Yes.
I am a born and bred Democrat but in my first US Presidential election, I voted
for John Anderson who converted from being a Republican to an Independent. I
vote on the issues, and, echoing debates with my dearly departed husband (a
political science major), when I vote, it’s mostly to change from the current
administration – whoever they may be.
Do
you really want to know why the US is in the financial mess we are in? If so,
read on but I issue fair warning, what I say will be harsh.
We
are in the financial mess we are today because of Republican hands-off business legislation, narcissistic-level
feelings of entitlement, the “old boys”
network which in modern time even contains women, and rich people avoiding
their fair share of taxes.
We
have two perfect examples of where old meets new in this regard. I love
Facebook but I have serious complaints about how they are handling their US
taxes.
Co-founder
Eduardo Saverin did NOT have to
renounce his US Citizenship to work in Singapore. (If you believe that, I have
a sea front property in Arizona I can
let you have at a good price.) He did have to renounce his US citizenship to
avoid paying his full fair share of US taxes. FYI: “Singapore does not have
capital gains taxes,…”1
He
would still pay but “According to Bloomberg analysis, Saverin could save $67
million in U.S. taxes by trading in his citizenship ahead of Facebook's IPO.” 2
Zuckerberg
is not any better: “While Zuckerberg will pay a hefty tax bill right off the bat
if he follows through on his plan to sell $5 billion in Facebook stock options,
as the New York Times noted, he may then never pay a dime of taxes on the rest
of his Facebook wealth. “Instead, he can simply use his stock as collateral to
borrow against his tremendous wealth and avoid all tax,” the Times reported.”3
In
April, I ended up chatting for half an hour with a man who works for the US
government. His take on the economy wasn’t that we spend too much but we don’t
take in enough! Too many people with enough money to ease the burden for all
are only easing it for themselves. Yet, they get the same benefits and
protections the rest of us do. Not two weeks later the news broke about
Facebook.
Mr.
Saverin, Mr. Zuckerberg shame on you both for avoiding you fair share in this
flaring worldwide economic mess!
Sources:
