Akron is the focal point for this long New York Times article on corporate tax avoidance.

For decades, The Times says, "profitable companies have been able to avoid corporate taxes. But the list of those paying zero roughly doubled last year as a result of provisions in President Trump's 2017 tax bill that expanded corporate tax breaks and reduced the tax rate on corporate income."

One of those companies is Amazon, which appears be on track to open a fulfillment center in the abandoned Rolling Acres Mall that will employ 500 people. Last year, "it had an effective tax rate of below zero — receiving a rebate — on income of $10.8 billion."

The Times adds, "The list of profitable companies that pay no corporate taxes, compiled by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, also includes Goodyear and three other Ohio companies, including the Akron-based electric utility FirstEnergy. The company, which has the naming rights to the Cleveland Browns' stadium, paid no taxes last year on $1.5 billion in income, according to the analysis, and will receive additional tax credits that can be used in the future. In a win for consumers, some of that will be returned to the utility's customers."

Goodyear, the story notes, "employs 64,000 people worldwide, but only 3,000 of them remain here (in Akron), mostly in the company's headquarters. A spokesman said the company's 2018 tax situation stemmed from 'historical losses in U.S. operations.' "

The article includes comments from a few Ohioans about their unhappiness about the unfairness of the country's tax structure, and The Times' reporters stopped in at a meeting of the Akron chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.

It has "close to 100 members in Akron, many of them supporters of" U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.

From the story:

Those attending last week's meeting ranged from a stay-at-home mother who said she hadn't been able to pay her water bill for a year to a college professor, David Pereplyotchik.

Mr. Pereplyotchik, 37, said he believed the group should come up with a viable alternative to the corporate tax and wage system in the United States.

"If we're fighting for something, what version of the thing are we fighting for?" asked Mr. Pereplyotchik, who teaches philosophy. "It seems like if you just make them pay employees more, they're just not going to hire employees."

Mr. Robertson, the carpet cleaner, has his own idea: nationalizing the companies. "I think forcing them to pay higher alone is inefficient," he said, "and taxation alone is inefficient."

