Re:Oxfam: 85 richest people as wealthy as poorest half of th...
by marvin on Monday January 20, 2014 @08:22AM
(#7089327)
The problem starts when "acute business acumen" involves active participation in political processes in order to gain special advantages or avoid duties which are placed on other members of society. In spite of being a Norwegian, I agree with the capitalistic premise that economic inequality isn't in itself a symptom of a problem. But when the richest minority avoids taxes thanks to legal loopholes, lobbies with politicians to get useful laws enacted or gains special contracts with the government to the detriment of others, there is a very big problem.
In fact, this is corruption, which is in many of these cases endemic. We like to believe that the educated world has a level playing field, but this is far from the case. The tech world isn't representative for the world at large when it comes to being fair in this respect. (And even the tech world is far from innocent in this regard - e.g. Google et.al.'s smart dodging of taxation by keeping assets overseas. This practice is legal, but it is exactly the kind of problem where the richest are given an unfair advantage due to their wealth).
In fact, this is corruption, which is in many of these cases endemic. We like to believe that the educated world has a level playing field, but this is far from the case. The tech world isn't representative for the world at large when it comes to being fair in this respect. (And even the tech world is far from innocent in this regard - e.g. Google et.al.'s smart dodging of taxation by keeping assets overseas. This practice is legal, but it is exactly the kind of problem where the richest are given an unfair advantage due to their wealth).