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Since the beginning of written history there have been taxes and there has been corruption. And people respond very strongly to financial incentives - notice ho
by seibelj 5y ago
Since the beginning of written history there have been taxes and there has been corruption. And people respond very strongly to financial incentives - notice how people drive out of their way to save a few pennies on gas.
Now imagine you have millions or billions of dollars. You do not want to hand over 50% of your income to tax authorities, especially if a legal way exists not to. And if you make the current legal ways illegal, the money will just keep flowing to invented ways. There will never be a way to avoid this, unless you have a centralized AI super computer that cannot be manipulated by fallible humans watching everyone’s cash globally and enforcing strict rules. And that will never happen.
Most of the Panama Papers revelations were not illegal behavior. This article says most of this is perfectly legal. I’m not sure what the scandal here is other than humans don’t want to give half their money away to the government.
- CyanBird 5y ago> There will never be a way to avoid this Yeah, there are no perfect solutions to the problem, yet that doesn't mean tat our current imperfect solutions don't work to deter and reduce it, if anything it shows that these imperfect solutions need to be expanded upon, not discarded due their inherent human imperfection
- seibelj 5y agoRather than playing the same failed whack-a-mole that has been attempted since the beginning of civilization, maybe we should try and keep taxes low, services more efficient, and have alternatives to government-provided services for features we want of society. You may feel better when taxes are changed / raised but they will fail to do what you intend.
- ur-whale 5y ago> maybe we should try and keep taxes low, services more efficient, and have alternatives to government-provided services for features we want of society. Yes, but the army of parasites whose livelihood depend on the inefficiencies you describe beg to differ, and do so most efficiently.
- paulpauper 5y agoif people respond to financial incentives they likely will respond to other incentives as well. As a hypothetical, making tax evasion punishable by death, like in antiquity, would probably be a good incentive to comply. The consequences for tax evasion are quite mild, in the US and elsewhere. You get letters, more letters, maybe a visit, and finally, if you're really unlucky or obstinate, a little jail time.
- seibelj 5y agoGiven how terrible bureaucracies are the world over, and how many people are jailed innocently, it will be quite sad when people are literally murdered by the state for not paying their tax bill. And most likely the most popular and famous people!
- at_compile_time 5y agoSounds like another argument in favor of a land value tax: it can't be avoided by hiding one's wealth overseas.
- fragmede 5y agoIt turns out that the Pandora Papers were released by a centralized AI super computer, and is testing humanity to see how each individual reacts. Congratulations! You've been placed on team "no one's allowed to complain about things that were bad in the past and also things will never get better and plus anyway it's not illegal". Are you sure that's the team you want to be on (Y/N)?
- ur-whale 5y ago> humans don’t want to give half their money away to the government. For a large number of people, this is very clearly a crime.