On “Giving Tuesday” Giving’s Never Been Easier – Or Cheaper for Global Corporations

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/11/30-3



On “Giving Tuesday” Giving’s Never Been Easier – Or Cheaper for Global Corporations
by Laura Flanders
Published on Saturday, November 30, 2013 by GRITtv

~snip~

Take Verizon. For Giving Tuesday, the Verizon Foundation says it will contribute to three large non-profits as directed by the votes of Verizon workers. The company calls it giving back and “giving voice” to employees.

Call me cynical, but I bet most Verizon workers would have preferred more voice and fewer give-backs in their contracts. Over the last decade Verizon’s forced concessions on everything from wages to pensions to job security and the right to organize. Giving Tuesday’s nice but Verizon workers give back every day.

It’s the same with Google. Google’s co-hosting a Giving Tuesday "Hangout-a-thon” for charities and socially conscious businesses. Lovely, but if they had a real social conscience, Google would let less of its wealth hang out in tax shelters. Last year, Google dodged about $2 billion in income taxes by funneling revenues into a Bermuda shell company. What they give on Tuesday will be pennies on what they’d owe if they were to pay their fair share on tax day. And poor taxpayers might need less charity.

At Microsoft, well, at Microsoft, they’re matching dollar for dollar the contributions given to a group of youth charities on Giving Tuesday. It must be some mistake, but I’ve read the site five times and it seems to me that the tenth most profitable corporation in the world has set a goal for the GivingTuesday campaign of just $50,000.