Ideally, yes - but until share buybacks are outlawed - companies will just ‘reinvest’ by buying up shares (increasing their price, and thereby existing shareholder wealth), and issuing them as bonuses to their C-suite in lieu of payment.. by-and-large avoiding a lot of the income tax that they would otherwise be due to be paid.

Our current late-stage capitalist corporate system is built upon layers and layers of tax-avoidance and self-enrichment at the cost of society as a whole.

You have to bear in mind that the "like it used to be" part operated when digital card payments were not a thing. A customer would give you cash, and maybe you would write it down in your taxes, but there was no digital indicator of what actually happened.

Small business owners got to stay afloat by swindling the government, and this was the normal way for centuries.

I'm not saying it's right, just that the high business tax of the past wasn't as effective as you think it was, and will hit extremely differently this time around in the digital era.

You might be right, but what's silly is that you think companies wouldn't do everything in their power to not reduce pay to both workers and the government at the same time. And they do. In fact, they lobby endlessly to lower their taxes as well as keep wages low, loosen regulations, dismantle the power of unions, roll back labor rights, and take away voting power of the people who would vote against their interests. You need to understand that the entire motivation of these companies is to maximize profit at all costs. "If you're going to lose the money anyway" is not something they have ever or will ever accept. That's like assuming that you accept that you will never eat another scrap of food ever again. Your survival depends upon it, and when access to it is threatened, you will lie and cheat and steal as much as is necessary to ensure your survival.

If the government taxed businesses at a higher rate and used that increased revenue to improve the quality of life and access to opportunities for all, I'd say that that's a much better use of that money. We've tried taxing businesses less in hopes of having anything other than piss trickle down to the workers. That's how we got here. Productivity has boomed, yet wages have stagnated and people are struggling to get by. It's time to stop propagating broken bullshit-ass Reaganomics and start advocating for your fellow human to be able to afford access to the bare minimum of food, shelter, and medical care. The GDP of the US is over $25 TRILLION. So why in the blue fuck are people still freezing and starving to death in this country? Unacceptable.

We could set it so that companies whose CEO's net worth is less than a half mil are exempt

Close the loopholes that let companies with billions in revenue pay 0 in taxes.

Or be self employed.

State plus federal tax tho?

Not to mention health insurance and 401k (to replace pensions).

Our take home percentage is much lower than a few decades ago. Not to mention cost of living: housing and food.

Force companies that want to operate in your country to report sales made in your country so they're taxed on the revenues, kick em out if they don't report them.

Republicans take great strides backwards. The limit of our ambition is baby steps forwards.

That needs to be restored.