When companies go hiding offshore, how should they be punished?

[ColbertWatcher]

This DU thread pisses me off.

What should we do to companies that keep running away from their obligations?

I'm fine with the idea that all corporations are supposed to do is make money for their shareholders, but they shouldn't be allowed to break the law to do so.

[zorahopkins]

1. They Should Be Stripped Of Everything

Corporations that hide offshore, in order to avoid their obligations to our society should be stripped of everything -- their money, their assets, their capital -- everything.

The corporate officers should also be stripped of everything, and forced to live in utter and abject poverty -- perhaps cleaning toilets in their prison would be suitable punishment.

[pscot]

3. Preferably a third world prison

n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

11. LOL! If they want to do business outside this country, they can be punished there as well. n/t

[dkofos]

2. DEATH

[4 t 4]

4. Jail Time , no doubt n/t

[azul]

7. Death to corporate personhoods?

You must have fallen for the baloney that they are people and have a real life.

Dissolve the company if it US licensed and banish its officers from US citizenship and prohibit them from doing any business in the USA again ever. If it is a multinational business prohibit its doing business ever again in the USA also.

[SoCalDem]

5. Companies who outsource or move HQs abroad

or whose officers & big-bosses hide their booty abroad?

well , the PRODUCTS or SERVICES they "import" back into the US should have a 25% tariff slapped on them.. pretty soon they would see that the real cost of those products would slow down the sales, and they might reconsider their "foreign" adventures.. and since it's hard to pin down which are local and which are foreign, when they mix it all up, they should be forced to choose..american company? or foreign company?

Income taxes for the bosses should be figured differently for people who stay here and hire people here..

Make it here, hire locals ....you get a break.

[ColbertWatcher]

6. The ones who piss me off the most are the ones who started here ...

... learned their way around the market in some small town, with American employees, then make it big and reward the loyalty and ingenuity of these people with tax breaks for their corporate officers, who lobbied GOP lawmakers to change laws to benefit them as they run away outside American law.

Those are the bastards who need to pay.

[SoCalDem]

8. and they still trade on the good name that their predecessors built

but the stuff they sell now is nothing but crap from China with the US brand slapped on it:grr:

[ColbertWatcher]

10. Exactly! n/t

[valerief]

9. Waterboarding first--only to get all the TRUTH out of them. Then solitary confinement in a dungeon.

[ColbertWatcher]

13. Add to that a public trial and no advertising allowed for the duration of the trial. n/t

[valerief]

16. And a camera on them in the dungeon with a live feed to the Internet. They won't need privacy. nt

[natrat]

12. when congressmen have hundred million $ cayman accounts should they be punished?

[ColbertWatcher]

14. Yes.

it's disgraceful when poor people have to prop these bastards up with salaries and protect their donors with bailouts.

Laws need to be as creative as the criminals.

[Warren Stupidity]

15. all corporations are supposed to do is make money for their shareholders,

If in fact you really are 'fine' with that idea, then indeed you should have no problem with these corporations maximizing their shareholder's value at the expense of our nation and our society. If instead you think perhaps that is a free market fundamentalist assumption that needs to be challenged, examined, and most likely rejected as part of 'what went wrong', then there is a lot that we can do to protect ourselves and our way of life.

[ColbertWatcher]

19. I was trying to make an end-around that inevitable argument.

But, I guess it didn't work.

[grannylib]

17. owners should be stripped of citizenship; assets siezed; taxes

should be increased to 90% for companies that try to scab out of paying them here.
No mercy.
Zero tolerance.

[Donnachaidh]

18. there royal personhoods should be jailed and tried for tax evasion

for starters. I'm sure in these times it wouldn't be nuch if a stretch to call then treasonous, which will bring up even more goodies.

In the meantime, all the possessions, of each CEO, Boardmember, etc., should be confiscated and sold off. We do that with drug traffickers -- they are money laundering -- they are felons.

[ColbertWatcher]

21. What should be done to the lawyers who try (maybe even succeed) in getting them ...

... lighter sentences?

[Kip Humphrey]

20. Treat them like the illegal immigrants they are. Corporations were given person-hood, right? They

have been operating in this country without green cards. So, they need to be fined and deported back to their P.O. boxes in their tiny island countries.

[ColbertWatcher]

22. LOL! Good one! n/t

[oldnslo]

23. Company executives into the Iron maiden for a day. Slam Door.

[ColbertWatcher]

24. Friday kick. n/t

[McCamy Taylor]

25. No bail outs! For their subsidiaries too!

[shadowknows69]

26. We seem to be able to seize or freeze terrorist assets around the world

Needs to be done in this case too. A foot needs to be put down that says if you earn money off the backs of Americans you better damn well be paying American taxes on it. Offshore work all you like but you're going to pay for unemployment for anyone displaced back here. Hard times deserve hard measures and the criminals have gotten off too easy for too long.

[HooptieWagon]

27. If done illegally, then fine them.

Otherwise, they can be delisted from the NYSE (why should a foreign Corp be on the board?), and they can be placed at the back of the line for any governmental contracts, tarriffs are also a possibility. The USofA is still the #1 market, if companies move offshore, then roadblocks should be placed in the way of accessing this market.

[Selatius]

28. Impose a sweeping co-management law. Workers are now given voting rights in management.

Whatever management decides, workers must be consulted, and if they don't like the idea, it must be scrapped or altered until the workers like what management is speaking. Half the management positions should be positions that workers elect from among themselves to fill. If management tries to do things without consulting workers, then nothing will get done, and workers are not dumb enough to out-source their own jobs to third world dictatorships.

[Greyhound]

29. Charter revoked and assets seized, then start the international recovery process.

The second part will take many years but they will be under enormous pressure the whole time and many will not survive to the end.