Is Apple Betraying America?

The Paradise Papers are already bearing fruit. You love Apple right? You love your iMac, iTunes, iPhone, iPad, and iPod, right? You look at Apple as one of the great American success stories. You know all the details of the story of Steve Jobs and Apple's dedication to innovation. Yeah, me too.

Did you know that Apple is parking major $$$ offshore to avoid U.S. taxes? Which means that the great American success story, you know the company that benefited from being headquartered in Cupertino, CA, USA, that benefited from our Education system, our roads, our Fire Departments, our Police Force, our Armed Forces, our System of Government, our Department of Justice, has a team of lawyers and tax accountants working furiously 24/7 to avoid paying taxes to help fund all those things they benefited from all those years.

Not exactly a heartwarming story. It almost seems like some kind of deep betrayal of America, right? A shiny, successful U.S. Company turns their back on the country that birthed them, and hides their profits offshore.

From the NYTimes: 

"Apple has accumulated more than $128 billion in profits offshore, and probably much more, that is untaxed by the United States and hardly touched by any other country. Nearly all of that was made over the past decade. Previously undisclosed story of Apple’s search for a new tax haven and its use of Jersey is among the findings emerging from a cache of secret corporate records from Appleby, a Bermuda-based law firm that caters to businesses and the wealthy elite.  The records, shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists with The New York Times and other media partners, were obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung."

Pay attention people. This seems like a scandal worth following!