George Stephanopoulos (Γεώργιος Στεφανόπουλος), the descendant of Greek immigrants, stated that companies that go overseas to avoid paying high taxes in America are “unpatriotic.” Was it unpatriotic for his Greek relatives to leave their home country to find a better life in the United States? When they left Greece, they ended up not paying any Greek taxes. How unpatriotic!
Are today’s immigrants unpatriotic when they risk life and limb fleeing political and economic oppression in their home countries? How about my grandparents? They left Italy because they believed that America was the land of opportunity. They raised 23 children here (DeMario/11 and Crocco/12). Were they unpatriotic?
We can go back to the earliest settlers to America. In most cases, financial considerations were some of the reason they risked everything to start over again in a raw and undeveloped land. The only people who believed that these fleeing immigrants were “unpatriotic” were the tyrants who were oppressing them. Nothing has changed.
Companies that are taking their business elsewhere are being oppressed economically. By going overseas, they are (1) telling our government that taxes are too high and (2) saving money so they can keep prices low for their customers and their stock holders. Patriotism doesn’t have anything to do with it. Money is a coward. It goes where it won’t be assaulted. Our government is not making money safe for doing business in America.
When 51 percent of the people in the United States don’t pay income taxes and tens of millions rely on government wealth transfer payments, it’s no wonder that money wants to flee. It’s being assaulted. If such assaults continue, the engine that is keeping the US economy moving will no longer have the fuel to move.
Does Stephanopoulos think that these businesses would rather move to a foreign country if they could stay here at the same or lower price? Like so many Leftists, he knows very little about economics and a lot about the “glories” of oppressive governments.
Let’s say your grandparents, your parents, and now you once lived in the same neighborhood. There was a time when you could leave the doors and windows unlocked and open at night because there was almost no crime. Taxes were low. The schools were good. But times have changed. Taxes have gone up, and so has crime. The school system is now teaching things that are contrary to everything you believe. You’ve tried to get the government officials to see the problem, but their only solution is to raise taxes and tell you to put bars on your doors and windows and buy a gun. Your answer is to move. It happens every day in America. Talk to the people of Detroit.
Stephanopoulos would argue that you should stay even if your house is being broken into every night. To leave isn’t being loyal to the neighborhood that raised you. I say, fix the neighborhood, and then I’ll continue the family tradition. Quit stealing my property and making it difficult for me to do business, and then I’ll stay. Otherwise Mr. Stephanopoulos, go back to Greece and show some patriotism to your home country. You won’t because Greece’s economy is, at the moment, worse than ours.
Stephanopoulos is part of the problem. He wants higher taxes. He’s one of those thieves who keeps electing people to break into my house. Of course, he’s not personally doing it. He’s like Michael Corleone. He hires people through the election process to do his dirty Leftist business for himself and his Leftist cronies. He makes his money working for Leftist organizations, two years with then President Bill Clinton and now a gig with liberal ABC. Of course he wants more people to pay more taxes otherwise he’d have to get a real job.