“THE LAUNDROMAT”

What a mess. Watched “The Laundromat” starring Meryl Streep basically, again, playing herself. She doesn’t have much range, does she? Upon the recommendation of a friend. Turns out, it is another tale told by the uninformed to arouse the passions of the “believers.”

In some ways, like “Food Inc” where the viewers who wanted to believe came away with a weird, skewed story of how the beef we get in the supermarket is the product of cruelty from beginning to end of their lives. That they “never get to feel grass under their feet.” Tell that to the ranchers!

Back to “The Mess” as it should have been named. The attempt to tell the story of money from the beginning of time was lame and then trying to drag us to an understanding of modern era money-laundering through sophisticated schemes involving off-shore shell corporations was a total failure. Really, people, you need to understand your subject in order to tell a story, and it is obvious these people don’t know much.

The conclusion, a script after the welcome conclusion of this travesty showed the real conclusion. Good stories don’t need to tell you what they told you, do they? Here is the gist of that post-script: “There are a lot of corporations in the US that pay no income taxes.” Yeah. So what? You have to explain those concepts because…well, the movie missed the mark on so many levels, but for sure it didn’t come close to explaining all that.

Delaware and its favorable corporation laws came under attack, as did Wyoming. I’ll leave Delaware alone, it can fend for itself, but WYOMING?? Yes, Wyoming is the state that invented the concept of the Limited Liability Company (LLC) that is used almost exclusively for small business formations these days all over the US. Nearly all my clients have LLCs. Why? Because they generally protect the individual owner from liability. The term “generally” is used because fraud and other wrong-doing is not protected. They also pay no tax. Why? Because the taxable income is then reported directly to the owner(s). At the end of the day, taxes due are paid.

There is a theory that ALL corporate income tax should be eliminated. That all the income generated by the corporation should be channeled through to the owners, the stockholders, just like the LLC. Currently, there is a double taxation—the corporation pays taxes on income and then the owner pays taxes on the relatively smaller amount delivered to them as dividends. This theory is opposed by the large accounting firms that siphon billions off by devising complicated schemes to avoid the first tax. The complex IRS tax code is a contract for eternal employment for accountants.

None of this is covered in the movie. Instead, it wanders around to a story about Chinese bribery and a vignette about a dysfunctional family of what appears to be an exiled African dictator who has billions of dollars, probably diverted from the largesse of US corporations and the US government trying to help his people. What? How does this further the story? Not that the scenario isn’t true, but where did it come from and where is it going?

Try to avoid these kinds of Hollywood propaganda. They do nothing to further your understanding, but waste a bunch of your time. Maybe destroy a brain cell or two along the way.