When Did Being an American Capitalist...

...mean serving yourself was far more important than honoring, supporting, and protecting the land that gave you your chance at success?

Halliburton will move HQ to Dubai
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Oil services giant Halliburton Co. will soon shift its corporate headquarters from Houston to the Mideast financial powerhouse of Dubai, chief executive Dave Lesar announced Sunday.

"Halliburton is opening its corporate headquarters in Dubai while maintaining a corporate office in Houston," spokeswoman Cathy Mann said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "The chairman, president and CEO will office from and be based in Dubai to run the company from the UAE."

Lesar's announcement appears to signal one of the highest-profile moves by a U.S. corporate leader to Dubai, an Arab boomtown where free-market capitalism has been paired with some of the world's most liberal tax, investment and residency laws.

So instead of paying a fair share of taxes, Halliburton is heading off to the UAE to enjoy the benefits of working with an oil-happy Arab nation. Benefits that include:

- 100% foreign ownership of the enterprise;
- 100% import and export tax exemptions;
- 100% repatriation of capital and profits;
- No corporate taxes for 15 years, renewable for an additional 15 years;
- No personal income taxes; and
- Assistance with labor recruitment, and additional support services, such as sponsorship and housing.
- To learn more visit http://www.mideastlaw.com/middle_eastern_laws_uae.html

So the company that our current Vice-President was the former CEO of...a company that holds a slew of contracts to support our troops over in Iraq..a company that has been accused by the federal government of wasting nearly $3 billion dollars of tax payer money...that company is now heading off to Dubai to enjoy a tax-free life in an oil rich nation that needs no taxes because we pay $3 a gallon for gas to the oil-rich Arabs and literally billions of our tax dollars to wealthy Republican CEOs.

Boys and girls, why does it feel like the American people, both Democrats and Republicans, are going to be left holding the check for the capitalists' eating binge? The storm is coming, boys and girls, and I don't know if the levies are going to hold.