re: going down the tubes
BaldiMac: Absolutely true. This is actually a really important fact that's not getting that much discussion so far. Before we get all worked up if a company should be paying additional taxes, we should probably make a decision whether or not such tax collection is an overall "help" or a "hurt" to our economy!
The first basic thing I think people need to remember is that companies (like Apple) sell a product or a service (or both) which people VOLUNTEER to buy. If the service or product is too expensive, people say "Sorry, not worth it to me!" and they quit paying for it. The company either comes up with a better strategy or pricing, or they suffer and eventually go under.
The more tax you demand a business pays back to the government, the more it eats into the profits. Pretty much no company on earth is going to say, "Oh... our cost of doing business went up due to the taxes, so we'll just have to earn less or lose money in all those cases where we used to break even or turn very small profits." No! They raise prices and/or cut wages to compensate.
Put those two facts together, and you're essentially driving Apple to find ways to make their products cheaper or driving them to raise prices further, to cover the extra taxes paid out. Either way, a lot of people lose out. Now, let's be honest here. We're NOT really going to see Apple get taxed so high it drives them out of business. But it could easily drive them to outsource some of those more expensive American-based call center jobs answering their toll-free number .... or to find more sneaky ways to squeeze extra money from customers. (You know, like selling dongles for $30 each for all sorts of connections you want to make to one of their notebooks?)
Basically, if higher taxes collected doesn't result in real, improvements to the lifestyles of everyone affected, it isn't beneficial. I, for one, don't think the money they'd collect from Apple would ever get used by govt. for anything that would, say, help a person more than the hurt of losing a job doing phone support for them?
I'd also add that the US economy isn't "going down the tubes" because companies aren't paying enough taxes.