Taxes, corporations, and morality

[Syne]

So with the latest US tax overhaul, many are saying that the rich corporations are only going to get richer, without any appreciable improvement of the working middle-class. And there's long been a class warfare that demonizes the 1% for "not paying their fair share." In light of these:

• Do both of these express a desire for corporations to behave more morally (beyond mere legal compliance)?
  
• Do you agree that morality should be a business concern?
  
• And is this sentiment the motive for corporate virtue signaling?
  

[Yazata]

So with the latest US tax overhaul, many are saying that the rich corporations are only going to get richer, without any appreciable improvement of the working middle-class.

I would have favored an even larger tax reduction for corporations (conceivably down to 0%), but conditional on hiring sufficiently more US citizens and moving more manufacturing back to the US.

Do both of these express a desire for corporations to behave more morally (beyond mere legal compliance)?
Do you agree that morality should be a business concern?

I don't look at it as morality at all. It's more a matter of national, class and personal-interest.

I'm not convinced that any of these must be a corporation's primary concern. They are basically concerned with furthering the corporation's interest and the interest of its investors. But national interest should be the concern of the governments that regulate and tax the businesses. And personal and class interests are the concern of the voters that elect those governments.

And is this sentiment the motive for corporate virtue signaling?

Most of the virtue signalling that I've seen coming from corporations is cultural virtue signalling. They are trying to demonstrate that they are on board all the trendy causes. That's because all large corporations operate out of big cities (New York, London...), cities that are dominated by the new-aristocratic elites. (Governmental, journalistic, media, entertainment, academic, business, financial... basically everyone who think's that they know better than the general public (which they disdain) and are in a position to tell everyone else how to think and behave). The corporate elites just reflect the conventional opinions of their own new-aristocratic class.

[C C]

Do you agree that morality should be a business concern?

That can optionally be interpreted as the case since there are "Rand-ish" thought orientations which posit such as among its very attributes: "Business is based on the idea that self-interest and the desire for profit are moral and good and that there are appropriate and inappropriate ways to profit." It also seems unfeasible that any invented prescription about what business is or should do would declare it devoid of moral properties or guiding principles along that line at all, if for nothing more than (in the most cynical context) deceiving the population and dodging its ire. A description / prescription that desired legs to it, anyway, rather than falling swiftly into the diabolical fringe-bin.

And is this sentiment the motive for corporate virtue signaling?

Companies don't want to offend or lose the confidence of their customers / clients (which includes other businesses, not just particular people) because of miscues in judgement and not "keeping up with the times". But they often don't wait for an actual downturn in their goods or services to jump onto a voguish bandwagon or go into warning / adjustment / repair stance. And in that forestalling mode they unfortunately (or due to real-world practicalities and limitations), may use mediating consultants and agencies to measure the fads and approval / disapproval temperature of the crowd rather than inquiring directly from their patrons.

The current era also incubates knee-jerk, inconsistent responses from commercial enterprises spurred by outrage and shaming spasms in the opinionated social media and blogging sphere. Where influential individuals or nodes can trigger an earthquake of popular reaction which nervous executives in charge can hastily respond to with little or no extended consultation and evaluation beforehand (swift firings or staff shakeups for instance, as virtuous support for a cause). Relativism or the competing values, concerns, and grievances of different social groups also contributes to a climate arguably more complicated than back in the '50s and '60s when advertising catered to the oughts of a moral watchdog that was dominant and more homogeneous. Any watered-down mediocrity[*] of whatever the mixed worldviews can agree upon or be semi-congruous about is the prospect of eventual stability again.

[*] In effect, an equilibrium of mitigated dissatisfaction across the board.

- - -

[Syne]

So with the latest US tax overhaul, many are saying that the rich corporations are only going to get richer, without any appreciable improvement of the working middle-class.

I would have favored an even larger tax reduction for corporations (conceivably down to 0%), but conditional on hiring sufficiently more US citizens and moving more manufacturing back to the US.

I would have been for at least matching the European average, which is still lower. And aside from the illegal alien problem itself, I'm not too concerned with having any strings attached. After stock buy-backs, only growth will continue to increase profits.

Do both of these express a desire for corporations to behave more morally (beyond mere legal compliance)?
Do you agree that morality should be a business concern?

I don't look at it as morality at all. It's more a matter of national, class and personal-interest.

I'm not convinced that any of these must be a corporation's primary concern. They are basically concerned with furthering the corporation's interest and the interest of its investors. But national interest should be the concern of the governments that regulate and tax the businesses. And personal and class interests are the concern of the voters that elect those governments.

Well, I think people who express the OP sentiments view corporations as having the government in their pockets, so that their profit motive trumps the government's national interest. IOW, corporate lobbying significantly interferes with the will of the people. So it seems these people do want to pressure such corporations into what they consider moral, and some concede, raising their minimum wage, etc..

[Syne]

What I'm most curious about is how people who have these two beliefs:

• Corporate tax cuts only allow the rich to get richer, without any appreciable improvement of the working middle-class.
  
• The 1% are not "paying their fair share."
  

Would answer this question:

• Do both of these express a desire for corporations to behave more morally (beyond mere legal compliance)?