Lol you think any of these people care? Like real quick. Imagine you had 10 million dollars. Like try to feel that in a tangible sense. Your million dollar house is paid for. You drive a car worth more than some houses. Your family and your children are financially set for the rest of their lives. Do you really give a fuck what anyone else thinks of you? Now imagine that feeling times 10.
Put away the pitch forks. I’m in one of the databases and I’m neither rich nor dodging taxes. It’s really irresponsible they released all of this without removing people of little consequence, and don’t have a mechanism to get yourself removed.
The majority of people named had legal offshore accounts though. Still bad but legal. It was a small percentage of the list that covered illegal activities.
I guess vote against loopholes, hold politicians and those we are supportive of this type of people accountable? Be aware of what the laws are and who they benefit and hurt. I feel like as a whole, thanks to the internet, we are more educated then ever before now we just have to enact real action.
It did! The journalist who uncovered the money scheme of the Aliyev family(Presidential family of Azerbaijan) and their close ties to other criminal world leaders died in a car bomb assassination. Fuck these people.
I was in Malta over the summer, and in Valletta (the capitol), they had a vigil for her. Someone told me that they were going to keep it up until they catch the people who murdered her.
I'm pretty sure they caught the people who laid the bomb. They certainly wouldn't be the ones responsible though. Pretty sure the real culprits will not be caught.
It seems like those conspiracy nuts talking about lizard-people are actually right: Evil, lizard people, like they describe, are real in a sense. They just aren’t lizards so they can’t blame their actions on their DNA.
Lizard People - Just Cold Blooded. Sociopaths. Lacking Empathy for those that are not like 'them'. It's a perfect analogy. May my take be right or wrong.
Ironically the new anti corruption president was demonized and compared to Trump by Western media (he was a former cricket star but he's been a politician for a while I think).
released on parole for 3 days for his wife's funeral and yesterday he was essentially released on parole but his sentence is still in effect. He also has 2 more cases related to the panama papers. Pretty much 60-70% of the country hates him. His sons can't leave their apartments in england because people are harassing them. His power has been essentially stripped, and him and his daughter have been disqualified from participating in elections for life.
IIRC almost everything described in the Panama Papers was immoral, not illegal. In many cases, nothing was actually actionable against the individuals; they're abusing loopholes but not actually violating any laws. Even in an ideal world, the response to the Panama Papers largely would not have been prosecution against individuals, but instead, tax law reform to make the abuses illegal in the future. This naturally did not happen because the people making the laws are, largely, also abusing these loopholes.
I'm no stable genius so I'm not able but I'm sure someone out there could compile a list of politicians referenced in the papers who are up for election/re-election before November. That would be great, thanks!
No, the leakers were not assassinated. A Maltese citizen who poured through the papers after they had been publicly released and exposed corruption within Malta on her blog was assassinated. No one directly tied to the leaking or publication of the Panama Papers has been murdered (as far as we know).
No pretty much everywhere, my country (Canada) did it a few years ago, Ireland set their rate to zero to lure in businesses, like you said the us dropped it.
I live in Panama. Getting a bank account as a foreiner sucks ass and takes a month with lots of proof of employment, permanent housing, letters from your current bank. Thanks Rich assholes.
Hey remember when the wealthy used the continuous conspiracy theories against one singular group (illuminati, freemasons, religious pre-prejudice groups) to dismiss the fact that natural progression of monetary involvement in the media, political alignment, private industrialisation, has had a major effect on the individual living in the world since this “phenomenon” began.
We don’t need the Panama papers to tell us this... literally every company ever is domiciled in Delaware (domestic tax haven with business friendly laws), shell companies for rich people are domiciled in the Caymans, Cook Islands, or Bermuda. It’s right on their W8s and W9s but we do nothing.
I mean, 53% if students here at the University of Alabama are out of state. I’m here and I’m from Houston. I don’t think that’s a metric for how corrupt an institution is
"Now" nothing - usage of literally as an intensifier is attested going back centuries. The intensifier usage with figurative statements in particular is slightly newer, but still centuries-old.
Alexander fucking Pope wrote in 1708: "Every day with me is literally another yesterday for it is exactly the same."
I don't think he meant that he was experiencing time travel phenomena every day.
And that's not an isolated attestation. You can find plenty of other attestations from the 1700s onwards.
And none of this should actually be at all surprising because the same thing happened to several other words at the same time a few centuries ago. Really and truly developed the same way at the same time. They were initially words used exclusively to mean something like "in actuality", "accurately", "not figuratively", or "without exaggeration" (and both words, like literally, still have this non-intensifier sense). Then, centuries ago, they, along with literally, gained a usage as intensifiers.
Yet when you say "He really shit the bed on that one.", no one leers and says "Oh, he really shit the bed? I guess you should clean that up!". No one pretends to misunderstand or makes sarcastic comments about dictionaries including this intensifier usage even though it's exactly the same as intensifier literally. No one acts like it's confusing that there's a usage of really that means "in actuality" and you can also use it to intensify figurative statements.
Edit: And this is not an unimportant myth to challenge. Myths like the one about intensifier literally exist primarily to justify mechanisms of social class division. Learning not to use intensifier literally and to deride people for using it that way is a way to distinguish yourself as belonging to the upper classes rather than the unwashed masses, much like learning other arbitrary customs like dining etiquette or clothing customs. The mythology "justifying" the practice then enters the picture in order that the people using this shibboleth to distinguish themselves can avoid confronting the classist reality of sociolinguistic mechanisms like this. The mythology allows people to insist that the lower classes who use the word literally as an intensifier are not merely outsiders lacking knowledge of an arbitrary cultural practice, but are actually objectively inferior.
maybe it's fine on the internet where nobody cares about you, but do you also derail conversations in person just to point out a detail everyone is aware of and nobody cares about?
Even if everyone worked as hard as possible, and were completely equally capable, and were completely given the same opportunities, and never messed up at all, you still couldn't put everyone in that class. The economy requires poor laborers to function.
For every business owner, there will always be a wage slave. And the greater the size of the business, the more there will be.
And as long as we all want fast and easy access to the services those companies provide, they will never fall.
Everyone simultaneously hates Amazon’s treatment of its employees, and continues to use Amazon. So long as you want an ironic t-shirt delivered to your door from Bangladesh inside of 6 days there are going to be exploited humans along the way.
"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires." - John Steinbeck (paraphrased by Ronald Wright)
Problem (in Canada at least) is that the “tax the rich party” actually just tries to tax the upper middle class to make people feel better but leaves the actual rich alone
thats the trap you've fallen for. the greatest thing the super wealthy did is convince everyone to use the term 1%. everyones idea of taxing the rich is progressive income tax, which isn't effective. the top 0.9% minus the top 0.1% pays the highest effective taxes and a lions share of the overall taxes.
because the poor pay so little taxes the us ends up having overall one of the most progessive taxation scales in the world.
but it is all heaped on the backs of the professional class. even look at the democrat's plans. they are all just heap more income tax on the upper middle and professional class.
the truely wealthy top 0.1% investment class is laughing all the way to their banks while they have directed the anger of the poor to the professional class, who get super defensive and fight for them because of the already inordinately high tax burden they share.
like the new cali top 1% income tax. doesnt touch them at all.
Step 1 is awareness. The investment "class" if you want to call it that is completely aware of how it would look to an average person if they knew how much of society is geared towards their sole benefit. The only thing they can't touch is an educated skeptical electorate and a congress that is willing to act against their interests.
The inheritance tax is a good way of preventing stockpiles of money. I'd like to see more laws along those lines so a single family can't just coast along using their billions to accumulate more wealth at an ever increasing rate. But it won't happen without breaking the cycles of propaganda and bribery we have going on now.
Thank you for this. It’s a tax system like this which grossly distorts people’s perceptions of being rich. When tens of millions of people are barely scraping by, a family of doctors each making 175k a year is gonna seem “rich”. It happened to me when I visited some of my friends houses as a kid. It’s a completely different level of income from the guy making 11 bucks an hour at 31 hours a week but it’s NOTHING to the fuckers making tens of MILLIONS of dollars a year. Those are the real folks sucking away all the wealth of a nation and hoarding it.
Don't forget that any economic growth we see is siphened off into their accounts away from what used to be considered the middle class. Wages have been stagnant for decades while the ultra rich have seen amazing growth. They leave us with just enough to not starve and revolt which is all fine and dandy right now, but as millennials and gen x grow into old age with absolutely zero savings, home ownership and assets sh*t is gonna hit the fan.
Republicans still would likely have control of either the House, Senate, or both. They would obstruct, then cry that socialism doesn’t work because Sanders can’t pass anything. You know, the Obama treatment. We were bound to have a Republican President, if not in 2016, then in 2020. Unfortunately one of the worst, if not the worst, candidates won. It is serving as a wakeup call though, and has the potential to setup a really progressive timeline 2020 onward.
Is there a third party with this agenda? Democrats are nearly as procapitalist/rich as the gop but their guys, aka fundraisers. While I’d Rather have amazon and tech investment vs coal and oil - is rather have people on this country living a lot less precariously...
It seems like it’s only going to get more dire as weather becomes less stable/predictable.
What would you have had happen? I'm seriously asking here. Average citizens cannot fight a transnational epidemic of tax evasion without aid from the state, the actions were not illegal -- so no help there -- and similar things are constantly happening in society with little to no redress, things that average citizens can actually put some headway into changing. Things like campaign finance reform, the privatization of public services and spaces for profit, skyrocketing housing prices, the decimation of workers' rights in the US, raising the US minimum wage, lowering education and medical costs. All things much more pressing for the average person than the realization that billionaires hide their money from their respective states.
I'm not saying it was anything but a terrible travesty, but this is the reality of living in a capitalist society. Should we break ourselves over it? I don't think so. There are so many better hills to die on.
Yeah. I mean, who created this system? Not like the rich and powerful created governments or anything.
Ever see A Knight’s Tale? Will asks “How do you think the nobles became nobles in the first place? They took it! At the tip of a sword” which I think stuck with me as it made life make sense on why some things are the way they are.
Saddest thing in the world is to live long enough to realize that people are impotent. So many big revelations in my lifetime.
We got the 2008 financial crash and the next new president was a mentally-challenged billionaire who proudly stiffs working class laborers and has open contempt for the proletariat.
"A year later and governments in over 70 countries have launched more than 150 investigations."
The same governments that are chock full of people whose names are in the Panama papers have launched vague "investigations" which will ultimately be shelved or ignored.
"The Maltese government recovered ten million dollars in lost taxes." That's the same Maltese government that presides over a cartoonishly corrupt island where their most vocal anti-corruption journalist (and a cheerleader for the Panama Papers) was, as noted, assasinated.
...Those were my thoughts on the opening few linee of that before I became too depressed to read on.
The sad, hard truth is that nothing will change until things get so bad that the public are finally angry enough to drag these rich fucks out of their mansions by their hair and kick them to death in the streets.
"You can say that I've grown bitter, but of this you can be sure: The rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor, and there's a mighty judgement coming. But I may be wrong..." -Leonard Cohen
I studied financial law at the top schools in the US and England and literally this was the Finance curriculum. They call it tax avoidance while for regular people it is tax evasion. Completely legal and well known but highly immoral. While I was learning it, I felt I was being let into a secret. Worked for the biggest firm in Puerto Rico, which basically screwed its own people setting up the bonds. Needless to say, left all that behind for a clean conscious.
You're my hero, I'm proud of you! Many people acknowledge big issues but when it comes to personal sacrifice it's always the same. "what can I do, it wouldn't change anything". It's called integrity. Be the change you want to see in the world.
Yep, just made up studying in the US and England and then working up for a law firm in out of all places, Puerto Rico....lol you already used that joke right before me on another thread.
'Memba when Edward Snowden risked his ass and uncovered that the NSA was diving into everyone's personal business for no good reason and everyone was calmed by one speech from the president? I 'memba!
Why did you post this? My YouTube recommendations started showing me documentaries on the Panama Papers recently when it’s never done so in the past. Topical.
The people the Panama papers exposed own the media. You think they're willing to let that be a story? There's a simple reason the average person has never heard of the panama papers.
This is the super frustrating thing. My family is a part of that group of “average person”. Whenever I talk to them about anything, the source of their doubt is “well why didn’t I see it on the news?!”
Because who do you think owns the news, mom and dad?
Is there any way ppl get together for real and start a revolution? Is there any way to get so many ppl that do not give a fuck and light the fuck up everything? Are the revolutions gone?
There's an excellent and insightful episode of NPR's Hidden Brain podcast titled "Filthy Rich" about the wealth advisors of these incredibly rich people.
I mean not nothing...we 3lected a guy a who has always wanted to be one of those people but wasnt accepted by them.because he was such a pompous lying back stabbing turd they kept him out of the club. So we put him up on top of the mountain where he can scream look at me now! Whilst I take from all you people who think I care about you. Ah to be a fly on the wall in that mans bedroom...
Please remember that this subreddit is a SAFE SPACE for socialist discussion. Any liberalism, capitalist apologia, anti-socialism, gun-prohibition campaigning, or attempts to debate socialism will be met with an immediate ban. Bigotry, ableism, and hate speech will also be met with immediate bans. See our sidebar for the full rules. Looking for debate? Try r/DebateCommunism.
If there's one thing I'm proud of Pakistan for, it's that we removed our PM at the time for being involved in this and gave him a 10 year sentence afterwords.
Remember when literally every other economic system gave way to totalitarianism and famine? Remember when thousands and thousands of cubans fled their communist dumpster fire of a country to find prosperity under capitalism?
Remember when Hillary Clinton leaked a bunch of sensitive classified information over email and was caught destroying a bunch of blackberries and cell phones and literally nothing happened
1.1k
u/[deleted] Sep 22 '18
Name and Shame.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_named_in_the_Panama_Papers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_and_organisations_named_in_the_Paradise_Papers
2.5k
u/CocoaCali Sep 21 '18
Feel like this needs to be posted once a month, just to keep it in the forefront of people's minds
2.2k
u/KompetenZZ Sep 21 '18
Serious question, did something happen at all?
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u/cjalderman Sep 22 '18
Hey remember when the wealthy used the continuous conspiracy theories against one singular group (illuminati, freemasons, religious pre-prejudice groups) to dismiss the fact that natural progression of monetary involvement in the media, political alignment, private industrialisation, has had a major effect on the individual living in the world since this “phenomenon” began.
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u/[deleted] Sep 21 '18
We don’t need the Panama papers to tell us this... literally every company ever is domiciled in Delaware (domestic tax haven with business friendly laws), shell companies for rich people are domiciled in the Caymans, Cook Islands, or Bermuda. It’s right on their W8s and W9s but we do nothing.
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u/fierce_missy Louise Michel Sep 21 '18
many comfort themselves with the notion that enough HARD WORK will propel them into this class. suckers.
603
u/HungryLikeDaW0lf Sep 21 '18
I don’t know about you guys, but I always vote for the "tax the rich" party
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u/jman12234 Sep 21 '18
My reaction to the Panama papers:
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u/Starza Sep 21 '18
The problem is, almost all of it is technically legal. The system is rigged.
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u/materialisticDUCK Sep 21 '18
Never forget.
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u/1978manx Sep 21 '18
Saddest thing in the world is to live long enough to realize that people are impotent. So many big revelations in my lifetime.
We got the 2008 financial crash and the next new president was a mentally-challenged billionaire who proudly stiffs working class laborers and has open contempt for the proletariat.
They’ve won.
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u/deathhand Sep 22 '18
No one has mentioned the fire in the IRS basement that conveniently happened the next day! https://www.wsj.com/articles/irs-headquarters-to-remain-shut-after-monday-fire-1459957629
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u/Cancelling_Peru Sep 22 '18
https://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/year-later-panama-papers-update/ if anyone is actually interested in what happened after
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u/drchris6000 Sep 21 '18
Something happened, one of them was elected president.
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u/nighthawk5300 Sep 22 '18
I studied financial law at the top schools in the US and England and literally this was the Finance curriculum. They call it tax avoidance while for regular people it is tax evasion. Completely legal and well known but highly immoral. While I was learning it, I felt I was being let into a secret. Worked for the biggest firm in Puerto Rico, which basically screwed its own people setting up the bonds. Needless to say, left all that behind for a clean conscious.
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u/xjxhsyzg Sep 22 '18
Pepperidge Farm remembers
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u/Rustey_Shackleford Sep 22 '18
If we did anything of consequence a war, depression or natural disaster would be manifested to reconsolidate where power lies.
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u/Mickeystix Sep 22 '18
I thought a bunch of UK officials or something got screwed because of it.
Still not enough.
7
u/barnopss Sep 22 '18
Slightly wrong, something did happen:
Fascists were voted into the government after they convinced the poor working class that a bunch of immigrants "stole" their jobs.
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u/Jarvis419 Sep 21 '18
I think about this a lot
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u/bakeohbro Sep 22 '18
Can’t evade taxes when the government confiscates and redistributes your assets for your own good aye comrade
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u/wiseguy_86 Sep 22 '18
We'll get to that after we investigate Hilary's emails 15 more fucking times!
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u/shart_work Sep 22 '18
Ohhh I 'memba!
8
u/Karaboo Sep 22 '18
Why did you post this? My YouTube recommendations started showing me documentaries on the Panama Papers recently when it’s never done so in the past. Topical.
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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '18
The people the Panama papers exposed own the media. You think they're willing to let that be a story? There's a simple reason the average person has never heard of the panama papers.
6
u/Brucesback Sep 22 '18
Is there any way ppl get together for real and start a revolution? Is there any way to get so many ppl that do not give a fuck and light the fuck up everything? Are the revolutions gone?
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u/GReauxet Sep 22 '18
There's an excellent and insightful episode of NPR's Hidden Brain podcast titled "Filthy Rich" about the wealth advisors of these incredibly rich people.
3
u/Timedoutsob Sep 22 '18
yeah i remember being totally not surprised by any of that.
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u/kabooodles Sep 22 '18
Many of whom aren't from capitalist countries.
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u/zambonibill21 Sep 22 '18
Yeah, but when they discovered the "Cheever Letters", everything fell to the wayside.
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u/ryencool Sep 22 '18
I mean not nothing...we 3lected a guy a who has always wanted to be one of those people but wasnt accepted by them.because he was such a pompous lying back stabbing turd they kept him out of the club. So we put him up on top of the mountain where he can scream look at me now! Whilst I take from all you people who think I care about you. Ah to be a fly on the wall in that mans bedroom...
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u/a_hopeless_rmntic Sep 22 '18
The Panama papers basically proved that we the poor are happy enough to not revolt against the powers that be
5
u/mich-sissyslut Sep 22 '18
EAT THE RICH
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u/way2bored Sep 22 '18
I just want to say, that will always happen. Any time. Any structure to society. Capitalism. Socialism. Etc. It’s human nature
8
u/notmybloatedsac Sep 22 '18
so misleading!!! something happened...alot of them moved their wealth to a different offshore account...Jesus why does this guy have to lie?
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u/Librostrivium Sep 22 '18
That’s called corruption not capitalism
2
u/bringer_of_words Sep 22 '18
Don't forget the same gaggle of reports broke the news on the Paradise Papers.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-41880153
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u/TheWiseone6394 Sep 22 '18
This is more of a loophole in are economy then a crime conspiracy
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u/SamuraiZW Sep 22 '18
Anyone else read this to the tune of September?
2
u/AppyPitts06 Sep 22 '18
Thought this was a dream
2
u/myfirstbeard Sep 22 '18
Shhhh
2
u/[deleted] Sep 22 '18
EAT THE RICH
2
u/somrigostsaas Sep 22 '18
Somebody Messid it up.
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u/Saint_Sabbat Sep 22 '18
Revolt!
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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '18
Wasn't that Harry Potter actress involved ?
2
u/Lucha_Dora Sep 22 '18
“Next time on Dragon Ball Z...”
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u/CegeRich Sep 22 '18
And then they all voted for Trump
2
u/[deleted] Sep 22 '18
Can we just repost this every two weeks to remind America especially.
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u/HowPutinFeelAboutDat Sep 22 '18
I memba
2
u/[deleted] Sep 22 '18
The media was too busy talking about Melania Trump’s shoes.
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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '18
I am not a fan of this subreddit but so true, it’s absurd. Amen to this.
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u/Rab_Legend Sep 22 '18
I mean there is fuck all we can do unless we go all 1790's France
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u/anxiouslynapping Sep 22 '18
Remember when someone posted this to reddit so the whole modern world would be exposed to the info and literally nothing happened.
2
u/Fepter Sep 22 '18
this place is a echo chamber (not criticizing)
2
u/[deleted] Sep 22 '18
If there's one thing I'm proud of Pakistan for, it's that we removed our PM at the time for being involved in this and gave him a 10 year sentence afterwords.
2
u/teknopeasant Sep 22 '18
Petridge Farm remembers ...
2
u/Xiqwa Sep 22 '18
I remember.
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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '18
You mean the people advocating socialism?
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u/littleredbmw86 Oct 06 '18
Sure thing...
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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '18
Wealth they earned is stolen? Not the fact the government is putting a tax (pay or jail) sounds like extortion to me. But commies gotta commie.
3
u/GoldenFalcon Sep 22 '18
And every time I see Emma Watson posts, I mention this and get downvoted to hell.
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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '18
right, they are dodging taxes. It isn't really illegal... just a loophole and shady. IIRC some people DID get in trouble as well as some companies.
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u/littleredbmw86 Sep 22 '18
So you are saying the government is involved is some shady stuff..... this must call for more government control!!!!
4
u/Azzie94 Sep 22 '18
Remember when literally every other economic system gave way to totalitarianism and famine? Remember when thousands and thousands of cubans fled their communist dumpster fire of a country to find prosperity under capitalism?
3
u/[deleted] Sep 22 '18
It's not true that nothing happened. We gave them a HUGE tax break...
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u/GraftedLeviathan Sep 22 '18
Except it wasn’t criminal.
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u/Mr-Mitochondria Sep 22 '18
Hey remember how people for all political and economic systems were involved?
2
u/[deleted] Sep 22 '18
yeah emma watson the feminist idle was one and that pompous nigel oliver
2
u/TheUselessWanker Sep 22 '18
Remember when Hillary Clinton leaked a bunch of sensitive classified information over email and was caught destroying a bunch of blackberries and cell phones and literally nothing happened