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Comment by wdn | Hacker News Reader

This is actually good thing. I don't know about you, I would rather Google keep more money and invest with it than handed the money to any government. What would the government do with your money? They most likely wasted it with 0 accountability.

At least when Google failed, they go bully up. When government failed, they get rewarded with more money and resources.

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> They most likely wasted it with 0 accountability.

This isn't true in the US; if the people are unhappy with the government they vote the leaders out of office.

> What would the government do with your money?

Fund things like education, pure research, the police, the fire department, and parks perhaps?

I work for Google and am happy we have a lot of money, but I don't understand the negativity towards what the government does.

> When government failed, they get rewarded with more money and resources.

This seems to happen at companies too? I have heard of people doing things not because they're the right thing to do but because it helps with promotion.

> What would the government do with your money? They most likely wasted it with 0 accountability.

Hmm, good question.

They’d definitely never fund open source software https://prototypefund.de/en/, they’d never build new seawalls and more to protect against rising sea levels https://www.schleswig-holstein.de/DE/Landesregierung/V/_star..., they’d of course not invest more into schools and universities http://www.uni-kiel.de/pressemeldungen/index.php?pmid=2016-2..., nor into streets, canals, bridges and other infrastructure https://www.bmvi.de/SharedDocs/DE/Artikel/G/verkehrsinvestit... http://dipbt.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/18/127/1812764.pdf And they surely never would use it to pay off government debt https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-economy/german-ov...

Yeah, the government never releases any information on where the money is spent, and wastes it all https://www.bundeshaushalt-info.de/#/2016/soll/ausgaben/einz...

Luckily, Google is much better, they invest it all into society with no profit motive of their own, and always give us full reports where every cent goes.

(Just in case, /s)

The government will spend every penny of it on equipment and salaries, while Google will keep it tied up in a bank account for who knows how long before paying a massive premium to buy a bunch of blockchain startups just to keep Apple from acquiring them.

Google isn't using or investing this money. They're hiding it in a bank account in Bermuda. Whereas, if it was brought into the US, it would both get taxed (with which the government could help pay for things like your healthcare), but Google could also invest it or spend it here in the US, improving our economy.

IIRC companies with offshore profits in Bermuda invest it in stocks/bonds/etc, rather than having it sit there and do nothing.

Yeah, they'd lose big time if they let it sit in an account for ten years.

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