Why Tax Havens Matter: Let's Connect the Dots

Why should we care where crats store their mattresses stuffed with cash?

In light of continued revelations from the Panama Papers...

Why Tax Havens Matter: Let's Connect the Dots

or

Making More Sense of the Panama Papers

(I)

Money in tax havens -

do not go to governments.

Money that do not go to governments -

by those who can well afford to contribute their modest and fair share -

is required by governments -

to fulfill legal responsibilities - articulated by laws (enacted by votes by politicians) - by politicians who 'the public' voted for.

When governments do not have required funds to fulfill legal responsibilities -

governments default.

When governments default -

governments and societies collapse.

(II)

Societies ground to a halt -

because governments fund -

necessary services that societies require to function.

When governments do not provide necessary services (or can not provide necessary services as governments default) -

capitalists seize control.

Capitalists - as single-minded pursuers of profits - (can, do, have, will) restrict access to all services, including necessary services -

to only those who can afford them.

Why?

Because - it's easier (and often, more profitable) to sell 1 widget for $1,000,000 each - than 1,000,000 widgets for $1 each.

(III)

So - money in tax havens matter -

because money in tax havens -

is one of many reasons why many governments, the world over -

including within the US and the EU -

cannot meet financial obligations to citizens to fund necessary services.

So - in order to not default - these governments -

must balance budgets -

some how - some way.

The most common how and the most common way -

is to reduce budgets for so-called nonessential services.

This results in -

reduced services -

reduced oversight -

reduced spending -

for that which benefit nots.

(III)

So-called nonessential services -

are services that politicians agree to reduce budgets for -

not necessarily what citizens agree are nonessential.

Moreover - budgets that are reduced - are rarely accompanied by laws that reduce legal responsibilities of service providers, including Agencies.

So - service providers, including Agencies - are legally required to fulfill legal responsibilities, as articulated and conscribed by politicians who 'the public' voted for -

with budgets that are inadequate to fulfill responsibilities to citizens.

Because -

crats who choose not to contribute their modest and fair share of wealth to governments -

burden governments and citizens -

by not contributing that which citizens who do not put their money in tax havens -

do -

via taxes -

which crats avoid, shirk, dodge -

via tax havens (among other strategies).

(IV)

Nots who protest the burdensomeness of taxes for crats -

see only their own disgruntlement towards paying taxes, themselves.

Nots who protest the burdensomeness of taxes for crats -

are nots who would use tax havens, themselves, if they possessed the resources to do so -

in order to pay no taxes.

Nots who protest the burdensomeness of taxes for crats -

fail to recognize how the rampant abuse of corporate welfare by crats -

as well as the profligate use of tax havens by crats -

defunds necessary services that societies require to function.

Nots who protest the burdensomeness of taxes for crats - also -

fail to fathom that societies of every individual for every individual's self -

result in intolerable conditions -

for nots.

Because societies of every individual for every individual's self -

benefit crats who can afford tolerable conditions -

while nots who cannot afford tolerable conditions -

inevitably suffer intolerable conditions.

(V)

That is.

Until.

The masses of nots overtake the paucity of crats.

Then.

The cycle that cycles - renews.

(NB)

Obviously this is an oversimplification of how the dots are connected with regards to why tax havens matter. But even so, as oversimplified as these dots seem, these dots are connected, the world over; one need only see how, now, today.

Addendum

What is a tax haven?

A tax haven or a tax shelter is a vehicle - by which crats (whose wealth is acquired legally and/or illegally, morally and/or immorally, virtuously and/or corruptly, etc.) - hide and/or launder - money.

(Tax havens and tax shelters are often 'shell companies'. On paper, a 'shell company' is a company. In reality, a 'shell company' is a mattress stuffed with cash.)

When money is hidden - crats are at liberty to lie about it.

When crats lie about how much money they have and where it comes from and where it is -

they avoid, shirk, dodge paying taxes to every institution, agency, locality, country, etc. that legally assesses taxes for citizens.

Moreover -

When money is laundered - crats are at liberty to convert illegitimate money into legitimate money.

When crats convert the legitimacy of money -

legal money can be used for legal and illegal purposes - and - illegal money can be used for illegal and legal purposes.

(Hidden money (i.e. money in tax havens and tax shelters) - funds and is funded by - trafficking in arms, drugs, slavery, and exploitation. How is beyond the scope of this post.)

The purpose of transparency - with regards to how much money who has and where it comes from and where it is -

is as much to do with tax evasion -

as to making it as difficult as possible for money - 

hidden by crats - 

to be used to traffick in arms, drugs, slavery, and exploitation.

That -

is why tax havens -

matter.

Note

The Panama Papers intersects across so many topics, that it is impossible to address all of them, much less address all of them, in exhaustive thorough entirety, in one post -

without losing clarity.

I hope -

that what is sacrificed for clarity in this post -

as well as Legal, Illegal, Crime, Corruption: Let's Connect the Dots or Making Sense of the Panama Papers (4/5/16) -

is redeemed by what is gained.

- a m

Further Reading

more on corporate welfare from The New York Times, The Real Welfare Cheats (4/14/16)

more on tax havens in America from The Economist, The biggest loophole of all (2/20/16)

more on tax avoidance via offshore banking, including examples from the Panama Papers, from Vox (via YouTube), The Panama Papers, explained with piggy banks (4/5/16)

more on why the Panama Papers matter, including America's disconsonant stance on transparency with regards to offshore banking and shell corporations, from Democracy Now! (via YouTube), Panama Papers' Reporters Explain... (4/5/16)

more on the complexity of offshore banking and invisible financial beneficiaries of shell corporations, from PBS NewsHour (via YouTube), Massive trove of Panama Papers... (4/4/16)

etc.