I finished reading Steve Robinson’s Aug. 30 column, “Learn Burger King’s lesson – drop the corporate income tax,” dried my eyes and vowed to write my congressional representatives, demanding they do something to rid our “uncompetitive tax code” of the “rotten fruit” that prevents America’s corporations from making an honest buck without having to move their headquarters to foreign countries to survive.

Imagine having to pay a corporate tax rate of almost 40 percent, the highest rate in the industrialized world. It turns out that imagining is exactly what has to be done.

A recent study published by Citizens for Tax Justice showed that 300 of the Fortune 500 companies paid an average federal tax of 18.3 percent. Thirty of the companies, including Wells Fargo, Verizon, Boeing and General Electric, paid no federal income taxes in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

In 1952, corporate income taxes amounted to 33 percent of all federal revenue. In 2013, when total tax revenue had increased from $65.3 billion to $2.6 trillion, the corporate share had dropped to 9 percent of total revenue. Guess who made up the other 24 percent?

In 2014, American corporations have cash holdings of $1.5 trillion, reflecting the fact that corporate profits and profit margins are at an all-time high. Our top 20 corporations hold total cash amounting to $650 billion. Stock buyback programs show confidence in future gains.

The S&P 500 Index of corporations’ stock value is at an all-time high. The average worker’s wages have been stagnant for years, there is no appreciable inflation in sight and interest rates remain at all-time lows.

I wiped the tears from my research papers and wondered what I had been crying about. Then I wondered, even more, what Steve Robinson had been crying about.