I have often argued about the absurdity if the UK underinvesting in HM Revenue & Customs at cost to us all in terms of lost public services and in the distortions created in the economy as a result of the unfair competition that is created by the failure to collect races from cheating businesses.
It is a sad fact that we are not alone in suffering this politically imposed failure to uphold the rule of law. The US suffers the same affliction as David Cay Johnston noted in a piece in The Nation yesterday where he reported on the U.S. Budget package, saying:
Another $345.6 million will be cut from the budget of the Internal Revenue Service, in a favor to big corporations and the rich that will have little effect on workers, whose taxes are withheld before they are automatically processed via computer. The cuts mean fewer audits of corporations and rich individuals. Top corporate auditors earn at most about $150,000 a year, but find on average $19 million of taxes owed. To Congress, that $126 to $1 ratio is not worth the political cost, but shifting more of the burden of government to you is cheap and easy.
What motivates this lack of willing on the part of politicians to uphold the laws that they pass?
First of all we should not dismiss corruption. This may not involve brown envelopes of cash; indeed, I very much doubt it does. But it does involve favours for parties and that continual hope for preferment once a parliamentary career is over, whether by choice or not.
Then there is ideology. Far too many MPs, Senators and Congressmen seek membership of a legislature they despise and which they suggest can only do harm. They do, therefore, ideologically seek to undermine its capacity to deliver the wellbeing we know government can create.
And thirdly, there is incompetence. Despite the efforts of a few to point out the absurdities of this sort of behaviour there can be little doubt that we are drowned out by those lobbying for cuts. It takes tenacity and effort to find the truth. Not all elected politicians are endowed with such capacities.
So we end up with austerity, maladministration, a failure of the rule of law, poor growth and public dissatisfaction. And it would be so easy to do so much better now if only the political will was present.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Just finished reading through this morning’s set of blogs, Richard. I could spend several hours adding comments but will spare you and others that for today as I have much else to do – and in any case, most of the topics you’ve covered are depressing enough, illustrating as they do, what a sham so called “representative” democracy is both here, in the US, and more widely, when in fact the whole process is now engineered to advance only the interests of big business and the 1%.
However, on a lighter note, and including into this your mind map from yesterday evening’s event, you’ve surpassed yourself with typos. I particularly liked ‘fax haven’, and in this blog, ‘the failure to collect races from cheating businesses.’ Both conjure up images of an alternative, far less corrupt and corrupted world than the one we actually live in.
Best as always.
Ivan
Ivan
That was written on the train in haste on the way to the meeting on an iPad
So I’m even worse than usual – and that’s not good!
I can readily accept that criticism 🙂
Richard
Just for info, the US comment re fewer audits is not my experience as talking with may tax colleagues from the US last week, they were explaining that they are pretty much under constant audit from teh IRS.
Maybe we’re not asking enough favors 🙂
All of the above Richard, you only have to see the number of ex-ministers, MP’s on the boards of corporations to see that in some cases government policy is designed to curry favour with future employers.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-12-13/democrats-who-voted-cromnibus-received-double-money-wall-street-no-voters
Richard
Don’t worry about the typos – we can work them out and have a smile sometimes.
They’re life
I type a lot
And this is a blog that delvers an ongoing narrative. It is not an academic thesis
I am more interested in getting ideas out than typos
But I do try to avoid them and have also concluded I have a bit of a blindness for them
I will live with it
Best
R
A bit like Apple and the amount of tax it pays as a percentage of the profit it makes, if you took your word output and worked out the percentage of typos it’d probably be of a similar scale, Richard.
Mind you, I did have to look ‘delvers’ (as in ‘delvers an ongoing narrative’) up in the dictionary. A combination of delves – as in investigates – and delivers – as in, does the job or hits the spot – which is pretty much what your blogs consistently do. 🙂
And yes, I made the dictionary bit and definition up!
Cheers
🙂