Report finds global tax havens are currently hiding $21 trillion - the entire economies of the US an - Polidicks

[QUOTE=ASmellyOgre;36894777]Ooh, did you see the reveal of documents surrounding the setting of the LIBOR? Basically, some dude asks a favor, and another guy sets the interest rates on everything in the world. It really is amazing how corrupted the world is.[/QUOTE] Can we evoke our second amendment rights as American's now?

[QUOTE=purvisdavid1;36894801]Can we evoke our second amendment rights as American's now?[/QUOTE] Lol, like that'd do any good. In the US we just need to give Congress a nice thorough enema. Get rid of the massive amounts of money flowing into the lawmakers (one major company actually payed more in lobbyists than taxes last year (can't remember which one)). Maybe even elect some third parties for a change. Out of the hundreds in Congress right now, exactly one man is not associated with a major party. I'm sure he gets lonely over there.

[QUOTE=ASmellyOgre;36894873]Lol, like that'd do any good. In the US we just need to give Congress a nice thorough enema. Get rid of the massive amounts of money flowing into the lawmakers (one major company actually payed more in lobbyists than taxes last year (can't remember which one)). Maybe even elect some third parties for a change. Out of the hundreds in Congress right now, exactly one man is not associated with a major party. I'm sure he gets lonely over there.[/QUOTE] I honestly doubt this because people blindly group behind the two party lines, but I hope one day to see a good independent candidate for anything important.

hooray people are learning

[QUOTE=Noble;36894289]Nobody actually paid those taxes. There were plenty of loopholes and other means of escaping the tax rates at that time.[/QUOTE] Well apparently they're not paying these taxes either, if that's your argument.

[QUOTE=froztshock;36891690]I'd say that if they went out of their way to avoid paying the money that everyone else pays to help keep the society we all live in running; even though they have more money than they'll ever need, they are money grubbing pieces of shit.[/QUOTE] Calling someone out for tax avoidance is hypocritical and stupid, everyone does it to a varying degree. Everyone also evades taxes on a regular basis. Ever been paid a $20 for some work you did for a friend? You probably don't keep track of that on your income tax return, and your buddy definitely didn't pay tax for the services you provided. Wealthy people got where they are now by putting forth effort and doing hard work. They didn't get there by being a lazy bum and bitching that other wealthy people being the source of all evil in the world. Just because they have money, doesn't mean it's your money or everyone's money, even if they have more than they ever need. [QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;36892875]But lower taxes create jobs! Seriously, our government's deficit problems would disappear overnight if they actually collected everything that was fairly owed to them by ultra-rich people who pay Congress to write loopholes so they can dodge taxes.[/QUOTE] I don't think you paid attention in economics class (or had an idiot economics teacher.) Deficit and public debt are two different things. If you forced every last wealthy person in the US to pay their taxes properly, you wouldn't put a dent in the deficit (which is about 1.29 Tn dollars.) To put that in perspective, to get around 1 Tn, you'd need to liquidate every last asset of GE, Ford and GM and get every pennys' worth of every asset. And assuming that you could pull 1.29 Tn out of your ass, the public debt would still be ~15 Tn, and the budget will still be just as broken is at is now. Then next year 1.29 Tn (or more) would be stacked on top of the ~15 Tn public debt and raise it to 17.156+ Tn.

[QUOTE=HumanAbyss;36894572]They still paid more taxes. That's the point. Do you just dodge arguments you can't handle?[/QUOTE] You were talking about the tax [b]rates[/b] that were astronomically high at the time. I was claiming that while the marginal tax rates were nominally very high, that's not even close to what the rich usually paid in reality because there were abundant tax shelters and loopholes for them to abuse at the time, before more strict tax laws came into effect later on. So it's not necessarily true that they "paid more taxes". Paid more taxes as a percent of income? Not necessarily, for reasons I stated above. More as a percentage of GDP? Not according to this: [img]http://i.imgur.com/plroT.jpg[/img] [url]http://www.hoover.org/publications/hoover-digest/article/5728[/url] Why do you accuse me of dodging your arguments? I didn't, and that's quite condescending. You have done that multiple times in several threads now. [QUOTE=Last or First;36895242]Well apparently they're not paying these taxes either, if that's your argument.[/QUOTE] No, my argument was just that no one was paying those nominal 90% + marginal tax rates in the 50s.

[QUOTE=bohb;36895332]Calling someone out for tax avoidance is hypocritical and stupid, everyone does it to a varying degree. Everyone also evades taxes on a regular basis. Ever been paid a $20 for some work you did for a friend? You probably don't keep track of that on your income tax return, and your buddy definitely didn't pay tax for the services you provided. Wealthy people got where they are now by putting forth effort and doing hard work. They didn't get there by being a lazy bum and bitching that other wealthy people being the source of all evil in the world. Just because they have money, doesn't mean it's your money or everyone's money, even if they have more than they ever need.[/QUOTE] When you have that much money in the bank, you don't need to work. When you don't need to work, your kids don't, and their kids don't, and THEIR kids don't. You rapidly end up with a fortune amassed generations ago, which no one has worked for in living memory.

Hopefully this gets spread and people open their eyes to how fucking corrupt this world is [I]and we can finally get a big enough movement to do shit about it.[/I]

[QUOTE=bohb;36895332]Wealthy people got where they are now by putting forth effort and doing hard work.[/QUOTE]Just want to point out real quick that this is complete fiction. The amount of work one puts out has literally zero correlation to the income they earn.

[QUOTE=bohb;36895332]Wealthy people got where they are now by putting forth effort and doing hard work. They didn't get there by being a lazy bum and bitching that other wealthy people being the source of all evil in the world.[/QUOTE] Wow. You ACTUALLY believe in these meritocracy and social mobility thing? The statistics says that the person's income is highly related on his/her parent's income, the UK, for example, is a posterboy for this. Creating this society with rigid classes. That's not meritocracy. It's basically the old days of aristocracy.

[QUOTE=Sgt-NiallR;36895374]When you have that much money in the bank, you don't need to work. When you don't need to work, your kids don't, and their kids don't, and THEIR kids don't. You rapidly end up with a fortune amassed generations ago, which no one has worked for in living memory.[/QUOTE] You've been watching too many Disney movies. I know three millionaires, and they have the same problems like everyone else has. All three earned their fortunes through hard work over the course of most of their lifetime, and two of the three still work 5-7 days a week. The third went into retirement early due to severe medical problems. You wouldn't know they were wealthy unless you knew them personally. They don't drive around in 100k cars, they don't wear $1000 suits, and about the only stereotype you could use on them is they all have nice houses. Two of the three have children, and all of the children also have the same problems as everyone else in society and all work 5 days a week. [QUOTE=Doctor Zedacon;36895442]Just want to point out real quick that this is complete fiction. The amount of work one puts out has literally zero correlation to the income they earn.[/QUOTE] This makes sense in the UK because everyone is ass raped with taxation. If you're wealthy, you're gang raped with taxes so you make what everyone else makes. If you're poor, you get free concessions from the government. It's all about keeping people in the middle, which is idiotic. [QUOTE=redhaven;36895514]Wow. You ACTUALLY believe in these meritocracy and social mobility thing? The statistics says that the person's income is highly related on his/her parent's income, the UK, for example, is a posterboy for this. Creating this society with rigid classes. That's not meritocracy. It's basically the old days of aristocracy.[/QUOTE] Yeah, well considering I don't live in the UK (and would never go there), I don't have to deal with such crap.

[QUOTE=bohb;36895728]This makes sense in the UK because everyone is ass raped with taxation. If you're wealthy, you're gang raped with taxes so you make what everyone else makes. If you're poor, you get free concessions from the government. It's all about keeping people in the middle, which is idiotic.[/QUOTE]It has nothing to do with the UK. Second, you have no fucking clue what you're even talking about.

[QUOTE=bohb;36895728]You've been watching too many Disney movies. I know three millionaires, and they have the same problems like everyone else has. All three earned their fortunes through hard work over the course of most of their lifetime, and two of the three still work 5-7 days a week. The third went into retirement early due to severe medical problems. You wouldn't know they were wealthy unless you knew them personally. They don't drive around in 100k cars, they don't wear $1000 suits, and about the only stereotype you could use on them is they all have nice houses. Two of the three have children, and all of the children also have the same problems as everyone else in society and all work 5 days a week.[/QUOTE] i'm genuinely confused as to how a millionaire could possibly have the same problems as everyone else. any of your millionaire buddies had to re-roll cigarette butts cause they ran out of smokes?

[QUOTE=Lachz0r;36895920]i'm genuinely confused as to how a millionaire could possibly have the same problems as everyone else. any of your millionaire buddies had to re-roll cigarette butts cause they ran out of smokes?[/QUOTE]Maybe he just knows literally the most irresponsible millionaires ever.

[QUOTE=Doctor Zedacon;36895937]Maybe he just knows literally the most irresponsible millionaires ever.[/QUOTE] it just makes no sense to me at all, it would take me like, almost 150 years? to make a million dollars so how could a millionaire even remotely have to deal with what i have to deal with

[QUOTE=purvisdavid1;36894748]Holy shit I'm gone for two days and I just read this. What the flying god damn fuck we need to take that shit and put it to some actual fucking use. WHY THAT GOD DAMN MUCH.[/QUOTE] Because it IS being used. No one will believe me, but it is. Up until now it's been a myth, people joke about it but the truth is that the twenty-one fuckin trillion dollars are funding [sp]Half Life 3[/sp] god help us all

This amount would EASILY fix world hunger. There is about 1 billion hungry people in the world. each and every hungry person would get 32,000$

I reckon lower earning folk should form co-operatives to take advantage of offshore tax avoidance and then see what happens.

Now everyone believes it, but when people were saying this before, they were "lol conspiracy nuts"

[QUOTE=Sin Cara;36897019]Now everyone believes it, but when people were saying this before, they were "lol conspiracy nuts"[/QUOTE] When was rich people avoiding taxes a conspiracy?

[QUOTE=Doctor Zedacon;36895442]Just want to point out real quick that this is complete fiction. The amount of work one puts out has literally zero correlation to the income they earn.[/QUOTE] no it's true i see millionaires digging for coal all of the time

[QUOTE=Str4fe;36896030]This amount would EASILY fix world hunger. There is about 1 billion hungry people in the world. each and every hungry person would get 32,000$[/QUOTE] Yes and then everything will cost so much more and then we're back to square one. Basically printing money to solve poverty doesn't solve anything. MV=PQ, utilizing the equation of exchange, when said deposits are withdrawn, M increases (as most offshore deposits are considered M2-3) since liquidity of money increases, along with V, the velocity of money, as now money is now changing hands more quickly. This results in a massive increase in nominal expenditures, which will make things very unaffordable to the middle class, let alone the poor.

[QUOTE=Lachz0r;36895920]i'm genuinely confused as to how a millionaire could possibly have the same problems as everyone else. any of your millionaire buddies had to re-roll cigarette butts cause they ran out of smokes?[/QUOTE] Most people are smart enough to not inhale cancer. It seems that tobacco addiction is the source of your poverty, seeing as you can barely afford cigarettes.

[QUOTE=bohb;36890828]Because resetting the public debt of the US to zero is totally going to fix everything. Wait, no it won't; It'll just start all over again because the problems that caused the excessive debt in the first place still exist and it will just start all over again. The government is fucking retarded and doesn't know how to manage money amidst the bureaucracy. If the US paid off its debt in full overnight (or defaulted), it would be disastrous to the world economy. You would have hyper inflation from the 13 trillion flooding the market, and it would destroy both credit and investment markets around the globe. If you think that the world economy is in bad shape now, the endgame of that decision would send the world back into the dark ages. Everyone has a hobby, and if rich people want to hoard money, let them. Hi, I'm a liberal and having money is bad. All people who have money are automatically shit because they're all greedy and money grubbing. They're also shit because they won't freely give away all of their wealth to everyone :downs:[/QUOTE] Except that most of this money comes from cheating the rest of the world and screwing over countless millions. :downs: You're a jackass.

[QUOTE=Jetblack357;36908460]Except that most of this money comes from cheating the rest of the world and screwing over countless millions. :downs: You're a jackass.[/QUOTE] It does?

[QUOTE=Jetblack357;36908460]Except that most of this money comes from cheating the rest of the world and screwing over countless millions. :downs: You're a jackass.[/QUOTE] Because running a business that provides services and jobs to the community is screwing over countless millions :downs:

[QUOTE=bohb;36908418]Most people are smart enough to not inhale cancer. It seems that tobacco addiction is the source of your poverty, seeing as you can barely afford cigarettes.[/QUOTE] so the only thing stopping me from being a millionaire like your buddies is my tobacco addiction?

[QUOTE=Lachz0r;36908696]so the only thing stopping me from being a millionaire like your buddies is my tobacco addiction?[/QUOTE] If you smoked a pack a day, it'd cost you over $2000 a year. This isn't counting all of the money you spend on additional healthcare from the negative effects of tobacco use. I could think of better uses for that kind of money, besides filling your lungs with cancer. And sadly, I don't think anyone in this thread has the mindset to become a millionaire. Everyone here is too busy circlejerking the author of the article and each other to bother doing real research on the subject matter at hand and realize it's a fairy tale. Everyone here is also too busy bitching about how the world is unfair and how the rich people are keeping them down (hint: they aren't) to bother trying to improve themselves.

bohb: Or How I Post Like A Condescending Mouthpiece.