Greek finance minister Yannis
Stournaras wants to raise tax rates and close loopholes so that
Greek Citizens will help his country. The Greek tax
commissioner Algirdas Semeta then claims: “Every citizen in
Europe loses about 2,000 euros every year because of tax evasion.”
Stournaras wants to raise tax rates and close loopholes so that
Greek Citizens will help his country. The Greek tax
commissioner Algirdas Semeta then claims: “Every citizen in
Europe loses about 2,000 euros every year because of tax evasion.”
Greece is a haven of tax cheats, yet the European Union will
still offer one bailout after another. Why is there a preponderance of tax
evasion? Not just in Greece but also in France and other European Countries,
the state is required to pay for everything because of a socialist system of taxation
and redistribution. If the citizen expects the state to pay for everything,
then the state must expect the citizen to pay for it. Yet the same mentality
which expects so much from the government in the first place will induce him to
give very little to the same.
still offer one bailout after another. Why is there a preponderance of tax
evasion? Not just in Greece but also in France and other European Countries,
the state is required to pay for everything because of a socialist system of taxation
and redistribution. If the citizen expects the state to pay for everything,
then the state must expect the citizen to pay for it. Yet the same mentality
which expects so much from the government in the first place will induce him to
give very little to the same.
The Greek Government has run into the very problem which
socialism inevitably brings upon every nation:
the government runs out of other people’s money. Instead of raising
taxes, which will just invite more of the same tax evasion and fraud, the Greek
Government must cut spending to drastically low levels, whether the Greek
people approve or not.
socialism inevitably brings upon every nation:
the government runs out of other people’s money. Instead of raising
taxes, which will just invite more of the same tax evasion and fraud, the Greek
Government must cut spending to drastically low levels, whether the Greek
people approve or not.
If Homer had written about Greece’s current epic financial
crisis, the final scenes from this modern version of “The Oddysey” would have
played out very differently. The Greek tax cheats are reminiscent of the many
suitors in the house of Ulysses, who ate him out of house and home while he was
whiling away on a twenty-year exile. Yet instead of taking the role of the Man
of the House and gutting the thugs who are wasting his substance, the Greek government
wants to ask the “suitors” to pay a little towards remuneration and clean-up
crisis, the final scenes from this modern version of “The Oddysey” would have
played out very differently. The Greek tax cheats are reminiscent of the many
suitors in the house of Ulysses, who ate him out of house and home while he was
whiling away on a twenty-year exile. Yet instead of taking the role of the Man
of the House and gutting the thugs who are wasting his substance, the Greek government
wants to ask the “suitors” to pay a little towards remuneration and clean-up
I am certain that “even Homer nods” in disapproval of so naïve
a notion of fiscal reform.
a notion of fiscal reform.