I would like a world where there was no need for development aid.
To say so is not to come over all Daily Express / Rees-Moggish all of a sudden. I have worked towards that aim for most of this century. This, at its core, is what tax justice is all about.
This is not a discussion of disaster assistance: that is quite another issue. I am talking about development here.
By Ritchie/TJN numbers a complete absence of that offshore dodging would raise some $120 billion a year. Or add 0.5% to government revenues globally.
That’s all that’s needed is it?
What was needed was a mechanism to ensure that the so called developing countries could move on from aid and become the fully fledged, self-governing, democratic and self-supporting states that they deserved to be, that their people rightly demanded, and that anyone who respected them should wish for.
We were quite sure we had two mechanisms to deliver that. One was tax. The other was transparency. We wrapped them together under the banner tax justice. I wish I could say that the rest is history, but it’s not yet.
Strangely, the people who know about these things recommend neoliberal globalisation instead. It’s how China got rich recently, it’s how India and Bangladesh are following….it’s what has produced the largest fall in absolute poverty in the history of our species.
What’s he going to do about Saudi Arabia and those pesky Emirates?
On the other hand, I would say a resounding “no”
MMT says we can just print the money and give it away. What really needs to happen is all charities to be brought under state control and funded via MMT. They could be supervised by, say , Momentum, who would enforce proper moral standards.
A happy aside of MMT is also that tax dodging via offshore jurisdictions becomes entirely irrelevant, so all those places that are currently the target of EU/Spudda/Oxfam neocolonialst and racist agression can now be left in peace.
What was needed was a mechanism to ensure that the so called developing countries could move on from aid and become the fully fledged, self-governing, democratic and self-supporting states that they deserved to be, that their people rightly demanded, and that anyone who respected them should wish for.
Actually, he wanted to use UK military/economic power to browbeat such countries into meeting his ludicrous standard of “tax transparency”, and if they can’t, well, they’ll get well and truly fucked up.
We were quite sure we had two mechanisms to deliver that. One was tax.
Wait, what was the tax for?
I’m completely lost. Can’t follow the logic at all.
It can’t be to spend money on government services because we can just print it, or do something clever electronically, and so tax is not necessary for spending at all.
I thought in the Grand Theory, the tax was only necessary to reduce inflation? So the problem is that the big companies were not helping the poor governments reduce inflation enough, and this is why the countries remained underdeveloped?
I’m sure I am missing something here but I dunno what.
Those countries may “deserve” democracy, but they assuredly do not really want it. They don’t demand it with any vigour, and they acquiesce in its destruction when it almost appears. And they have little real appetite for transparency if it interferes with their personal thieving.
All else flows from that.
Development aid should only go to those that at least attempt transparent deals that benefit their poor.
Richard Murphy says:
The evidence I have is that the behavioural changes it is giving rise to are massive – [What evidence? Going to go into details? Thought not]
And I am told by tax authorities that the data they have is invaluable [Who in which tax authorities? Going to tell us? Thought not.]
I know from banks that CBCR shows profit shifting [Which banks have talked to you? Going to tell us and what they have told you? Thought not]
I’d day the answer us a resounding yes [Resounding bollocks more like]
Sexual pecadilloes aside, what is clearly unacceptable is any association between charities like Oxfam and corruption. Luckily, neither Oxfam nor its employees or officers have ever been linked to corruption in any way.
Oh, wait : https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/feb/13/chair-oxfam-international-arrested-corruption-charges-juan-alberto-fuentes
Just in case anyone still thinks of Oxfam as a charity, only 48% of their expenditure is on humanitarian stuff such as famine relief.
52% is spent on cultural Marxist activities such as lobbying governments to improve women’s rights and gender justice.
I would simply remove its charitable status and get it to pay the taxes it wants other people to pay
Round numbers but China is approx. a $12tn per year economy. 1% of that is $120bn that the tax justice network think could do so much to alleviate inequality.
China growing at 6% a year, and doing loads of FDI in Africa. I like that metro system they built in Ethiopia – nice, better than what Geldof did. Should we just let them crack on?
Well apparently no – because inequality.
Busy day on MeTuber, by the look of things, and more than usually rich in tripe.
What was needed was a mechanism to ensure that the so called developing countries could move on from aid and become the fully fledged, self-governing…
Ah yes, how to stop the people who can plunder from plundering their countries…
democratic and self-supporting states that they deserved to be,
Unless they are in worse condition today than previously when under the colonial yoke in which case they deserve what they got.
that their people rightly demanded,
these are the people that would have been doing the plundering had they been in a position to?
and that anyone who respected them should wish for.
Well that leaves me out.
A classic exchange:
Regarding CbC reporting and having worked as a management accountant in multi-nationals I’m sure that any data required to drive behaviour is already understood and being used. I know how difficult it can be to do proper segmentation of cost structures across regions and countries (there’s a reason management accountants like working with contribution) in order to assess profit shares and there’s going to be nothing meaningful in taking a load of management accounting data and trying to twist it into financial accounting standards or tax standards beyond what is already done
When I’ve challenged him on this years ago he just responded that he was an expert on management accounting because he did it for his exams and my CMA qualification and experience were meaningless compared to the course he did years ago and never applied as he was candidly an expert and I was a troll for suggesting otherwise
Bnic your experience is mine. Unless management structures aligned with fiscal structures, which they rarely do more than about 75%, then fiscal results were essentially meaningless. For a mining company, what benefit do you get from combining the results of the uranium stream from the Iron ore stream? You needed to look at where the value was extracted. Raw uranium versus processed iron ore pellets.
Candidly the tuber could not understand
complete delusions of grandeur from the potato headed one – what next a gigantic spotlight that shines a gigantic silhouette of a potato into the night sky so potatoman can come to the rescue ?
One of the main problem of these shitholes are the extraordinary birth rates and increases in population that are occuring. Pumping in humanitarian aid seems to be having a negative effect – instead of sorting out their problems they are too busy procreating knowing that some stupid charity will help them out food wise. I’m sure c by c reporting is in the forefront of their minds
Update….
So tax is not the answer!!!!!!
Diogenes – of course not MOAR tax is the answer.
In relation to CbC driving behavioural changes, I think the Spud may be implying not that it provides anything useful to management, but that the need to report on a CbC basis and the embarrassment of an unusually low reported tax rate may drive companies to “correct” their tax affairs is a way that Spud would find agreeable. Nonsense on stilts, but what do we expect, eh?
Wow, imagine that: the cure for economic degeneracy in the Third World isn’t to stop shitting in your water supply and stealing everything that’s not nailed down, it’s to implement Spudnomics. I eagerly await the great man bending his Zeus-like gaze on something a bit more challenging, like the Riemann Hypothesis or Strong AI. I bet we’d have ’em both licked in a week.
What an absolute bell-end.
“Development aid should only go to those that at least attempt transparent deals that benefit their poor.”
The whole idea of development aid is a busted flush. If not spent on luxury villas for government officials, in the best case it just encourages people to have more children than the carrying capacity of their country supports. This magnified the problem and creates the refugees of the future.
Real aid is available to any third world shithole that wants it, simply by stopping corruption, making sensible law, and trading freely with the rest of the world.
Delusions of grandeur? More like delusions of competence.
Apparently Murphy has decided to go on holiday and as such will be ‘off the airwaves’ until the weekend – whether he holds to that is open to question. In the meantime it’s important to establish clearly the narrative.
Crimes such as child abuse are perfectly forgiveable provided the perpetrator is of right mind on issues like
– ‘Tax Justice’
– The need for ‘CbCr’
– The ‘Green New Deal’
– The bankruptcy of Neoliberalism as an ideology.
To even challenge such an interpretation is a worrying threat to freedom of speech and by definition, democracy. Any other conclusion, candidly, is trolling….
“I would like a world where there was no need for development aid”
I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.
Tom Smith
and trading freely with the rest of the world.
Good luck trying to trade freely with the EU
“I would like a world where there was no need for development aid“
In the world he wants there won’t be any economic surplus so no aid.