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Comment by Top19 | Hacker News Reader

Wanted to comment that I think corporate shame is such a beautifully under-appreciated tool people should be leveraging more, and it absolutely is as much a pillar of the political process as the legislative branch.

Bringing back a societal-enforced code of ethics punishable by humiliation and public shame with a defined path of atonement is what’s going to put all corporations back in line. It absolutely has dangers and can go to far, but that is inherent in nearly every good political choice.

On a more scary note, a lot of security advisors have suggested we’ll be seeing a rise in terrorism against corporations and executives (very soft targets) in the next 10 years, probably coinciding with the next economic bubble.

See “Brave New War” by John Robb for more info.

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That sounds like premodern punishment --it still exists in some societies as a common way to enforce morality where the central govt is weak.

I'm sure I'm not an exception thinking this is a backwards approach to influence behavior.

What other direct action can citizens take to force Apple to comply with the law?

Better to shut their stores down than let them keep operating illegally, the French tax authorities should be arresting and charging management with tax fraud for their illicit scam. Apple is stealing from you and me, increasing our taxes with these tax scams.

As has been pointed out numerous times here, Apple is complying with the law.

Therefore the only available solution is to occupy the corporations until the laws change to society's benefits.

Complying with the letter of the law. Not the spirit.

Breaking the spirit of the law, but not the letter.

In most courts, that is a crime. French courts tend to look primarily at the spirit of the law itself, rather than precedent and arguments over the letter of it to see how it should be enforced, unlike English style legal system where precedent and minor word choices can make or break the implementation of a law.

Its a very practical and approachable court system for the common person comparatively.

The law is not a mathematical equation, complying with the law not a boolean clearly true or false.

Apple makes huges efforts to violate the spirit of tax law (that a business making good profit should pay quite some taxes) while trying to avoid that authorities / courts can prove it. Actually they have been fined already, they are still appealing. So whether they comply with the law is formally undecided.

Edit: Not sure whether "fined" is the correct legal term. They have received some kind of "letter" that they have not paid what was legally required in the past and they are obliged to pay the missing sum (13 billion EUR).

Apple are complying with the law that they wrote.

>Bringing back a societal-enforced code of ethics punishable by humiliation and public shame with a defined path of atonement is what’s going to put all corporations back in line.

Say that to Martin Shrekil. Big corporations are immune to shame, local business aren't.

It sounds like you want mob justice but managed to avoid using those words.

You say "shame the corporation", I say "caused a lot of retail workers to have a bad day and probably lose some much needed income".

In a country that doesn't treat it workers worse than trash, retail workers don't get screwed out of pay when their employer cancels their shift on the same day due to protests over their abhorrent practices internationally.

Here in America, workers are trash as far as our society is concerned. Work harder! Ask for less!

And pay more taxes while the rich get giant cuts

Doubling the standard deduction results in tax breaks for the working class.

smoke and mirrors:

More than 60% of U.S. households would get tax cuts from the Senate Republican tax plan in 2019, while 8% would pay more, according to the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation.

By 2027, after the individual tax cuts EXPIRE, most households would see little effect, as 61% would have either tax increases or tax cuts below $100. In that year, 16% of households would have tax cuts exceeding $100 while 23% would pay more.

That's not even the important part. I don't care if I'm paying a sliver less taxes, because it's all being paid for by ballooning the deficit, and higher earners are getting a larger share of that anyway. Why should I care that I'm saving 5% on taxes while those making 100x my income suddenly save 15%, when their effective tax rate was already low?

This is completely besides the fact that I find taxes to be a good thing, seeing as the only reason I even have a future is through publicly funded programs that helped pay for my education and subsidize the small town I grew up in and even my entire state. I'm plenty glad to pay back what the USA invested in me

This is France. A bad day, certainly. But the only lost income is for the company, and I doubt it is "much needed" for Apple

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