GE Unleashes Propaganda Campaign To Hide Its Tiny Tax Burden and Mass Layoffs

[OhioChick]

GE paid an average of 2.3% in taxes over the last ten years, while slashing its US workforce by 32,000 jobs. But its new ad campaign aims to whitewash all that.

March 25, 2012

No corporation has surpassed General Electic's mastery of profit-maximization, or its use of public-relations ("corporate propaganda&quot to mask its true aims behind the widely-supported goals of expanding scientific horizons, "bringing good things to life" and rebuilding America's industrial base.

But sometimes the profit-maximization skills of GE's top executives and tax lawyers surpass the ability of its PR staff to put an appealing gloss on the company's conduct. For example, the disclosure that GE racked up $14.2 billion in profits in 2010 while paying no federal income taxes was not well-received by the American public. GE not only avoided paying any taxes, but even managed to collect $3.2 billion in federal tax credits. This occurred against a backdrop of GE continuing to slash its U.S. workforce by 32,000 jobs, from 165,000 to 133,000 over the 2004-2010 period.

For millions of American facing a shrinking supply of middle-class jobs, falling wages, and disappearing benefits, revelations about GE have fed a renewed hostility to "free enterprise" and undoubtedly helped fuel the "Occupy" movement, now experiencing a spring resurgence.

More: http://www.alternet.org/story/154688/ge_unleashes_propaganda_campaign_to_hide_its_tiny_tax_burden_and_mass_layoffs

[ChromeFoundry]

1. and their products suck too

[Lugnut]

2. My daughter has a name for their TV commercial campaign.

She calls it, "See? We're not so bad.".

[SharonAnn]

3. Like "greenwashing" to pretend they're envirtonmentally sound.