"who don't like to pay their fair share of taxes, business and corporations who don't like to pay their fair share of taxes"
WOW! What a wild, left wing statement.
1) If you truly want people to pay "their fair share of taxes" you would support a flat tax.
2) You realize that you are running over Amgen in this statement. Amgen is expanding in Tampa. That is a fact. If Cali were so great, why not expand near TO? Are you saying that Amgen is wrong to relocate/expand a portion of business to Tampa?
3) How is it that you can be fiscally liberal and work at Amgen? I get socially liberal but not fiscally. What did Obama ever do fiscally to help the PHARMA industry? ObamaCare-That was a joke!
4) You will have a wake up call in 1-2 months when half of the nation is open and you are still "sheltering in place". Do you think out of work people will stay in Cali? Or do you think that they might relocate out of Cali to find work. Especially your middle class. What then will happen to your state tax collection? Are you going to collect it from your abundant homeless population in LA and San Fran?
I would encourage you to take/retake an online basic economics class.
5) I am shocked at how you can hate on conservative principles and work in one of the most liberally hated industries.
I think I will call you a hypocrite.
Thanks for you reply. Appreciate it. Let me answer your questions:
1. Flat tax? Which flat tax schema are you in favor of or did you just say 'flat tax' off of a soundbite? Are you in favor of a true flat, marginal flat, flat LD, HB Flat, capped, or negative flat tax? It would help me understand your statement better how fair share equals flat tax based on the different taxation methods? What I can say at a high level is that almost all flat tax schemas disproportionetly hurt lower income people while giving the wealthy more relief. It's why presidential candidates like Ben Carson typically will not get the party nomination as you will lose the middle class down vote.
2. Nor sure why I cannot "run over Amgen". It is a company. It is not a person. It does not have feelings. Sorry but I do not have a blind loyalty to a company just because they pay me. I do the work, they pay me for the work. That is where is begins and ends. I find it funny when people become "fans" of their company like it's their favorite college or pro sports team. This company has no loyalty to you and will lay you off the second they don't see a financial value in your role. Doesn't make it a bad place to work but it certainly does not deserve blind loyalty. Apparently you have not been here too long or during the multiple RIF's. Cali still holds the second spot on Fortune 500 companies behind NYC and is the largest economy in the country, so yeah it's still pretty great and Amgen moving a portion of their operations elsewhere does not change that. I have no problem with Amgen moving functions to Tampa. Don't care if they shutter the whole TO campus as it is the call of the BOD. I am not emotionally tied to it and it is their decision. What I will say is just because they think it is the right move doesn't make it the right move or a smart move. Again, you must not have been here all that long as we, like justvevery other company, have made big decision that were bad decisions and failures. If moving to Tampa increase shareholder value then by all means cue the moving trucks.
3. Fiscally liberal vs socially liberal...well difficult to unwind those two. Simple example of this is I'm OK paying higher taxes to help out poor or lazy or poor and lazy people. For me it's part of the social contract and being a good person. Doesn't mean people who disagree with that are bad people. It's just my example of how social/fiscal are often times intertwined. Help those who need it most even if they don't deserve it. During the Obama administration the bio/pharm sector did quite well. Actually record profits, units sold, and market capitalization values and the administration did not implement any price caps or legislation that overtly damaged the way we do business. Do some research.
4. The shelter in place is apolitical. It is based on science. You work at a science based company no? This is not and should not be politicized. Not sure why that is a point of contention for you. Also, I am not sure how out of work people in California will have the financial mobility to move to another state, but sure I'm guessing some will leave and at the same time more people will move here for new opportunities. Our population is not declining so I think we are good there. From a homeless perspective the most recent count was 150K homeless in CA as of Jan 2020. Let's double that for the sake of argument. 300K of 40M...doesn't take a math wiz to see that the homeless population in CA is less than one percent. Yes, it is awful if one person is homeless but stop believing in the misinformation that all of California looks like the slums Mumbai. It just isn't true. There are pockets and encampments for sure that are relatively contained to already bad areas of SF, LA and other major metros. Again not saying that is good but it's still less than 1% of our population-not sure that meets the definition of "abundance". I think we will be able to collect taxes just fine.
5. So your rationale is everyone who works in bio/pharm is, or should be a republican or conservative because all liberals hate all of those in the sector? I got news for you...there are far more liberals in biotech than you think...even at Amgen. Go to SSF/Bay Area(the birthplace of biotech, go to Cambridge and the Boston area and I assure the liberal politicians do not hate biotech and there are scores of liberals working there). Remember how we get our drugs? Guessing you have not spent much time with any of our scientists...I let you in on something...most are highly educated liberals. Furthermore there is a well known distinction between innovative startup biotechs and Big Pharma. Typically the wrath of liberals is directed at Big Pharma. Amgen straddles the line between them but lately say the last 10 years it is clearly leaning towards Big Pharma with BB's arrival. With all that being said being a liberal or a democrat does not mean you have to agree 100% on 100% of everything. Just like not all republicans/conservative support every thing Trump does or says. I am not a single issue voter and I hope you are not either. While I may agree with many things in the Democratic Party stands for I don't agree with everything all the time. For instance I am/was not a Bernie Democrat - far too left for me and clearly most Democrats hence why he did not get the nomination. Likewise I know plenty of Republicans who support gay marriage and are pro-choice. I know plenty of Republicans who are not Trump fans. That does not make one a hypocrite it makes one have a balanced, thoughtful view.
Thanks for your questions and the opportunity to answer them. I hope you are off to a great day.