The hypocrisy of the megarich

Whether it is a super-rich individual or a multi-national corporation, there has over recent years been a drive to demonstrate philanthropic concern for the Worlds poor. This is all very laudable and worthy, and in the finest traditons of the American charitable principle of trickle down, whereby the very rich lead by example by giving generously to charitable foundations and this gesture is mirrored by those lower down the pecking order. But is all as it seems? Certainly in the UK we have a situation whereby these same individuals and corporations devote considerable time and enormous sums of money in developing ever more complex ways of avoiding paying tax. I can understand the arguement that by being "tax-efficient" these non-payers may be making a statement that they distrust our political masters and would rather make their own decisions as to where their money is spent, but this arguement is fundamentally flawed.

We live in a democracy, and as such our political leaders are elected by us, and are ultimately responsible to us as voters. Consequently, suggesting that an individual or corporation who is responsible to no-one but themselves, and possibly shareholders will act in a better way than elected officials is not only wrong but insulting to the electorate. Listening to these people talk about the efforts they are making for charities and to heal the World does rather stick in the throat, since these are, when all is said and done, merely personal hobby horses, and most of these groups and individulas are not in a position to have complete transparency in terms of how their donations are used.

Would it not be better for the rich to pay their taxes as the rest of us have to, ad use any money left over to campaign for the political change that they seek, rather than sanctimoniously preaching about the good work they are doing? There are protest groups here in the UK who are trying to bring these tax dodgers to book, and if you have a look into the recent news stories, you may be surprised to see that they are doing this with very little support from HMRC who seem unable to act in a principled manner when dealing with companies like Tesco, Vodafone, Barclays and many many others, preferring instead to engage in "Sweetheart" deals not available to the hoy polloy. Whatever the good intentions of these companies originally, their morals and ethics have all been undone by the reprehensible actions of those who are simple being greedy. Time for non-executive directors and the major accounting firms to bite the bullet and act to bring these companies in line and to help to create a more equitable society for us all, rather than fatter profits for the very few....