We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, July 22, 2012

£13tn: hoard hidden from taxman by global elite

Click here to access article by Heather Stewart from The Guardian, The Observer section. 
A global super-rich elite has exploited gaps in cross-border tax rules to hide an extraordinary £13 trillion ($21tn) of wealth offshore – as much as the American and Japanese GDPs put together – according to research commissioned by the campaign group Tax Justice Network.
 We are forced into debt because they don't pay us enough to maintain a decent lifestyle. We work mostly to pay off our debts to them, and they don't pay taxes on what they earn off our work and the interest payments they receive from us! If you are a member of the global elite of the One Percent--what's not to love about capitalism?

By the way, for every debt or debtor in the world, there is a credit or creditor(s)--someone who "owns" that debt. To put it into feudalistic words, for every debt peon--that's us--in the world, there are lords and masters--the elite One Percent.

Also, related Guardian coverage of this issue is here, hear, and here.
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