$21 Trillion stashed in offshore tax haven banks
Oh my God! Corrupt government officials, criminals and wealthy people have stashed away $21 trillion (yes that is with T, folks, according to the Guardian newspaper in the UK) to avoid paying taxes on the money. How nefarious is this? This must be stopped right now!
Oh, and since Mitt Romney is worth $250 million and has some of his money in non-U.S. bank accounts, he obviously a member of this nasty elite rich and, I guess, should have all his wealth confiscated and … well, I am not sure what is supposed to be done with it, but something should.
My progressive friend out west is the one who posted the above link and to him it is a prima facie case why one should not vote for Romney. In addition, it seems that he thinks the rich don’t pay their fair share of taxes. My question would be what is fair? How much is fair? Oh, he who is the Chief Operating Officer for a small computer gaming company, is he jealous that Bill and Melinda Gates have more than he does; or the heirs of Steve Jobs?
I am sorry, before you get me wrong, I don’t necessarily like “rich” people, but I don’t dislike them either. My brother, who is a surgeon, has made 10 times annually what I made annually for most of my life; does that make him a bad man? Not in my book. Does he pay enough in taxes? You betcha! And I don’t fault him for looking for ways to keep more of the money he still is earning at 67 and give less of it to the governments at various levels. I also know that he gives far more than his fair share to help people he thinks need assistance and not just in the United States. But those are his choices and not ones that someone else or the government has compelled him to make. And that, I contend, is as it should it be.
Now, this money stashed away in tax havens around the world: It seems that most of it comes from criminal enterprises. Ok, then it is a problem of catching the criminals. Well, that falls to national governments and the last time I looked, we didn’t have a sovereign uber-government over all the world, much less a police force that could enforce the law everywhere. And at the moment, I am not sure I would want a global government ruling over all of us.
Be that as it may, still it would be much more admirable if the money was used in something that was productive in the country in which it originated before it landed in the offshore accounts. However, that is not always the case.
Yet, these banking havens do offer services to many people, not just corrupt politicians and gang lords, especially in underdeveloped countries.
You have to understand something about banking. It is not like keeping your money in a cookie jar. Remember James Stewart’s movie “It’s A Wonderful Life”(one of my favorites). Well, Stewart’s character was … A BANKER. Yes, I know it was a savings and loan, but those really are just another form of a bank. Why was he in the S&L business? I think it was to make money for him and his wife to live on, but that might be too obvious.
No, as he tried to explain to his customers when he faced a run on his funds, that he didn’t have all their cash in the vault (see ‘Cookie Jar”), but it was invested in the community. Well, offshore banks are no different. They loan money at interest to all sorts of people, and a lot are not going to get a loan from JP Morgan or CitiBank. If they don’t loan the money out, then the people running the banks are going to starve, unless they want to make their customers mad by taking their money from them, which is why those customers have the money there in the first place: To keep others from taking what they see as “their” money.
The problem progressives have with this is that it can’t always be snapped up by the government to fund programs that make progressives feel good because either they can’t or won’t fund the programs themselves privately. Now, I know I am generalizing here about progressives, and to those who do spend vast parts of their personal wealth to aid those they perceive to be less fortunate, I apologize and commend their choices.
However, it bugs me when they say that the government, which for the most part in societies like the U.S. has a virtual monopoly on the use of force to enforce and compel people to do as it says, should get more money. Heck, if they believe that, then don sackcloth and ashes and give all but personal survival sums to the government. They can do that, you know. They can make that choice.
It just seems bizarre to me that people who for whatever legal reason have accumulated more wealth than others should be punished for doing so. I just don’t see the fairness in that.
Yes, the people on “Wall Street” are a bunch of scallywags, and if they are breaking any laws defrauding people, then have at them. But remember, they are innocent until proven guilty in this country and entitled to their day in court. That is due process and everybody, even scallywags, is entitled to it. Unless you want to abandon the concept that people are supposed to be equal before the law.
Now, I won’t argue that rich people can hire smart lawyers and smart accountants that will use every twist and turn of the law to their benefit. That is life … get used to it. You can do it too if you get enough money, or pool enough money, to hire those smart people.
As for corrupt politicians: Unfortunately, they will be with us forever. Sorry, no magic wand to wish them away. Integrity, honesty, truthfulness, sincerity, those are individual things. Individuals have to make the conscious choice to apply them in their lives. Some do, some don’t, but that is the human condition so you try to design a system that rewards those who do and doesn’t reward those who don’t. Simple concept, but one that is tough to make happen. Remember, we the people keep electing the ragamuffins to office.
But for sure, hoping that the discredited concept of “from each according to his ability and to each according his need” is somehow after all these years of trying going to work, well, it fits Einstein’s definition of insanity.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
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