"Every journey of a 1000 miles begins with 1 step"
Maybe we should laude and celebrate that at least loads of effort was put into getting all the G7 finance ministers in one place and actually have a discussion + agree to a next step?
Feels unnecessary negative and very arm chair criticism to just hand wave the whole endeavour and say "oh nothing was done and all they did was talk".
I sometimes think people in the last decade are to quick to find faults for every little thing that falls short of a 100% effort (and even that gets criticism) without even considering that they are not the men-in-the-arena [1] doing the hard work.
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[1] Whenever I think of criticizing something/someone, I always consider Theodore Roosevelt comment on this sort of behaviour where he once said:
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
> Feels unnecessary negative and very arm chair criticism to just hand wave the whole endeavour and say "oh nothing was done and all they did was talk"
They don't have the authority to negotiate the agreements that were described in the headlines as already being made.
That's called bullshit. Doesn't matter which side politically you are on, it's bullshit. Why is the BBC printing bullshit?
They don't have that authority, the BBC is lying to you, why are they doing that?
No, as has been pointed out to you - multiple times - reaching a deal is not equivalent to a deal being legal.
> The BBC is not lying
No, just the status quo BBC propaganda. Let's review some quotes.
> the arrival of the Biden administration in the US, created a moment of opportunity.
> A minimum corporation tax rate of 15% is rather low
> European finance ministers succeeded in including the phrase "at least 15%", which offers a path to get that number higher.
> Tech firms say they welcomed the move.
> A process has begun, a precedent has been set. It may or may not end up being transformative, but this moment is historic.
This last quote is the BBC admitting to painting this as if it was a contract being signed.
Let's continue.
> more tax revenue would be raised from large multinationals and would help pay for public services.
Only public services? Not military? Salaries? Government contracts? etc., etc.? Well, this IS historic!
> Ms Yellen said there was an understanding that national digital services taxes such as those levied by the UK and EU countries would be scrapped and replaced by the new agreement. Such taxes are regarded by the US as unfairly targeting American technology giants.
So, the tech giants get a new tax standard that benefits them over the existing standard?? Funny, this really does go along with the previous quote:
> Tech firms say they welcomed the move.
And here is another interesting quote to focus on:
> Paolo Gentiloni, the EU commissioner for the economy, described Saturday's agreement as a "big step... towards an unprecedented global agreement on tax reform"
It sets a precedence that nothing about what is being done could even be remotely criticized except for it possibly not being enough.
It's laughable. How anyone does not see this as North Korean Kim Dynasty style propaganda is beyond redemption and likely has a double digit IQ.
Then the article ends with three quotes from Amazon, FB, and Google.
Gee, I wonder who sponsored this article (and possibly helped coordinate this meeting).
It couldn't be techopolies trying to cozy up with existing government officials in the hopes of securing an agreement that is mutually beneficial for everyone.
But, paying more money is never beneficial for a company. So, game-theoretically, and thus purely mathematically-speaking: what benefit could these tech companies be receiving from this new arrangement?
Hmm ... surely, in our modern crony capitalist system, it wouldn't be anything corrupt in nature?
Classic HN, two downvotes and no one is capable of providing a counter-argument. The unintelligent flourish far too easily here. They should have more demanded of them. There are no clear incentives to not just throw a punch and run away like a coward on this site.
Maybe we should laude and celebrate that at least loads of effort was put into getting all the G7 finance ministers in one place and actually have a discussion + agree to a next step?
Feels unnecessary negative and very arm chair criticism to just hand wave the whole endeavour and say "oh nothing was done and all they did was talk".
I sometimes think people in the last decade are to quick to find faults for every little thing that falls short of a 100% effort (and even that gets criticism) without even considering that they are not the men-in-the-arena [1] doing the hard work.
----
[1] Whenever I think of criticizing something/someone, I always consider Theodore Roosevelt comment on this sort of behaviour where he once said:
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."