Mungo MacCallum
Always a good read is Mungo.
'"If anybody in this country doesn't minimise their tax they want their head read. As a government I can tell you that you're not spending it so well that we should be paying extra."'
I of course remember this episode as I am sure many people do. A good starting point. At the time I thought it was roughly fair enough and a good point. However, I only remember the first part, and tax minimization is what you pay accountants and lawyers to do for you isn't it?
The sarcastic ridicule which follows is truly a thing of beauty. But that just keeps you entertained.
What is so eloquently described here is a phenomenon noted by thought scoffers and future gazers for some time now. Essentially national sovereignty no longer exists. The legal frameworks and commercial process apparatuses set up by the lawyers and accountants, under the guiding principles of the neoliberal ideology, have created a world economy where every national government is at the mercy of the market. Sovereignty has become a meaningless concept and everybody seems to be happy with this state of affairs.
Thomas Pickety documents the long rise of Capital. He notes that the balance sheet for the world economy is permanently skewed because of the multiplicity of tax havens where wealth is secreted. He concludes, among other things, that much would be improved if transparency were imposed on the financial system. Then there would be nowhere to hide.
We await the world government.
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