I didn't make myself clear. Of course the "money power", the corporations, will stage HR "sensitivity" classes, etc. Talk is cheap. The point is, get those rates down. Or don't pay tax at all, like ENRON, 5 years or so out of 7 of the end of its existence. How does a multinational achieve such a tax rate? You and I don't pay tax at that rate. You find ways to swing the vote to DeLay, Bush, etc., whose only consistent policy is: keep taxes on the middle class high or raise them, reduce capital gains tax, reduce tax on incomes over $300,000. The theatre of seminars and sensitivity training is a small price to pay for tax "relief" like that.
Really I don't think you can link efforts to get a company's workforce to work well together and lobbying efforts to reduce corp tax rates.
I suppose some training could be hollow but they certainly are an expensive exercise if that is all it is in a company. The main reason astute companies have pushed diversity training is because 1) their workforce was changing from US white male to a wide mix of backgrounds races, nationalities etc. 2) there was/is a worry that you better be able to attract the best talent because when the population ages you could very well have a shortage of skilled workers.
Really, having all minorities expect to be welcome in a company and having people really work together well is just good business. Without it a company could very well become uncompetitive. That really is the main driver in astute companies.
As for getting tax breaks, of course they pursue those but as a separate activity.
[By the way, the middle class is a net receiver from the government, not a net contributor. Take the size of government spend and divide by the # of taxpayers. Then look at the middle class tax bill per person and you will see the middle class tax payer is a net receiver. Nor does the middle class pay the bulk of the taxes. I am not saying that taxes are not a burden. I am just pointing out that the middle class gets more from government that it pays into it. But to continue the discussion further we would have to continue that in another thread. It will be too off topic to cover here.]
According to data from the IRS:
- The bottom 50 percent of income earners pay approximately 4 percent of income taxes.
- The top 25 percent of income earners pay nearly 83 percent of the income tax burden
- The top 10 percent pay 65 percent of the income tax burden
- The top 1 percent of income earners pay almost 35 percent of all income taxes