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To play devil’s advocate: if your faith in your government is such that you’d like to allocate your wealth in another country, you may also be motivated to hide
by dsacco 9y ago
To play devil’s advocate: if your faith in your government is such that you’d like to allocate your wealth in another country, you may also be motivated to hide that wealth for reasons that have nothing to do with corruption. There can be reasons for discretion and anonymity other than money laundering.
- elipsey 9y agoThis is a good point, and easy to imagine a situation where a foreign citizen might fear retaliation from various bad actors were it know that they were exfiltrating assets to other countries. I think the question should be whether this is remotely as common as laundering. It seems implausible to me that a considerable number of people other than the elite and corrupt use anonymous foreign shell corporations to protect their safety and legitimately acquired property. I think addressing this kind of corruption is an international cooperation problem and, in utilitarian terms, the people who are harmed by financial corruption stand to gain more by solving it than the people who profit from that kind of anonymity. I’m certainly willing to be convinced by evidence that a considerable number of foreign citizens need to own shell corporations in my country simply to protect their liberty and property, but I find that pretty far fetched.
- spoonie 9y agoSo let them stash it in a bank account or the stock market (both places where it will do more good for the economy). Houses and land are special and scarce, and shouldn’t be subject to the same rules as other financial assets.