Inequality and Taxation in a Globalised World: Super Talk

[pietillidie]

Follow this super talk through to the end of a very good Q&A to put the budget revenue shortfalls we are forced to fight over like seagulls at a picnic table into perspective.

If you only have the patience to labour through one presentation on this topic, this talk should be it. It is well worthwhile bearing with the guy's accent and the fact you can't see the slides (I actually listened to the audio, so I couldn't see them anyway).

If you're not familiar with this topic, feel free to ask questions in the thread below. There are a few technical terms and references to recent debates in the field which might be hard to follow, and the author's accent makes it hard to catch some of the jargon.

Currently, cowardly politicians bully the elderly, stress low-income families, scapegoat powerless minorities, and steal hope from young people and the middle class through all manner of nonsense which avoids confronting the real issue: Global tax scams and the parasitic havens which make them possible.

Yes, there are other aspects of the overall problem to consider, and some countries do seem more wasteful than others, but this has fast become the central cause of revenue shortfall, and the main sponsor of vicious social division and blame.

Forget the public relations campaigns about "leaners" and "the undeserving", or the falsehoods about "living beyond our means"; let's put something like the suggested system in place and take back the hope which has been smuggled offshore.

http://www.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=2828

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_tk-ZoW_YQ