Anyone who keeps an eye on international headlines has by now no doubt heard about the Panama Papers.
However, news that the world's wealthiest do everything possible to avoid paying back into the countries that facilitated their success should not be shocking.
By now, it should be painfully clear that "free" trade deals and lowering taxes on the wealthy don't create more jobs. It simply allows them to funnel their fortunes offshore.
The numbers speak for themselves.
Since Reagonomics ó otherwise known as trickle-down economics ó were introduced in the 1980s, income inequality has exploded. Taking inflation into account, the minimum wage has remained relatively stagnant while top-paid CEOs have seen their salaries skyrocket to levels nearly unheard of. Meanwhile, costs of living and tuitions have mushroomed exponentially. For every inch the middle class has progressed, the elite have leaped miles ahead.
There was a time when a family was able to get by with one full-time wage earner.
Today, a lone wage earner is rarely ever enough for a family to get by. Not only is it commonplace for both parents to work, some even find themselves having to take on multiple jobs just to make ends meet while the wealthy are wealthier than they've ever been.
Long before the Panama Papers even leaked, it was already estimated the global elite had an estimated $32 trillion stashed in tax havens. Canada's wealthy are estimated to be hoarding in the tens of billions offshore.
Let's put that in perspective. The U.S. national debt is about $19 trillion. Canada's is more than $600 billion, which sounds like a lot, but is actually but a puny tiny grain of sand on a near endless beach compared with the vast amounts held in tax havens by the billionaire class around the world.
In other words, the global oligarchy could largely forgive world debt. But that wouldn't further their agenda of maintaining a tight grip on their power while continuing to grow their fortunes even more while the average worker struggles to get by. It would be phenomenally naÔve to think billionaires who fund political candidates don't expect favours in return when those politicians get elected. And history has largely shown the most heavily funded candidates win.
Yet there are still people who seem to think that with fewer regulations, corporations would somehow, perhaps from the goodness of their own hearts, ensure better protection of people and the environment. Considering a corporation's primary concern is to provide profits for its stakeholders, they would in reality be unlikely to spend a dime more than forced to in terms of worker and environmental rights.
The ability of some wealthy people to find every way to avoid paying back to a country or society that facilitated their rise to success will never cease to amaze me. I've said this before and I'll say it again ó people who don't want to pay taxes should go live in a developing country where they won't have to pay any. They also won't have public health care, public education, decent roads and infrastructure, firefighters or police.
Our system is in desperate need of repairs when it puts petty thieves in jail for years while for all intents and purposes turning a blind eye to people who siphon billions out of our economy.
