An effective tax rate of 0.005% - when your next door business neighbour is paying 20% - is morally wrong and damaging to society and the common good.
Tax law is a system of rules. There should be no second arbitrary standard people (and companies) should be expected to follow.
But, to your point, laws are the non-arbitrary manifestation of those morals. Indeed there should be no unwritten standard as well. In this case, there wasn't: the Irish laws did not comply with EU law, and EU law take precedence in this matter. Apple should have known that was a possibility, and probably did know but hoped (and lobbied) for the best.
ah, the capitalist angle. unfortunately, the consequences of acting this way are poor for the rest of society.
Rigid adherence to rules without consideration of what's going on doesn't usually end up with a better place.
> Apple creates more, and better, jobs than the book store they shut down to open a showroom.
It's not about Apple's showroom vs book store. Its about Apple's massive cash pile vs hospital services/fire brigade/police dept/infrastructure etc. Those are essential services, and jobs, too.
They are doing nothing of the sort. They are demanding 'resources' (money) from the shareholders. So please, don't be mad.