Too Big to Fail? · Conversations of Consequence by Ruth Westreich

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Too Big to Fail?

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Title

Too Big to Fail?

Description

IN 2018, Amazon paid $0 in United States federal income tax on more than $11 billion in profits before taxes. It also received a $129 million tax rebate from the federal government. Amazon has a long-history of tax management. It paid 1.2% in federal income tax in 2017– a three-year high for the company. The corporation, which is headquartered in Seattle, funneled $1.5m into the local city council elections by way of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce’s political action committee.

The banking industry received a “too big to fail” bailout in 2008, and it gave rise a generation of companies that have in the last decade been allowed to grow even bigger and more unwieldly. Technology companies such as Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple have adopted the stance that with great scale comes total impunity.

Creator

Collection

Conversations of Consequence

Citation

Ruth Westreich, “Too Big to Fail?,” Conversations of Consequence by Ruth Westreich, accessed May 19, 2025, https://biblio.csusm.edu/context-library-series/westreich/document/214.