>gives an unfair advantage to IKEA over Target, Walmart
Ugh. You correctly note that tax avoidance is an unfair advantage but list among your victims some of the biggest companies in the world. Do you think Walmart is at a disadvantage? They almost certainly avoid more taxes than IKEA (if nothing else, because they make a lot more money).
When Adam Smith wrote about "the invisible" hand, he noted that it would only work if companies weren't allowed to grow too large. Once a company gets big enough it no longer has to participate in the market. Massive tax avoidance is just one of the many ways that companies like Walmart can use their size and power to keep small players out.
> When Adam Smith wrote about "the invisible" hand, he noted that it would only work if companies weren't allowed to grow too large.
Citation? I've read most of Wealth of Nations, and I recall Smith spending a lot of time on monopolies - where the monopoly can constantly undersupply the natural demand, and charge premiums because of it.
But I didn't recall anything about companies becoming too large... in fact, he wrote famous defenses of companies like East India importing, so long as they didn't receive exclusive (monopoly) trade rights. That was one of the larger companies of the day.
But Smith wrote a lot, so I might've missed it. Cite?
"Also chartered companies were well known as witnessed by Adam Smith’s negative assessment of chartered companies in general and the East India Company in particular, contained in the Wealth of Nations."
Smith was wrong about quite a lot, including stuff that was known at that time. For instance, Smith believed in a labor theory of value - this to a great extent influenced Marx, IIRC. They were both wrong, Marx disastrously so.
Ugh. You correctly note that tax avoidance is an unfair advantage but list among your victims some of the biggest companies in the world. Do you think Walmart is at a disadvantage? They almost certainly avoid more taxes than IKEA (if nothing else, because they make a lot more money).
When Adam Smith wrote about "the invisible" hand, he noted that it would only work if companies weren't allowed to grow too large. Once a company gets big enough it no longer has to participate in the market. Massive tax avoidance is just one of the many ways that companies like Walmart can use their size and power to keep small players out.