Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/11/11/double-irish-sandwich.html
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Excellent, plain-language explainer on corporate and 1 percenter tax evasion, with a simple solution
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The problem is that there’s no will at the government level to fix this. At all. America’s forever fighting wars it has no business fighting. Even where it isn’t fighting a war it’s infiltrating that, destabilizing this, and all in all, keeping the spy thriller writers in business.
So, if the government wanted to it could so get the money out of Bermuda. They might even be able to do it legally, but given the leisurely attitude to such matters as war crimes it otherwise displays, it hardly needs to bother. Drone strike the manager of the bank responsible? Why not. If the possibility of future threat justifies the annihilation of the occasional wedding or the odd child here and there, and people whose guilt, by and large, consisted of living in the wrong part of the world, why not, in the name of deprived citizens, move the money back where it belongs using the same methods? I mean, since the government appears to think it’s allowed to use them in the first place.
Simple. It doesn’t want to fix the problem because the only point of truly bipartisan agreement between the two poles of American politics is bowing to the needs of the rich and of corporate interests.
Because if this was about just getting the money, a carrier group would be en route to Bermuda as we speak.
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Rather than bowing, many people involved in government administration would rather enjoy the financial benefits and opportunities of assisting the ever one ever richer. Kickbacks, holidays, share allocations, licensing deals - you name it.
So I feel they fawn, rather than bow. They are entirely complicit.
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I agree with you. In my comment I imagined the government bowing, but the members of it being bowed-to, or promised a place in the caste of those who are bowed-to.
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To my fellow boingboingers from Ireland and Luxembourg. How do you feel about this stuff?
Are you OK with it?
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…and how to stop them =
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We have pneumatics and automation now. Much more efficient than gravity and the tumbrel.
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Gotta respect the classics, though.
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“Don’t be evil” 
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Oh, that Google is long, long dead.
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Ironically, they made the interactive explainer Chrome compliant but it glitches in Firefox.
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See I’d be willing to talk tax reform - but before we reform we should slam the books on all the cheating - take an account of what the in and out revenue would look like if everyone stopped cheating.
No one should ‘win’ because they cheat.
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Most of the “cheating” isn’t actually illegal. It doesn’t have to be when they can buy whatever legislation they want.
What to do when the law is the crime?
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I don’t see it that way - cheating is cheating - until you fix the rules so everyone is playing fair - you can’t figure out if the rules are wrong.
What is this “cheating” you want sorted before changing the rules?
Most of these so called “cheats” ARE playing by the established rules. It is the established rules that allow what you call “cheating”. Wanderfound is correct. The rules need changing and THEN seriously enforcing. Enforcing today’s rules more effectively may result in some change/improvement but will not fix the underlying problem.
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The republican party is a cult. It’s members would throw themselves and their own families under a bus if wealthy people asked it. Republicans are human lemmings running off a cliff. If you look at the current tax bill they are trying to pass, it’s clear they are willing to destroy the environment, social structure, and economy of the United States. What do you do when 1/3 of the country want’s to run off a cliff? We have an idiot for president and a majority of morons in both the house and senate–They don’t believe in science or basic economic theory! The other 2/3 of the country must wake up and participate in government.
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I’m British, and I’m very not OK with it.
In The People’s Manifesto ,Mark Thomas pointed out that in 2010 there were 60 tax havens around the world. 31 had strong British connections.
Three are British dependencies: Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle of Man.
Seven are British Overseas Territories: Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Turks and Caicos Islands.
Twenty-one are members of the Commonwealth of Nations (formerly the British Commonwealth): Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Brunei, Cook Islands, Cyprus, Dominica, Grenada, Labuan, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Nauru, Seychelles, Singapore, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, City of London (UK), Vanuatu.
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I hate how the solution to basically every problem everywhere, whether it’s taxes, the social safety net, science funding, climate, etc. is “vote Democrat.” That’s the conclusion I draw for every one of these articles showing something that’s fucked up. Maybe the writer will tell the readers to vote as a solution but they won’t say “vote Democrat” because that is immediately crass and partisan even though it’s true.
Sure Democrats aren’t perfect (such as Clinton repealing Glass-Steagall) but if you vote for Democrats consistently for years or decades in a row, legislation will slowly bend towards fixing these problems before a post-Nixon/southern-strategy Republican tries to undo it all at once. Voting Democrat is the only practical solution with lots of smaller solutions around the edges like more people running for office and citizen engagement. Third parties will only take away votes from Democrats (how identical are Trump and Clinton again, Jill Stein?) I wish Republicans didn’t just suck at everything all the time because it’s such a partisan conclusion but I can’t see any way around it. I’ve been independent for years because I didn’t want to kowtow to one single party but maybe it’s time to change that.
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rich multi-generational political families with access to power and wealth are the real super-predators.
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Not Being Evil was a beta product which has been discontinued. If you have a business account you can still access Not Being Evil features through a paid service.
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