About corporate taxes

I can support Donald Trump’s proposal to cut corporate income taxes, but I think that a cut to 20 percent is too steep. I question, however, his assertion that it would lead corporations that collectively have $5 trillion or more (his version) “sitting offshore” to bring those dollars back to the United States to spur economic growth. Many economic experts contend that the actual total is under $3 trillion. I have doubts that these corporations, which I presume are currently paying zero percent in corporate taxes, would be eager to return so that they can pay 20 percent. It makes me wonder how Wal-Mart, with headquarters still in Arkansas, continues as the world’s leading retailer with such confiscatory corporate tax rates. Republicans love the word “confiscatory” when they speak of taxes on corporations and the rich.

OK, forget taxes. Trump ignores a major factor in the defection of many of these corporations to other nations, which involves the far cheaper labor costs that they can obtain outside the United States. I’ll use an example from the automobile industry. The following are average hourly wages paid to auto workers in three nations in which such workers receive the lowest pay in U.S. dollars: China $5.19, Mexico $3.29, and India $1.09 (source: Wall Street Journal). American auto workers get an average of around $40 an hour plus benefits such as retirement and health insurance. The same wage conditions prevail in other industries worldwide. These corporations will not be returning to us. ED CHESS Little Rock