The New Robber Barons: Part III — The Vanishing Corporate Tax 💰🙈 Playing Hide-and-Seek with Billions 💵🎩

By Iron Ideals Ida Tarbell 🧹🪶 (America’s resident Divine muckraker ✨⛪)

🎯 Ida’s Opening Volley 🎯

When I chased Rockefeller 🎩🛢️ through his labyrinth of rebates 🌀📜 and secret contracts 🤫, I thought I’d seen every dirty trick in the ledger 📖💀.

But today’s corporations? They don’t just hide profits — they make them vanish 🪄🐇✨, like a magician’s rabbit under a silk hat 🎩🐇💨.

At least in the first Gilded Age 🕰️, the barons paid for the railroads 🚂 that carried their goods. Today’s moguls? They lay their tracks on the taxpayer’s back 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦💸, then vanish 🚀💨 when the bill collector shows up.

💵 The Great Tax Retreat 🏃‍♂️📉

• 1950s 📆: Corporations paid 52% top federal rate 💰.

• Today 🕰️: Official rate is 21% — but many pay far less ⬇️.

• Dozens of Fortune 500 firms (Amazon 📦, Netflix 📺, AT&T 📞, etc.) paid 0% federal taxes 🚫💵 while reporting billions in profits 💵📈.

Result? YOU pay for:

• 🛣️ Highways

• ⚖️ Courts

• 🎖️ Military

• 📚 Schools

…while corporations drive their armored trucks 🚛💰 right over them toll-free 🆓.

🧮 The Tricks of the Trade 🎩✨

Modern moguls 🐺👔 employ armies of accountants 🧑‍💼🧾 to master disappearing acts 🪄:

• Profit Shifting 🌍 → Route sales through Ireland 🇮🇪, stash profits in Bermuda 🏝️, then cry “we’re broke” in America 🇺🇸.

• Accelerated Depreciation 🏭 → Pretend machines wear out faster than they do ⏳, so income vanishes 📉.

• Stock Option Deductions 📊 → Treat executive bonuses 💼💵 as “business expenses,” while workers’ pay = “cost of labor” 🧍.

• Offshore Cash Hoards 🏝️💰 → Trillions hidden abroad ✈️, then lobby Congress 🏛️ for “repatriation holidays” 🎄.

Rockefeller had rebates 🔄🛢️. Today’s wolves 🐺 lounge in tax havens with beachfront views 🌊🍹.

📉 The Vanishing Contribution 🪫

• 1950s 📆: Corporate taxes = ~30% of federal revenue 🏦.

• Today 📆: Closer to 10% 📉.

Who makes up the gap? 👉 Ordinary taxpayers 👨‍🏫👩‍🔧👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 through payroll 🧾 and income taxes 💳.

Old robber barons robbed wages 🧑‍🏭.

New robber barons rob paychecks + tax bills 💳💵.

🎳 Ida’s Closing Strike 🎳

In Standard Oil’s day 🛢️, I said no man — however rich 💼👑 — was above the law ⚖️.

Today? Corporations float above it like balloons 🎈 filled with untaxed helium 💨.

When corporations brag about “efficiency ⚡,” they mean escaping responsibility 🏃💨.

When they claim “global competitiveness 🌍,” they mean competitive tax dodging 🏝️💼.

A society where billion-dollar companies 🏢💰 pay nothing 🚫💵, while teachers 👩‍🏫 pay more 💳, is not civilization 🏛️.

It is strip-mining by spreadsheet 📊⛏️.

So I ask you, dear reader 🧐📖: Who is the bigger magician 🎩?

The conjurer on stage 🎭, or the corporation that makes billions disappear 💵🙈 before your very eyes 👀✨?

👉 Next up: Part IV — Strip-Mining America 🪓🏚️: Towns, Jobs, and Communities Hollowed Out.