There is a joy to tax

Posted on May 11 2012

From this morning's Guardian:

It was disappointing to note the Guardian publishing an article in G2 that was little more than a flippant gloss on the opinion of a tax avoider.

There is, as the G2 cover suggested, and as I will explain in my forthcoming book, The Joy of Tax, (which title seems to be the only, unacknowledged, thing Stuart Jeffries took from his interview with me in connection with this article) a real joy to tax — which is that it is the mechanism that liberates us all to enjoy communal benefits such as education, healthcare, pensions, security and law and order that would be beyond the means of 99% of us to secure through the market. The article largely ignored that fact, delighting instead in promoting ideas that would undermine the idea of society itself, such as flat taxes, without in any way seeking to offer the counter-argument that might explain the harm such proposals would deliver.

The Guardian has a proud record of reporting tax issues in a way that most of the media ignores, but this article let it down badly. I hope a more balanced feature in G2 that reflects the true importance of tax in our society might now follow to make amends for this.
Richard Murphy
Tax Justice Network

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3 Responses

  1. ntp3 says:
    May 11 2012 at 9:21 am

    I saw the list of topics Stuart Jeffries has written about in the paper, which is a little too broad. The Guardian did report yesterday, however, that there is a new convert to Keynesianism. “Stress is what my father felt, who struggled to find a job in the 50s and 60s and who often had to work long hours in three different jobs and at weekends to support a growing family”, said Sir Michael Wilshaw. Either he’s got on his bike to support Keynes, or he’s just a pointless martinet (which cannot be true).

  2. Richard says:
    May 11 2012 at 12:49 pm

    Another quandry from EU membership…..

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/tax/9257927/UK-investment-funds-could-land-20bn-windfall-after-EU-rules-French-tax-discriminatory.html

    So on one hand you want EU membership in order to attack tax haven activity and force change yet on the other you have the EU undermining the right of a Country to tax as they like, to your mind undermining democracy….

    So in or out for the EU, either way you have a problem!