If corporations really want to be treated as “people” under the law, they need to be prepared to accept that their actions have consequences that will result in criticism generally reserved for individuals—such as the idea that renouncing one’s U.S. citizenship in order to have a lower tax bill may be credibly described as “unpatriotic,” and is pretty much by definition “un-American.” I say “by definition” because renouncing one’s citizenship means not being “American” anymore, and I’m not sure how one gets more “un-American” than that.

Questions of patriotism were probably not the decisive factor behind Walgreens’ reversal on its plan to become a Swiss company instead of an American one. I suspect that the massive outcry against the plan made them realize that the extra billions in tax savings wasn’t worth the long-term damage to their brand. Concepts like “long-term” don’t seem to factor into the thoughts of many American capitalists, at least if the hyperbolic reaction of one Fox Business analyst is to be believed:

To demonstrate how out of touch Fox Business analyst Charles Payne is, he went on the air earlier this week with a simple message – that paying your taxes is anti-capitalist. His apparent belief that tax cheating is something to be proud of is something highly disturbing for any high-profile business analyst. That he would proclaim that the CEO of Walgreens had ‘destroyed Capitalism’ instead of responded to consumer pressure (as a good Capitalist should do) shows us Mr. Payne’s priorities is not for having a good business, or thriving economy, but just plain old fashioned greed.

Now, the treasury department is evaluating rule changes designed to make inversions less appealing to corporations seeking to cheat their way out of taxes. This is not some grand attack on capitalism, and is in fact one of the ways to preserve it. By failing to support the system which enables a company to profit, that company is actually destroying capitalism. Capitalism requires rules to operate, and safeguards in place to prevent it from destroying itself. That is the cornerstone of American style capitalism. [Emphasis added.]

(h/t C&L)

Responding to consumer demands in order to retain their loyalty in a competitive market? That sounds very capitalist to me.

Sticking around in the country that enabled you to grow and thrive in that competitive market, which means paying taxes to contribute to the maintenance of that system? It doesn’t get much more patriotic than that. We have all this freedom and opportunity in America, I’m told—that means we also have responsibility, and remember, freedom isn’t free.