So, we have the worst youth employment of all time. Frankly, it's a testament to young people in the UK that we don't have the worst crime and social disorder of all time (or are we on the verge..).
When a supermarket moves into a market town in the UK they announce that they are creating xxx jobs. But the reality is that most of these employees came from local traders, have to accept lower wages and less flexible employment, and the money generated in the local economy is sucked out to 'shareholders' (this is what economists call the 'circular flow of income collapse').
But, tech is suffering from the same phenomenon at the hands of US multinationals.
They make massive amounts of money in the UK - no online company in the UK can avoid paying Google if they want customers, for example (once upon a time tat would have been a monopoly), but the tax on these payments end up offshore. A company that employs 2,000 people in the UK with revenues of £2bn, can very simply, and legally, move all of its tax offshore in a blink. Anyone trying to develop search, map, video, apps, docs, and any other type of tech company will pay tax at 21%. So, you take on the world's largest companies with a 20% cost disadvantage. Is it no surprise that the most innovative country on earth can't home grow tech companies. Can you imaging if my company moved to San Francisco and only had to pay 3% tax!!!
And you wonder why we have a million unemployed graduates, Mr Cameron. Wake up, grow up and stop taking the Google dollar... And stop them from taxing all our online companies at price gouging rates!
When a supermarket moves into a market town in the UK they announce that they are creating xxx jobs. But the reality is that most of these employees came from local traders, have to accept lower wages and less flexible employment, and the money generated in the local economy is sucked out to 'shareholders' (this is what economists call the 'circular flow of income collapse').
But, tech is suffering from the same phenomenon at the hands of US multinationals.
They make massive amounts of money in the UK - no online company in the UK can avoid paying Google if they want customers, for example (once upon a time tat would have been a monopoly), but the tax on these payments end up offshore. A company that employs 2,000 people in the UK with revenues of £2bn, can very simply, and legally, move all of its tax offshore in a blink. Anyone trying to develop search, map, video, apps, docs, and any other type of tech company will pay tax at 21%. So, you take on the world's largest companies with a 20% cost disadvantage. Is it no surprise that the most innovative country on earth can't home grow tech companies. Can you imaging if my company moved to San Francisco and only had to pay 3% tax!!!
And you wonder why we have a million unemployed graduates, Mr Cameron. Wake up, grow up and stop taking the Google dollar... And stop them from taxing all our online companies at price gouging rates!