Great piece about the charm of the super-rich, aristocracy (Bono & Sting included)

[snagglepuss]

Source TimeOnline UK

The rich are different – even if Zac can’t see it
It’s easy to fall for the smooth charm of the Eton set, but they need to understand why we care about their tax status



Some great tidbits:

snip

Zac’s cheekbones and principles seemed too high for our dirty, modern world.

snip

When an Eton education truly takes, it bestows an aura of otherworldliness, an appearance of getting what you want without pushing, being above the scramble and petty change-counting of commerce, Conservatism as nostalgia,

snip

In Britain it takes a public school boy to play the classless political everyman. The Americans’ fantasy leader is Jed Bartlet, a folksy intellectual. Ours is Hugh Grant in Love Actually: posh, repressed, self-deprecating, yet principled enough to square up to a bad US president and say no.


snip

I was reminded of Mr Goldsmith watching Sting on Newsnight this week. Paxman flung everything you’d wanted to say to the lute-playing pseud who, with his country acres and elaborate domestic staffing, is very much the aristocrat manqué.

How could Sting lecture us about global warming when he dragged his entourage of 750 around the planet? Why did he need seven homes? If he cared about this tract of rainforest about to be raped by a dam, why not simply use his vast wealth to buy it? Meanwhile, Sting, behind a bizarre Brian Blessed beard, looked at Paxo with bewilderment, even hurt. You expect me, his expression said, doer of great works on a godlike scale, to worry about your tiny earthling rules? Just like Bono, when asked about his energetic avoidance of tax.



(FYI non-dom status is short for non-domicile status. Its a UK tax loophole the wealthy use to evade taxes.)





http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/janice_turner/article6945156.ece

[PM Martin]

1. I dispise Bono and U2.

Bono calls for the nations of the world to increase their aid to Africa, all the while he is dodging his tax bill.
Where does Ireland get the money to send to Africa Bono? From taxes, those same taxes that you do NOT want to pay.
I make it a rule to discount any political activism from celebrities!

[juno jones]

2. I have a liberal friend who will simply not believe me

when I tell him about Bono. When I told him that Bono was part owner of Forbes he was angry, "Where on the internet did you hear that?" (he poo-poos the internet, but then, he has relatives still in print media). "New York Times (his fave source)," I replied. I offered to find the article but he started getting mad at me so I backed down.

The whole recent incident with U2 members bitching about how they aren't given the respect the rich deserve is hypocritical sell-out material, especially given the songs and politics that made their fame.

[snagglepuss]

3. I hadn't heard about Bono evading taxes. The very thing that has kept Africa poor

is that African govts are rift with corruption so the wealthy evade paying taxes. How convenient that Bono's ignorance is so self-serving.

[treestar]

6. But if he's within the law and then uses the $$ he kept for good use

Is he "evading" or just arguing that legally he should not have to pay them?

If he gives money away, then I'm not against him having it to say where it goes.

[snagglepuss]

8. Why the hell should the wealthy get to decide where tax money gets to be

spent. If Bono wants to help people with his wealth, great but he should first pay his taxes and then use what's left to support charities.

[treestar]

13. They don't. But they only have to pay the taxes legally required.

There is no information that he is really guilty of "tax evasion." Not on this thread, anyway.

[JackRiddler]

17. That's not what he does!

You almost make it sound like he's reducing his tax burden by writing off charitable donations! On the contrary.

U2 evaded taxes by moving its corporate charter to the Netherlands, where there are almost no taxes on music royalties.

Hit with criticism, Bono responded with classic trickle-down theory:

But let’s allow Bono to speak for himself. Tax avoidance, he says, is how Ireland got rich:

I can understand how people outside the country wouldn’t understand how Ireland got to its prosperity, but everybody in Ireland knows that there are some very clever people in the Government and in the Revenue who created a financial architecture that prospered the entire nation -- it was a way of attracting people to this country who wouldn’t normally do business here. And the financial services brought billions of dollars every year directly to the exchequer.

There’s at least half-truth in what he’s saying: helping rich foreign companies avoid taxes was indeed part of the story of the Celtic Tiger. But Bono is leaving out the moral of the story, something else that “everybody in Ireland knows”: now that this get-rich-quick scheme has collapsed, Ireland is getting poor as precipitously quickly as any country in the developed world. So Bono is justifying U2’s tax-avoidance by comparing it to the Irish “financial architecture” that is now justly regarded as a national scandal, part of what brought more than 100,000 people on to Dublin’s streets to protest last weekend. Oops.

Harry Browne, "Where the Cheats Have No Shame"
http://www.counterpunch.org/browne02272009.html

[Jackeens]

15. Altogether now........

To the tune of: I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For

“I know avoiding tax ain’t fair
it’s just because I’m a millionaire
I don’t need to pay like you, no,
I won’t pay like you
because I still haven’t learned about democracy.”

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0225/breaking60.html

:-)

[phasma ex machina]

18. +1 I make it a rule to discount any political activism from celebrities!

Politically active celebrities need to decide what they want to be when they grow up.

[AspenRose]

4. 750? Wow

On the one hand you could say he's providing jobs, but....750?! That's a LOT of people!

[snagglepuss]

5. That is a shocker as well as the fact that they were all travelling with him

Instead of spending all that money travelling (not to mention the carbon footprint)why not put it to more constructive use.

[PM Martin]

16. You and I should not drive and SUV/Truck, but Sting

should be allowed to have 750 people :wtf: with him flying on private jets.
Recall Brad Pitt is building (eco-friendly) homes in New Orleans all the while Mr. Pitt is living in a mansion. :wtf:

[treestar]

7. I've never had much sympathy with this stuff

Sting can't do it alone - nor can any rich person, like any Kennedy. If they are fighting for liberal policies, then they can live like the rich do as well as the right wing rich. If they spend money, it creates jobs for whoever produces what they spend it on.

[snagglepuss]

9. How is it that you can give the wealthy a pass from paying their share of taxes

Do you get to hold back taxes and decide what pet project you want to fund?

[jberryhill]

10. Tax "Evasion" and "Avoidance" are two different things

Not paying taxes lawfully due is tax evasion. Is Bono even charged with that?

Structuring ones activities to avoid taxes lawfully is a different thing.

I live in Delaware, not Pennsylvania, so I don't have to pay sales tax when I buy things (DE does not have sales tax). Am I a nasty tax evader?

People make decisions based on tax consequences all of the time. The important thing is to pay the taxes one owes under the law.

[treestar]

12. What of Pennsylvanians and Marylanders who come to Delaware

To shop to avoid the sales tax?

That's legal too.

I think some on this thread or equating evasion with just avoiding.

[jberryhill]

14. On the "welcome to delaware" signs...

...we advertise tax free shopping.

[treestar]

11. Of course they have to pay their taxes. Who said they didn't?

But they only have to pay what is legally required. They can give the rest away like they would do if they were Jesus. But they're not. Once they pay their taxes, if they are liberal and give a lot away or promote good causes, why slam them? Save that for the greedy rich and the Republicans.