Articles
Rooting out Tax Dodgers who Rob Nations
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NO ONE likes paying taxes and many are quick to criticise elected officials for how they spend our money, especially if evidence suggests flagrant waste and fraud.
Public demands for greater transparency and accountability in how governments use taxpayer money are accelerating, not only in SA and other democracies but countries still autocratic in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, as citizens gain access to IT and social networks.
Far less evident are the complementary demands from taxpayers and governments for companies and extremely rich individuals who avoid vast amounts of badly needed lawful taxation every year.
Two recent events in Johannesburg may be harbingers of a growing awareness that the tax-avoidance tactics of the rich and powerful could face rising public demands for reducing extreme inequalities by greater transparency in monitoring and enforcing tax policies.
Ashamed of being European ...
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After five years of austerity policies imposed by the Troika (European Commission, IMF and European Central Bank) the Greeks voted for a government trying to make an end to the hardships. In the past years Greek GDP has shrunk by 20 %, pensions have been reduced, VAT has increased, 25 to 30 % of people are jobless, health services have been dismantled, many people lost their homes and their businesses. Suicides are soaring. There is a real humanitarian crisis. All the institutions know that imposing austerity on a country in recession can only worsen the recession. It can never bring a solution.
Global Citizenship at centre of post-2015 Development Agenda?
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When Denmark hosted the World Summit on Social Development (WSSD) in March 1995, one of the conclusions of that international gathering in Copenhagen was to create a new social contract with “people at the centre of development.”
But notwithstanding the shortcomings in its implementation over the last 20 years, the United Nations is now pursuing an identical goal with a new political twist: “global citizenship.”
Read more: Global Citizenship at centre of post-2015 Development Agenda?
World Wealth Report 2015
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Wealthy people's assets only grew modestly in 2014 ... 7,2 %
Read and look at the report; learn everything on the demands for 'social impact' of mainly young dollar millionaires
Greece and debt bondage
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Reform — Greece sorely needs it. Cash — the government is running desperately short of it. So it is time for Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to do what’s best for Greece and accept its creditors’ reform demands in exchange for much-needed cash. That is how the Greek situation is usually framed. It is utterly misleading.
Imagine you’re in prison for not being able to pay your debts. (You’re right, it’s almost unthinkable — civilized societies no longer lock up bankrupt individuals. But bear with me.) After five years of misery, you lead a rebellion, take control of the prison, and demand your release. The jailers respond by cutting off your water supply. Should you back down and return to your cell, perhaps negotiating for slightly less unpleasant conditions, in order to obtain a little liquidity? Or should you keep fighting to be free? That, in essence, is what the standoff between an insolvent Greece and its eurozone creditors is really about.
