Sunday, June 05, 2005

 

Casting off the White Man's Burden: Those Wyly Coyotes

Wily Wyly brothers in massive tax avoidance scheme I've never understood why so many wealthy people want to have the advantages of civilization but are so unwilling to pay for them. A few generations ago, it was at least a part of the popular ethos that the wealthy, who had all the privileges, were supposed to pay from them. Nowadays, the wealthy-- especially pals of George W.-- don't even pretend that they have any responsibilities. From The London Independent The Manhattan District Attorney, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are jointly probing a tax-shelter plan run out of the Isle of Man. The scheme, devised by one of America's biggest banks and used by two billionaire donors to George Bush's election campaign among others, is being probed for possible breaches of securities and anti-money-laundering rules. The investigating bodies believed that up to $100m (£55m) of tax was saved through one scheme alone, and as much as $700m in taxes may have been avoided over an 11-year period.
Comments:
Beat me to it, Charles! I saw the TruthOut version of that story in my mailbox and was just coming over to post it.
 
Why do they do it? Because they are whores for money. If they could make a million bucks a day honestly, but could make a millions dollars and one nickel more by cheating and stealing, they'd go for the extra nickel every time. (Bartcop's been riffing on this for years.)

It's a free-market self-interest kinda thing.

TruthOut is a daily must-go-to site.
 
Shrimplate, the irony is that if they could make a million bucks honestly and only half a million dishonestly, they'd go for the half million.

The problem with the rich nowadays is that they don't want to be richer. They want you to be poorer, because that gives them more power.

I should have credited Truthout, because they do a tremendous job of culling news. But of course The Independent researched it, which is by far more difficult, and deserves special credit for this one.
 
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