The Guardian's #PandoraPapers 'revelations' aren't revelations at all, they're part of how tax avoidance is enabled, i.e. creating an appearance of outrage to assuage genuine outrage, & tacitly suggest there'll be consequences. See thread for periodic airing of the same story...
Let’s focus on a fraction of the last 10 years of ‘reporting’ in The Guardian alone, which peppers its latest coverage of this long-known practice with adjectives like ‘exposes’ & ‘secret’ & ‘revelation’ – its none of that. They’ve known all along this is happening, as do we…
2011 – We’ll begin with a useful explanation of what a tax ‘haven’ actually is (the clue is in the word ‘haven’): theguardian.com/business/2011/…
2012 – The Guardian reports on $21 trillion in assets flooding offshore in a ‘far-reaching study’: theguardian.com/business/2012/…
2013 – ‘Britain rules the world of tax havens’ the headline blares: theguardian.com/business/2013/…
2014 – A who’s who shaming of (carefully picked) entirely legal avoidance: theguardian.com/business/2014/…
2015 – An expose accuses you and I (yes, you read that right) of going offshore too: theguardian.com/business/2015/…
2016 – UK territories top the list, in shocking ‘revelations’: theguardian.com/world/2016/dec…
2017 – Britain’s most patriotic are most wedded to offshore: theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/…
2018 – The Guardian supports the government’s empty promises to get tough: theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
2019 – Again, Britain is the greatest enabler of all: theguardian.com/world/2019/may…
2020 – Again, again, Britain is the main culprit here: theguardian.com/world/2020/feb…
2021 – Here we go again… It’s like constant weather predictions in the Express claiming this winter will be the coldest on record: the story sells papers. We Brits seem to need written confirmation our suffering is real. We don’t want to change it, we just want to moan about it.
We know that most rich individuals & corporations don't pay the tax the rest of us have to. We know that 'loopholes' are deliberately created to enable them to do this legally. We know that the rest of us risk jail if we don't pay our taxes. We know that society needs taxes...
...to provide the infrastructure and services we all need to thrive, and to look after those who need a little extra help. We know that the rich should pay their share, but that capitalism is organised precisely so they don't have to. How else could they afford their palaces?
The Guardian helps to enable this system by periodically exposing it creating the false impression it will now be dealt with. It's exactly the same tactic politicians use for offshore and things like expenses: express public outrage, promise/demand change, then forget about it...
Of course, The Guardian will claim to be doing a great public service & the leaks deserve scrutiny, but these MSM rags shouldn't get away with lines like: 'there are legitimate reasons why some people do it...' without actually detailing what they think those reasons are.
A proper exposé would shine a light on the legislation & legislators who wrote the laws enabling the moral fraud, as well as headlining the refusal to change, rather than trumpeting 'genuine reforms' which have made no substantive difference at all following previous stories.
All this is one of the reasons #CapitalismSucks, and one of the reasons I will not be adding to the plaudits The Guardian is getting for it's fake concern. #TaxTheRich #CloseLoopholes #PandoraPapers
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
