66 people are now as wealthy as half the planet

He is just another free-marketeer trying to support an unsupportable position. It's laughable.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Nice conspiracy theory love, did you get that out of the Conspiracy Theories for Dummies book?

I won't rise to the obvious troll. Why don't you try giving reasoned counter-arguments for specific points, rather than random remarks? You might find you like it.

Something has to have substance in order to attack... not all businesses avoid tax (they could just leave and well, we'd have even less wealth). Gangsterism in Russia? You're joking right you must have your understanding of Russia from books written by people who have never occupied a political position in the country. As for the richest families paying no tax? Have you seen the income tax? I'm surprised they pay anything at all. Your post just doesn't have enough substance to really attack, I mean the whole rich manipulating the system, how did you draw this conclusion? What empirical evidence do you have? None.

Not sure which country you are talking about, are you Russian? In the UK, the wealthiest families pay very little tax. They are careful to keep taxable incomes within the UK low. I am not talking about 'high earners', but the truly wealthy who are effectively above the system and whose wealth is largely offshored and sheltered from the tax man in other ways. Actually, I'm quite certain that the same is true of Russia - taking money out of the country has been widespread amongst the wealthy for decades. Networks of offshore accounts, earnings hidden in dummy corporations, family trusts and private banks, all collaborate to ensure that the richest do not pay tax in the countries where they make their money.

Gangsterism is absolutely enshrined in Russia, the ruling political class have risen from it. It is almost impossible to trace the real source of wealth of many of the Russian rich, since originally it often involved very vicious crimes. It's difficult not to see Putin as a gangster, given his recent and past conduct.

Complete speculation. Here's an example of high earners paying tax: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/tax/10368203/Top-earners-to-pay-third-of-all-income-tax-despite-rate-cut.html

and http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/tax/10620555/UK-tax-system-is-punishing-success-says-Institute-for-Fiscal-Studies.html

The rest is far to speculative for me to say anything about.

Those figures always refer to people on high salaries and those who have dividends taxed in the UK. They do not reference the very large amount of tax avoidance where profits from corporations trading in the UK are funneled to tax havens and those who gain from them are taxed in those havens, not here.

I'm not denying tax avoidance but there's tax avoidance and then there's the ridiculous hyperbole which you're suggesting, how many companies tax evade and how much is lost? How many jobs do these companies create as well while we're at it?

I presume said English worker is you? I can't speak for you. However in most scenerios it is a case that the worker in question cannot acquire the necessities of life if they don't agree to work for a boss, therefore it isn't a truly free decision because he/shelacks a viable alternative.

In the real world, looking for other work is not easy, and will almost certainly still have the same problems you had at the previous place.

Also, could you not say the same thing with regards to governments?... don't like the taxes/laws in Britain? then move to another country.

The official gap is claimed to be 13% (that's more than £1 in every £10 of corporation tax disappearing out of the country) - EU-wide it's close to 20%. In countries where the governments are even more in league with the oligarchs than here (and that's going some) the figures are much higher - probably as high as 75% in Russia.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/revealed-47bn-corporation-tax-lost-through-evasion-and-avoidance-as-royal-mail-is-sold-for-650m-less-than-it-is-worth-8874873.html

Most experts in the field agree that the true figure is much higher for the UK than admitted by the HMRC - figures as high as 30% are often discussed.

Your job creation point is a non sequitur. Clearly, if these companies and families paid tax properly in the UK, there would be a lot more jobs here, instead of in luxury yacht maintainers in the Grand Caymans and the like.

If only we had socialism then everyone would be in poverty. True equality guys.





Hang on a minute, let's think about this. Why didn't you inhert 3 million pounds? Oh yes because your parents didn't earn that much, the parents have worked hard so the children deserve the inheritence.

Tax avoidance is hardly as wide-spread as people here seem to be implying.

Yes people get jobs because they have connections, so what?

Actually marrying someone with wealth is hard work. How many women have successfully married a man worth millions?

I presume said English worker is you? I can't speak for you. However in most scenerios it is a case that the worker in question cannot acquire the necessities of life if they don't agree to work for a boss, therefore it isn't a truly free decision because he/shelacks a viable alternative.

In the real world, looking for other work is not easy, and will almost certainly still have the same problems you had at the previous place.

Also, could you not say the same thing with regards to governments?... don't like the taxes/laws in Britain? then move to another country.

The difference between the government and an employer is that the government exercises control over you (backed up by force) simply by virtue of your being a citizen/ on the territory. An employer exercises control over you insofar as you choose to deal with him.

We can (as in, the possibility is there -- I'm not going to) enter into a discussion about what 'freedom' is, but any such discussion really should begin with an acknowledgement that being under someone's complete dominion -- being their property -- where they can chase you down and claim you back if you don't want to work for them any more is something fundamentally different from doing agreed work for someone for agreed remuneration, even if you're pushed into working for them by outside pressures.

I thought you was joking. You think marrying a wealthy person is considered hard work? Oh dear. Please don't make me laugh. Even in a highly developed country context, like Britain that is an insult to the people who actually engage in hard work to earn their lifestyle. Holding down two jobs, then working over 40 hours a week to pay for your kid to get to college is hard work. Marrying into wealth is not.

But anyway you totally misread and twisted my comment. Heck I don't think you even understood it. I was discussing if all wealth is because the person actually engaged in hard work. Most inheritance is not given because you worked hard for it. What hard work did I commit myself to when my parents die and give me their house? None. Someone winning a job because they have connections, again not hard work.

Hey maybe in your part of the world, hard work is having a family member open doors for you. For most people, that's the antithesis of hard work!

I understood it perfectly fine. I just understand what the family is and that the family looks after its offspring. What do you want us to do? Ship all newborns to socialist dogma camps in the name of equality?The family is a collective unit, the work of the family is the work of the individual.

The difference between the government and an employer is that the government exercises control over you (backed up by force) simply by virtue of your being a citizen/ on the territory. An employer exercises control over you insofar as you choose to deal with him.

'Freedom', in the real world, cannot approach the idealistic notion that every action we take is unbound by any constraints whatsoever. Similarly, just because actions have consequences and constraints does not mean that such can be termed 'slavery'. There is no decision in the world that is 'truly free' under your criteria.

It's rather like making the claim that because in a democracy criminal behaviour results in prison, that democracy is equivalent to a brutally repressive authoritarian regime.