Quick Takes (v48): The Zero Percenters

Quick Takes

We've been hearing for a long time about the 10%, the 1% and even the .10%. You know, the rich, the richer, and the richest of Americans, the ones with all of the money. The people we love to hate. The millionaires and billionaires, the latter group which That Guy From Vermont says shouldn't even exist.

There are lots of ways to identify who falls into these buckets, as this article shows. I've put two calculations into the table: individual income, as of 2019, and net worth, as of 2016, the most recent data available for this method of calculation.

To be honest, I think many people who express concerns about the 'wealth gap' are in the Top 10% based on income, and some may be there based on net worth as well, who have no idea they've "made it" - which is just one problem we have when talking about all of this income stuff in generalities. 

We also hear a lot -- a LOT -- about corporations that don't pay any taxes, and of course, about their owners or executives. You know - Jeff Bezos. Jeff Bezos. Jeff Bezos. And maybe some other folks, but honestly I'd be hard pressed to name any of them, as would most people. Because, if we were to believe the politicians (you know the ones I'm talking about), Jeff Bezos is the worst person in the entirety of the history of the universe.

But here's the thing: there are LOTS Of corporations that don't pay federal taxes, or that get credits against their federal tax liability, giving them an effective tax rate of zero percent. Not just Amazon - although that's the one about which we hear the most.  There's a list, from CNBC, that came out back in December showing the 91 Fortune 500 companies - 91! - with that coveted 'zero percent or less' effective tax rate.

It includes Amazon, we know, but also companies I'm bucketing as follows:

• energy and natural resources, including American Electric Power, Atmos Energy, Chesapeake Energy, Duke Energy,Edison International, Occidental Petroleum and more; 
• financial services, including Ally Financial, Brighthouse Financial, Hartford Financial Services, Prudential Financial Services, and SPX; 
• food and beverage services, including Aramark, Darden Restaurants, MolsonCoors, and Starbucks;
• automotive, logistics and transportation: FedEx, General Motors, Goodyear Tire and Rubber, Navistar International, Penske Automotive, Ryder Systems, and Trinity Industries;
• travel and tourism: Alaska Air Group, Avis Budget Group, JetBlue Airways, MGM Resorts International;
• media: Netflix, Gannett;
• construction: Beacon Roofing, Builders FirstSource, Mohawk Industries;
• fashion: Levi Strauss, Phillips-Van Heusen, Tapestry;
• health care/pharmaceutical: Eli Lilly, McKesson, Tenet Healthcare;
• long-established companies with familiar names, including  Deere, DowDuPont, Halliburton, Honeywell International, IBM, OwensCorning, PitneyBowes, US Steel, Whirlpool; and
• tech companies: Activision Blizzard, DXC Technology, Nvidia, and Salesforce.com among them.

Note that my bucketing is based on personal knowledge or a quick, 100,000-foot-level Internet search and may not directly match how the company considers itself. I do know that many of these companies (and those from the list that I didn't include above) could be hugely diversified and may defy this kind of general bucketing done by a rank amateur like me, or even by an expert. 

That said, I tried to show the breadth of the issue of companies not paying federal taxes, and to illustrate the dearth of publicity about any of these companies - other than Amazon, of course - from the candidates who are running for president or other elected office.  

I get that we like to put faces and names on political issues - easier for people to understand, to remember, and to attack with anger -- I get it.

But,

• if you're running as the climate change guy, look at all the energy companies on the full list, and tell me why you're not shouting about those companies and telling me what we can do if they only paid taxes; 
• if you're running as the savior of health insurance (or even health care) as we know it, look Eli Lilly and McKesson, and talk to me about what you're going to do to make sure they pay their fair share; and; 
• if you're running as the person who's going to clean up Wall Street (again) and the financial industry (again), why are you not pointing your fingers at the easy, easy targets on this list, and showing us all the things you'll do with all that tax revenue?

And, instead of telling us how you're going to tax the wealthy a lot and tax the middle class not very much,l - understanding that people in that 10% bucket think they are the middle class and think they don't deserve to be taxed any more - why not start telling us how you're going to ensure we get that 21% corporate tax rate from all these companies?