Occupy GE

[justanotherboy]

Anyone from DY going? Will this help or hurt Detroit's image and ability to bring business back into the city?

http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/G...nt-3503572.php

[DetroitPlanner]

I heard on WWJ this morning that GE is holding this meeting in Detroit during the SAE to highlight the work it is doing in Automotive fields and to announce the expansion of 300 jobs in the Detroit area.

I'm not sure what they are complaining about? What is thier goal? More jobs? If so, they have little to complain about unless they want to hire non-engineers to do engineering. Is it corporate taxes? Should they not be directing this to the politicians who have given these tax breaks?

[JBMcB]

The 99% coalition thing is basically a pro-Obama Super-PAC. Originally the re-election theme was going to be the Occupy movement, but it proved to be too unorganized and, ultimately, too critical of Obama. So the whole thing is being revamped to be the 99%/1% "us-vs-them" campaign.

It will pretty much disappear after Obama is re-elected. Dissidence is embarrassing to a sitting president [[how loudly has Moveon.org been rallying for peace in the last 4 years?)

[Scottathew]

Xenophobia is an anti-Obama Super-Pac.

[downtownguy]

I heard on WWJ this morning that GE is holding this meeting in Detroit during the SAE to highlight the work it is doing in Automotive fields and to announce the expansion of 300 jobs in the Detroit area.

I'm not sure what they are complaining about? What is thier goal? More jobs? If so, they have little to complain about unless they want to hire non-engineers to do engineering. Is it corporate taxes? Should they not be directing this to the politicians who have given these tax breaks?

More on that here: http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2012/04/...t-health-care/

I agree with DP. Although I am generally sympathetic to the Occupy movement, it is the politicians that should ultimately be held accountable. It appears that GE has done nothing illegal in keeping their corporate taxes low. Sure, they game the system by making big donations to the politicians and hiring the best lobbyists. But, thanks to the Supreme Court's Citizen United decision and Congress, corporations are given these benefits and loopholes on a silver platter. I think OWS would be better off directing their energies towards Occupy Congress.

At the risk of giving GE too much credit, I do think it's pretty cool that they are also holding their annual meeting in Detroit.

[Hermod]

It appears that GE has done nothing illegal in keeping their corporate taxes low.

GE corporate income tax rate varied between 15.5% nd 21.7% during the years 2002 to 2007.

Because of some really bad decisions at the GE Capital division [[they thought they were a bank) the income tax rate dipped to 5.5% in 2008.

In 2009, GE paid no income taxes [[carryover of losses from GE Capital)

In 2010, GE paid income tax at the rate of 7.4%.

In 2011, the tax rate shot up to 27.4%.

They forecast rates of 25% going into the future.

GE stock is still selling at less than half what it did in 2007.

[adamjab19]

I agree with DP. Although I am generally sympathetic to the Occupy movement, it is the politicians that should ultimately be held accountable. It appears that GE has done nothing illegal in keeping their corporate taxes low. Sure, they game the system by making big donations to the politicians and hiring the best lobbyists. But, thanks to the Supreme Court's Citizen United decision and Congress, corporations are given these benefits and loopholes on a silver platter. I think OWS would be better off directing their energies towards Occupy Congress.

At the risk of giving GE too much credit, I do think it's pretty cool that they are also holding their annual meeting in Detroit.

Good points all around. I agree with what the Occupy movement stands for and agree with some of their actions but I can't get behind them 100% of the time, more like 99% of the time....

It is cool that GE is moving jobs here though. In the big scheme of things that is crucial right now for this areas survival regardless of the "games" GE plays.

I once had a professor tell me don't worry too much about the president or even some of the representatives, it's the judges you have to worry about.

[jj84]

I once had a professor tell me don't worry too much about the president or even some of the representatives, it's the judges you have to worry about.

Running against a sitting judge is the scariest thing you can do, cause if you lose there is hell to pay when you are in his/her courtroom.

Also I find it funny that everyone gets mad at GE for not paying taxes when GM is in the same boat, they got to carry over all their losses from Old GM to the new GM after bankruptcy. So GM isn't paying corporate tax either.