Roben Farzad argues that we should steal Google’s profits in order to feed the poor and save American newspapers. I kept waiting for the tip of the Swiftian hat, but this does not appear, after all, to be satire.
You never know exactly what you’re going to get from BusinessWeek, except the foreknowledge that it won’t be very good.
Tough times we live in. Gas is at $3.80 a gallon, with milk not far behind. Mortgages and consumer confidence are curdling, while public coffers underfloweth: The city of Vallejo, Calif., just went broke. Whatever is a Presidential candidate to do?
Channel your inner Hugo Chávez, I say. The Venezuelan strongman has been blissfully expropriating the profits of oil companies. But back here in the U.S., even amid the embarrassing riches of $130 crude, Big Oil is no easy target. Just ask Valdez, Alaska, where all its Exxon oil spill money is.
So I hereby propose we smack a windfall-profits tax on, yes, Google (GOOG). A cartel unto itself, the Internet megaplayer wields a $180 billion market cap, has boatloads of cash, and enjoys Pablo Escobar-ian profit margins.