Switzerland is the first offshore tax haven most people think of, though it’s not the only one.
The country helps the wealthy from many nations hide their wealth and avoid taxes. This is obviously a great benefit to the small number of wealthy people who take advantage of the services. And to the Swiss, too. However it acts against the interests of the overwhelming majority in the democratic nations who are missing out on the associated taxes that should be due from the money they’re hiding.
Countries that support acts of terrorism that hurt and kill Americans, and cause economic damage to the US, are clearly seen as hostile and enemies. Obviously Switzerland doesn’t directly kill Americans, though missed taxes may indirectly lead to unnecessary deaths, as a result of underfunded government services. But the country clearly causes genuine and significant economic harm to the vast majority of Americans.
It’s estimated that across the past 20 years, the annual economic harm to the US as a result of acts of terrorism is less than $1 billion. Even if we round up on the high side, the total harm to all the American people is just $20 billion.
Compare that to the economic harm suffered by the US people as a result of tax havens like Switzerland hiding taxable wealth from the US government. Again this is an estimate, but the harm could be as much as $3.5 trillion across the 20 years. 175 times more than the harm from terrorism.
Even if we extend the period to 25 years to include the shocking 9/11 attacks of 2001, overwhelmingly the largest terrorist attacks in history, the disparity is still huge. Obviously, it’s impossible to really put a price on the huge loss of life from those attacks and I don’t mean to belittle the devestating human losses at all. But the direct losses for 9/11 are estimated at about $100 billion, giving a 25 year total of about $125 billion lost to terrorism Vs some $4 trillion in economic losses caused by tax havens across the same period.
After 9/11, the US government declared a just war on terror. Clearly the situation with tax havens is very different and no-one is going to advocate war as a response to the economic harm. But considering how huge the harm is, why haven’t any US governments been moved to deal with this problem?
Perhaps because the wealthiest Americans are the ones who fund both the Democratic and Republican parties. They clearly wouldn’t be happy if either party shut off this easy way for them to avoid paying taxes they’re legally required to pay. And the political indifference to this huge tax fraud is just one way US society has become so unbalanced, with the top 10% having now hoarded 68.3% of all US wealth, while the poorest 50% of Americans have to share a mere 2.5% between them.
So, is Switzerland an enemy of the American people?
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