This morning an article by the Sydney Morning Herald caught my eye:
A lot of big companies avoid paying tax and it is all legal!
I wonder whether our government can do anything about this. If for instance a company is registered in a tax haven country how on earth can they then be taxed in their own country? Really, does anyone know, what can be done about this? Do any governments care to change all this? Is there a way to change it?
AuntyUta 
Of course governments can tax corporations if they want. They clearly don’t want to – powerful corporate interests pay for their campaigns and put them him power. And if they don’t behave, the corporate controlled media will destroy them.
Thanks very much for commenting, Stuart, What a great power struggle it is! Quite mind boggling really. Is the world getting more out of balance or has it always been like this?
There was a brief period after WWII where taxes were fairer and there was a much smaller gap between rich and poor. It was a period of enormous growth because economies that are more equal are always more productive. This boom period ended in the mid-70s.
Right, Stuart, these were the good old days! š
You say that economies that are more equal are always more productive. The question is, how can we achieve again a more equal society? I mean it think it is all right if people are ambitious and work as hard as they can, but if they do this without any kind of social conscience we get all these very extreme widening gaps between rich and poor. The rich see what other rich people achieve and think they have to aim to do likewise. Is it pure greed or is there something more to it?
I see since you posted this thought provoking post Uta, that this particular subject is now hitting the headlines in greater depth.
To think big business has been using this tax evasion method to defraud the Australian country financially, is nothing more than a crime.
Regards
Emu aka Ian
Thanks for commenting, dear Ian. Tax evasion I see to be morally very wrong. However it seems our laws are such, that no way can big business be prosecuted because what they do is totally legal!
And I believe our government has no intention of changing any of these laws.
Uta
The big issue I have, is that the richest people in society, the banksters millionaires and billionaires produce nothing of real value for society. I think the most immediate way to change this is to enact a financial transaction tax on their transactions. In the long run, however, I think we need to end the right of banks to invent money out of thin air when they issue loans. The people should control the money supply, through their elected officians.
I do not know how all this works, Stuart, not really, I only know that the gap between rich and poor does widen totally out of proportion. Isn’t it about time that the rich start feeling a little bit concerned about this? For how much more do they want to see the gap widen?
I certainly do not like extremes. I am all for it that the rich are rich and have certain privileges. We cannot be all the same on a prosperity level. But how can it be right to have such an enormous gap? How can it be right that the people in the middle (middle class) are being squeezed more and more and that for Billions of people at the bottom not enough is left for the most basic human needs?
And rather than bringing the poor up to subsistence level we spend the money on more and more weapons! These excesses bring about great misery. But maybe we as humans do not really want to create a paradise on earth. Maybe we have an innate need to destroy. Would we feel happy in the long run in a totally peaceful, moral society without any trace of crime? I wonder.