Discussion
There are lots of ways to make income that is not accessible to government recording, reporting, or taxation.
When you're rich, those ways are called "clever".
When you're middle-class, a vanishing species, those ways are called "fraud".
When you're poor, those ways are called "criminal".
Of the three tiers, the rich steal the most, at the least risk and the least punishment. The poor steal the least, at the greatest risk and the greatest punishment.
@GeePawHill
used to be a distanced spectator of history I suddenly feel woven in - into an anonymous background-filling pattern, already too bygone to argue against: >why didn't they fight against such a tiny minority<.
@GeePawHill
Can't let us nobodies cheat the system, we might be successful at it the way the rich do and start bothering our betters! /s
@GeePawHill I don’t completely agree with your statements, and I would like to rephrase them a bit:
If you're rich, those ways are called ‘estate planning’.
If you’re middle class, those ways are called ‘tax evasion’.
If you’re poor, those ways are called ‘tax dodging’.
Furthermore, as an estate planner, I oppose the statement that the rich risk the least. First; usually they became rich by taking significant risks and second, if an estate planning goes wrong the rich people involved really are being punished. It doesn't happen often that's absolutely true, but if it happens the tax authorities tend to be merciless. And the same holds for the judges involved.
@Paul_Harts My comments were surely biased by my experiences as a citizen of the United States. Naturally, I'm delighted to hear from a poor Dutch person.
The bulk of welfare and insurance fraud is committed by the higher sub-tiers of the middle. The smaller portion of it is committed by the poor, and is, frankly, chump change.
The rich don't have to commit welfare and insurance fraud. Their welfare is guaranteed by the government, and they own the insurance companies.
@GeePawHill The real move is to combine them: own the insurer, commit billions in medicare fraud, then become a Senator.
Anatole France wrote: “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.”
@GeePawHill Anatole Etats-Unis n'aurait jamais dit une chose pareille, c'est beaucoup trop socialiste.
@GeePawHill In our collapse of law, such prohibitions are being dropped for the rich.
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@GeePawHill
IMO, the complexity of the tax code, at least in the US, works to the advantage of the rich
so I am in favor of greatly simplifying the tax code
eg, the Wall Str Journal just reported that there is something called "private placement insurance" that allow weathly people to delay and defer taxes on weatlh