#first energy

[tomorrowusa]

Corporations pay their CEOs extravagantly while trying to cheat on taxes.

It would be one thing if, alongside the exorbitant executive pay, the quality of American CEO-ing was going up. But these executives are making off with bigger bags of boodle despite their persistent incompetence: Media executives keep running their businesses into the ground, tech firms are laying people off because of vibes, the planes keep nearly crashing, and examples of insane eye-popping greed—like Rite-Aid’s decision to claw back severance paid out to laid-off workers on the same day they handed their CEO a $20 million bonus—keep on coming. So it may come as no surprise that there’s a robust connection between the overindulged CEOs and the firms that are most flagrantly dodging their fair share of taxes. For a report released Wednesday, the Institute for Policy Studies teamed up with Americans for Tax Fairness to spelunk into the balance sheets at some of America’s best-known tax scofflaws between 2018 and 2022. What they found was pretty consistent: The firms took home high profits and lavished their top executives with exorbitant pay, all while stiffing Uncle Sam. The excess is stunning. “For over half (35) of these corporations,” the study reports, “their payouts to top corporate brass over that entire span exceeded their net tax payments.” An additional 29 firms managed this feat for “at least two of the five years in the study period.” Eighteen firms paid a grand total of zero dollars during that five-year span, 17 of which were given tax refunds. All in all, the 64 companies in the report “posted cumulative pre-tax domestic profits of $657 billion” during the study period, but “paid an average effective federal tax rate of just 2.8 percent (the statutory rate is 21 percent) while paying their executives over $15 billion.” Which firms are the worst of the worst? You can probably guess the company that tops the list because it’s the one run by The New Republic’s 2023 Scoundrel of the Year. During the five years of the study, Tesla took home $4.4 billion in profits as CEO Elon Musk carted off $2.28 billion in stock options, which, since his 2018 payday, have ballooned to nearly $56 billion—a compensation plan so outlandish that the Delaware Court of Chancery canceled it. Tesla has, during that same period of time, paid an effective tax rate of zero percent through a combination of carrying forward losses from unprofitable years and good old-fashioned offshore tax dodging.

Elon Musk is either the world's richest or second richest person. But he still wants more. Give him credit for pathological greed.

In all fairness, Musk is not alone when it comes to enriching himself while screwing workers.

What sort of innovations have these CEOs wrought from this well-remunerated period? T-Mobile’s Mike Sievert presided over the Sprint merger that led to $23.6 million in stock buybacks and 5,000 layoffs. Netflix’s Reed Hastings poured $15 billion in profit into jacking up subscription rates. Nextera Energy has devoted $10 million in dark money in a “ghost candidate scheme” to thwart climate change candidates. Darden Restaurants has been fighting efforts to raise the minimum wage. Metlife has been diverting government money meant to fund low-cost housing into other, unrelated buckraking ventures. And some First Energy executives from the study period are embroiled in a corruption scandal that’s so massive that even Musk might find it to be beyond the pale.

These oligarchs are going to spend lavishly to elect Republicans who would give them even bigger tax breaks.

Fortunately, they can't literally buy votes. If we return to old school grassroots precinct work then we can thwart the MAGA Republican puppets of billionaire oligarchs.

One to one contact is a more important factor than TV or online ads in convincing people to vote your way. It takes more effort, but democracy was not built by slacktivism in the first place.

[pouletpourri]

"You just have to look closely."

[jellyjamheadobb]

[onefail-at-atime]

You can't convince me that the bit about Connie exposing Pamela Milton's uncle and getting him kicked out of Congress wasn't from some writer who knew about the real life Householder-First Energy scandal in Ohio that had been going on at the time the episode was written.

[chloesimaginationthings]

Mike and FNAF into the pit Jeff are the same guy…

[lrndvs]

If you're a motorcyclist in LA and you heard barking, that was me, sorry, it will happen again.

[ruporas]

trigunned the hades or hadesed the trigun (id in alt)

[transthatfag]

should've hate fucked ngl.

[hinamie]

alongside someone like you

[saint0psy]

Work is kicking my ass so heres!!! The hyperfixation!!

[captainpingulin]

One of them is nutrient deficient for sure

[shiitakeboheme]

“Sometimes the suit goes off by itself…”

Suits you right, motherfucker

[lazylittledragon]

ok someone please correct me if i'm wrong but am i weird for thinking those 'audiobooks don't count as reading' posts are ableist as fuck????

[tubesock86]

the scoobies (plus faith and spike)

[luxmoogle]

⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ A q u a ࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ

[hemi-demi]

Alex in the opening of the first TMA fluff episode:

"Hey, we know times are tough. Here's a little break from the terrible reality with some soft content, so you can take a breath and just relax a while."

Alex in the opening of the first TMAGP fluff episode:

"Hewwo, you sick degenerate fucks. This is a callout post. I've seen your fluffy sins, and I'm gonna make damn sure you feel shame about them. Here's some tea uwu. Enjoy listening to your new scrungly blorbos have a brief moment of levity just to make their inevitable torment that much more painful for you. Yum!"