This subject sounds like a snoozer. But it may affect your job. Or the jobs of friends or relatives. And it turns the spotlight onto some stupid thinking.

We have seen many a big company move overseas lately. To escape our taxes. The big company buys another business that is headquartered in another country. The other country taxes business at a lower rate than we do. So the American company moves its headquarters to the low-tax nation — to escape our high taxes. It can do so easily because it bought the other company in the low-tax country. 

Our government is crying “foul.” Candidates are blasting these companies. This is unfair, they insist. Businesses are not paying their fair share. These companies are unpatriotic. 

I call their wailing “garbage” for a simple reason. We have the highest income tax rate on business in the industrialized world. 

Please think about this. Our politicians promise new jobs by the millions. They promise to make America the perfect place to locate your company. They utter a lot of blah blah about how they will light a fire under American businesses. To push them to create those millions of jobs.

And yet they whack those businesses with the highest corporate income taxes in the industrialized world. Could our politicians do anything more stupid in this regard?

Well, yes, they could. And they have. They double-tax companies. They make American companies pay taxes here on income they made abroad. So they’re taxing income that has already been taxed by other countries.

This not taxing. This is plundering. It is greed. It is stupid. It gives the back of the hand to major companies, major employers. And many companies have declared they have had enough.

Now, when they relocate overseas, the companies still pay U.S. taxes — on profit they make here. But they escape the IRS’s greedy clutches with profit they make overseas. And that’s how it should be.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration is doubling down on the stupidity. It is breaking the law with tactics designed to punish these companies. The tactics are failing, because they are stupid. Companies are leaving anyway. The administration is asking Congress to give it more authority to stop these companies from escaping our high taxes.

This is equivalent to you raising and raising your prices on your best customers. When they tell you they are going to the competition — where prices are lower — you blame them, the customers.

So what would be a smart policy? Well, duh, we could lower our tax rates on these companies we want to have locate here. We could reduce the god-awful regulation we impose on them. We could make this country a place where companies actually want to locate. 

Ask yourself this question the next time you hear a candidate say that big American companies avoid taxes: If this was true, why do these companies move overseas? If they pay virtually no taxes here, this is Nirvana for them. Why would they move from Nirvana?

Connecticut has been awash in stupid thinking on taxes. Its tax rates are onerous. And so high-earners desert the state in droves. As do many companies. GE is thinking of doing so at the moment. There is a simple lesson here. When you tax businesses and people too much, you get fewer of them.

Meanwhile, when you tax people and businesses less, you attract more of them. 

The plain fact is that our taxes on companies are unreasonable. So are our regulations. Both are stupid. As are the people who create them. Many companies are smart enough to escape this stupidity. This is unfortunate for us.

My wish for 2016? More intelligent thinking on this subject in Washington. When I told my wish to Santa Claus, he fell off his sleigh with laughter. 

From Tom…as in Morgan.        

Tom Morgan writes about political, financial, and other subjects from his home near Oneonta, in addition to his radio shows. Contact him at tomasinmorgan@yahoo.com

Have you ever witnessed the “slow link,” when someone is so bored he starts blinking really slowly, his head becomes the heaviest object in the world, and he almost falls asleep while talking to the other person? Don’t let the person causing the slow blink to be you.

If you want to become more interesting to people — in business meetings, sales calls, or networking events — there is a simple strategy you can implement. As you look to build your likability, it’s important to become interesting and someone that people want to be around. 

The biggest mistake people make is thinking that to become interesting they have to say something interesting. It may sound counter intuitive, but the most interesting people rarely say interesting things. The key to becoming interesting to people is to become interested in them. The less you talk about yourself and the more you put the spotlight on the other person, the more he/she will actually find you interesting and like you in return. The majority of people you do this with will relish the opportunity to talk about themselves, to have someone put the spotlight on them and genuinely listen. When the majority of people are listening, they are not actually listening — they are simply waiting for their turn to talk. They don’t care what the other person is saying and aren’t really interested. Becoming interested in people makes you interesting.

Use the attention-spotlight technique

Now imagine that you are a stage director of a big play and you control the spotlight. You are going to put the spotlight solely on the person with which you are talking. Everything else around the person is black. You are behind the light so you can’t be seen. The spotlight of your attention is solely on this person, not on your phone, not looking around, not checking your watch, but solely on the person.

I want you to be connected to him/her and ask questions, such as: “What is new and exciting in your life?” “What projects are you currently most excited about?” and “What keeps you up at night?” Pay attention to the person’s responses and delve deeper with genuine curiosity. 

A friend of mine who is an executive coach told me of an executive client he had who felt he had changed her life. In this life-changing session, the only words he uttered were: “Tell me how you are doing” and then never said another word. He genuinely listened and simply gave this powerful client of his the space to speak. Being allowed to talk, without interruption, led to this game-changing session for his client. He did not interrupt her; he just listened and kept his attention spotlight on her. 

By asking open-ended questions, and giving the other person the spotlight, you let the individual you are speaking with direct the conversation. You are not a mind reader; you don’t know what pains or joys this person has and which areas of her life are affected. By asking open-ended questions, you let the person interpret based on what’s most important to her.

An important note about this technique is to avoid inundating people with questions. It’s a conversation, not an interrogation. Make sure to show you are listening by rephrasing the answer in your own words before asking your next question. Utilize active listening techniques like head nodding, saying, “I see,” or “Interesting, tell me more.”

To become more interesting to people, become genuinely more interested in them. Ask questions and listen intently. Keep the attention spotlight on them for the majority of the time. When you increase your likability, you boost the chances of having deep relationships with people. If you increase deep relationships with people, then you raise your chances of success in all areas of your life.         

Arel Moodie is the founder of the Art of Likability, which provides research on leveraging likability for business success. He hosts a weekly podcast on his likability research on iTunes that is listened to in over 140 countries. Contact him at www.artoflikability.com, info@artoflikability.com, or (800) 617-9648.