The panama papers and hot cheetos

marleyisalegend

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every time a low-income person swipes their ebt card to buy some snacks for themselves or their kids, the fury America feels over "their tax dollars" is so palpable, so tangible you could almost bottle it and sell it as a fragrance, Jour d'Angst.

but when rich people cheat the system by hiding their money in offshore accounts to avoid paying taxes [and, among other things, hide stolen wealth] nobody says boo. the panama papers was a huuuuge leak that exposed how this practice isn't just one or two millionaires but a network of wealthy people and hundreds of thousands of off-shore entities. the amount of taxes they've avoided paying is probably immeasurable as this was a world-wide operation that was far more complex than just "not paying taxes" but i've simplified for the sake of discussion.

anyway, is the righteous indignation people feel about a poor woman pulling a foodstamps card out of her Michael Kors wallet or have we been duped by a low-income smear campaign orchestrated by the elite to convince us all that America is poor because of welfare [which, for the record, we don't actually spend THAT much money on per the federal budget].
 
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Perados

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I guess it's a world wide phenomenon, where politicians, media and "groups of interests" have told us "everyone who is pore and gets financial support is lazy. Everyone who wants to work can work. It's their own fault."
At the same time we here that the state is bad and taxation should be low. This in mind, we here the excuse "who would avoid tax if he could?"
Many people believe it, excuse it.

At the same time we have the finance industry and the wealthy part of the society influencing the government not to act too hard against "tax optimizing".




Plus, no big nation is willing to shut down all the tax heavens. They are part of the problem.
USA, GB and Germany are tax heavens as well.
 
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marleyisalegend

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I guess it's a world wide phenomenon, where politicians, media and "groups of interests" have told us "everyone who is pore and gets financial support is lazy. Everyone who wants to work can work. It's their own fault."
At the same time we here that the state is bad and taxation should be low. This in mind, we here the excuse "who would avoid tax if he could?"
Many people believe it, excuse it.

At the same time we have the finance industry and the wealthy part of the society influencing the government not to act too hard against "tax optimizing".




Plus, no big nation is willing to shut down all the tax heavens. They are part of the problem.
USA, GB and Germany are tax heavens as well.

And if this was a thread about a single mom on foodstamps smoking a blunt it'd be on page 8 by now, filled with righteous indignation and "How dare she" and "We need to drug test" blah blah blah. I can't speak for any other country, but Americans are totally under the thrall of obscene wealth much to the detriment of their own very lives.
 

Perados

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And if this was a thread about a single mom on foodstamps smoking a blunt it'd be on page 8 by now, filled with righteous indignation and "How dare she" and "We need to drug test" blah blah blah. I can't speak for any other country, but Americans are totally under the thrall of obscene wealth much to the detriment of their own very lives.
Germany has a way better social system than the USA, but you can still hear the same allegations.
They are lazy, drink alcohol, can't care for they kids... jadda jadda jadda.

It's something that has been developed in the 1980th. As the government lowered taxation for the wealthy, start talking about the "triple down effect" and that the state has no longer enough money to care for all in sufficient dimensions, the media started to Attacke the pure. Not the wealthy are the bad guys, because they want more for themself, but the pure are guilty for being pure.
 
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marleyisalegend

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Germany has a way better social system than the USA, but you can still hear the same allegations.
They are lazy, drink alcohol, can't care for they kids... jadda jadda jadda.

It's something that has been developed in the 1980th. As the government lowered taxation for the wealthy, start talking about the "triple down effect" and that the state has no longer enough money to care for all in sufficient dimensions, the media started to Attacke the pure. Not the wealthy are the bad guys, because they want more for themself, but the pure are guilty for being pure.

Love this post. Soooooo accurate.