of the stock.

I read recently the stock market is controlled by speculators and profiteers. The stock market is controlled by the value of the stock. The value is determined by a number of fundamental factors which are a combination of the earnings per share, which is the performance of the company, and the valuation multiple, which is its profitability, performance of the industry and Companyspecific determinants. Those speculators and profiteers also lose money when the market goes down. If you’re jealous of the profits buy some stock but if you don’t understand the above fundamentals you will probably pick bad stocks and lose money. Insider trading is when someone has knowledge that a stock will gain or lose in the future. This is illegal, ask Martha Stewart.

Inflation is also a topic often mentioned in letters to the editor. Often they blame the current or past administration. I’s as simple as this! Inflation is caused by the price of goods and services which is caused by supply and demand. When you raise the minimum wage of workers, you raise the price of whatever they produce. The price of fuel is important in this formula. Again supply and demand. When you make decisions that reduce the supply of oil the price will go up. Add to that the decision by OPEC to reduce production (reduced more to U.S. than to EU which includes Russia) the price goes up. Naturally, whichever administration is in office will make efforts to increase supply and insane moves like inflation and gas rebates in California. Take notice how these moves always come within a few months of an election and favor whichever demographic will vote for the current administration.

In a previous column I touted having to pass a test to be able to vote. This goes against most people’s values because they think I don’t want people of color or uneducated to vote. This isn’t the intent. It doesn’t matter if you’re brown, black, white, yellow, male, female, transgender, Christian, Muslin, or atheist. You should have some knowledge of the government, simple math, basic economics, be able to read. If you lack any of these, you’re not an informed voter. There are laws that prevent your friend or neighbor voting for you, but no laws against community organizers preaching who to vote for. If you can’t pass this test the government should offer a class which you could take to be better informed. If you’re to lazy to take the class, you shouldn’t vote because with the present system we have people in high offices that can’t make a complete sentence much less foresee what will happen when they change the supply of oil or raise minimum wage.

Bill White is Retired Air Traffic Controller/commercial Pilot who lives in Springville.