• Wanpieserino@lemm.ee
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    2 days ago

    I’m still going to eat burger king, it still has Belgians being employed there and our minimum wage is quite high. The food is good so I support it.

    It’s American owned, but the business I eat at pays Belgian taxes, Belgian wages, invested in Belgian real estate, …

    I support that.

    It’s not the same as importing USA goods and services produced within their country.

    I highly advice you people to reconsider your purchases when it’s based on buying imported goods Vs foreign owned locally produced goods/services.

    It’s not the same thing. We WANT foreigners to pour their capital into our areas. That’s good for us. Just trust me on this one.

    • Renohren
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      2 days ago

      Any profit is sent back to the US. Whereas if I get my food in my local burger joint, all the money stays in my country. They are also nice burgers. I understand what you are saying but right now, and maybe the next few years, we do have to remind the US, you aren’t an empire on your own. This for their brands AND their Tech services industry.

    • Tja@programming.dev
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      2 days ago

      It might not pay any Belgian taxes, claiming it makes no profit (because of fees paid to the US).

      • Wanpieserino@lemm.ee
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        2 days ago

        Hmmmmm, we don’t really aim at having them pay corporate taxes. They invest their capital, which increases the labour’s value here. The higher wages cause for more labour taxes or consumption taxes. Hence our tax revenue increases.

        If they do transfer pricing, they would have to be insane to send it to USA. They’d rather send it to tax havens.

        The EU does their effort to counter transfer pricing.

        Even if it fails, their capital investment causes our country to gain profit.

          • Wanpieserino@lemm.ee
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            2 days ago

            For example this place: they have to rent this area in the center of the capital. That’s not cheap for them. There’s plenty of employees inside the restaurant.

            • Tja@programming.dev
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              2 days ago

              But if burger King wasn’t there, another restaurant would be in that place, paying that rent and salaries. There’s nothing unique about burger King that creates net new jobs. They didn’t build that building. Or anything for that matter. They don’t have some kind of unique technology or product. They don’t enable any new processes or offer new capabilities to anyone. If that place was owned by “aunt Marie Burgers and Frites” it would be a net positive for the area and the country.

              • Wanpieserino@lemm.ee
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                2 days ago

                Money coming inside of Belgium is a good thing. It funds development. This building has a renter. Aunt Marie burgers and frites’ money is being used elsewhere in the country for other development.

                The pie got larger.

                China became relevant because of foreign capital. Nothing else.

                We should motivate foreigners to pour their capital into Europe.

                • Tja@programming.dev
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                  2 days ago

                  There is no capital moving in. It’s not a new factory. It’s not a new technology. It’s not a novel product that didn’t exist before. They don’t even export anything. They pay the rent with money from their customers, just like anyone paying taxes in Belgium would. There is only capital moving out.

                  • Wanpieserino@lemm.ee
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                    2 days ago

                    So from a bit of research. The place is owned by Carl Goris. Someone living in Brussels. 99,5% of burger Kings worldwide are owned by franchisees.

                    So about 6 to 10% of the revenue goes to USA.

                    It’s up to you to decide if you think boycotting 90 to 94% local revenue to hinder 6 to 10% USA revenue is worth it.