It turns out the Rich man is the biggest Thief of all, and it appears that none of us cares!!! Been to the Cayman Islands recently? It is a melting pot for trillions, yes, trillions of tax that has been filtered away from the economies of countries throughout the world, and hoarded by very, very rich savers.
“Civil society groups, economists, journalists, and ordinary people need to rouse themselves and make this one of the great political struggles of this young century.” from Taxjustice.net
At some point . . . such conduct passes from clever accounting and lawyering, to theft from the people.
Somebody robs your house, takes your life-savings , you would be mad wouldn’t you? It’s happening to whole countries by individuals now, and it’s happening to us all by clever people hiding behind a nasty myth called ‘tax avoidance’ on a scale undreamt of. Go back a couple of centuries to the French aristocracy, on a personal level they were (probably) lovely people, but when the starvation could be borne no more, the injustice of their wealth drove a country to up end its cultural and legal precedents. What makes anyone think it won’t happen again?
James Henry, former chief economist at consultancy McKinsey and an expert on tax havens shows that at least £13trillion – perhaps up to £20tn – has leaked out of scores of countries into secretive jurisdictions such as Switzerland and the Cayman Islands with the help of private banks, which vie to attract the assets of so-called high net-worth individuals. Their wealth is, as Henry puts it, “protected by a highly paid, industrious bevy of professional enablers in the private banking, legal, accounting and investment industries taking advantage of the increasingly borderless, frictionless global economy“. According to Henry’s research, the top 10 private banks, which include UBS and Credit Suisse in Switzerland, as well as the US investment bank Goldman Sachs, managed more than £4tn in 2010, a sharp rise from £1.5tn five years earlier.( taken from http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/21/global-elite-tax-offshore-economy)
“The very existence of the global offshore industry, and the tax-free status of the enormous sums invested by their wealthy clients, is predicated on secrecy,” Henry.
Governments need to act on making that secrecy illegal. If you are in the UK. get your M.P. to object in Parliament. For a start you could do worse than go over to http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2012/07/03/banking/ and add your name to the petition , M.P’s are voting Thursday on supporting an independant inquiry on banking practices.
For clarity on money matters, I suggest further reading here; http://www.positivemoney.org.uk/about/For excellent research on tax matters and why it matters, I suggest further reading here
http://www.taxjustice.net/cms/front_content.php?idcat=2
For UK readers, a politically unbiased group of campaigners are making our voices heard, check out their campaigns including the banking industries one, http://www.38degrees.org.uk/
moving in time 
It is the elephant in the room that we all see but governments especially seem reluctant to talk about. I too, see change coming and if our governments don’t act, I’m sure it will be revolutionary.
Across Europe ordinary people are being told to tighten their belts, people on welfare are vilified and yet, for those in power, the money continues to roll in. Recently the IMF suggested the Irish Government cut spending on a package which helps the most vulnerable welfare recipients with basic household bills. They stated this would protect the poor. The stupidity of such statements is just breathtaking. At the same time, Ireland prides itself (or at least the government does) on a very liberal and undemanding corporate tax policy. The more money you make here the less you have to pay; hold a modest job and earn a modest income and you are taxed to the hilt.
LikeLike
It is unbelievable isn’t it? I can never get over how accepting we all are of the lack of real government, someone once said that the only thing government does is to undo whats been done before. But this money thing takes the biscuit. The divide is gross. Thanks for being interested!!
LikeLike