world, because the effective tax rate is brought down by US multi-nationals shifting profits out of the US to lower tax jurisdictions. So our effective tax rate is low because US companies avoid paying the very high rates very effectively.... by instead paying those taxes to lower tax jurisdictions.

I'll go back to the beer tax example. If Maryland imposes a 100% tax on beer and Virginia a 10% tax on beer and so 90% of beer consumed by marylanders is actually purchased in Virginia, the effective beer tax rate paid by a marylander would be 19%. But that can't be used as evidence that Maryland doesn't have high tax rates. Marylanders just are able to lower their effective tax rate by paying it to a lower tax jurisdiction.