Show me the money

by Jamie - Concerned Citizen Sat Apr 30, 2011 16:24

Yes we need to heed the point that the min. wage applies to the masses but somewhere I read that it is the 1% that are responsible for 25% taxes paid on average to government coffers.

The tribunals in their day have resulted in funds in excess of a 1 billion being collected from people willing to shaft their fellow taxpayers and more importantly citizens and no doubt more funds will come from similar sources in the years to come.

However what can we do to shake up our citizens to formulating a vision that will create policies that will favour a more equitable society. We have the Bail-out be it that we are unsure yet as to whether it costs the Irish taxpayer 85 billion / 100 billion or even double that. As yet it may be that we the Irish will have to default and if this is the only way forward then we will be writing off debt and becoming a bad debt to the balance sheets of those senior debtors who took the risk in the first place and provided loans to our Treasury.

This is not the first time we have hit serious economic and political crisis since the foundation of the State and more importantly it will not be the last. The circle dictates the psychology and psychology tells us about the peaks and the troughs within the human being and human beings comprise our society.

Cash is King at present. However, the hoarding of cash due to fear is causing the economy to stagnate. This week the news informed us of the 'plight' of a man admitted to Accident and Emergency and when examined - his body was wrapped with wads of euro cash totalling over 60,000 euros...this is fear in the raw sense that creates a paranoia and fear to trust. There are people out there afraid to deposit money in banks. Why because for nearly three years now the news is bad and the time is coming when the 2008 granted guarantee may be cancelled and the banks are free to party again and who knows we could face another financial crisis. We need the banks to start marketing again. We need them to retrieve the capital flows that left the country over the past 3 years.

What do you do with the Cash? You can stuff it in the mattress, you can buy Gold or Silver, you can take a chance and buy some shares or for that matter you can go a stage further and buy equities. All of this is about some people just keep hard cash in a hidden place. The problem with this is that we deflate the economy, we add to the crises in small to medium businesses because nobody buys anything, we facilitiate unemployment to those who are mainly represented by the unions which in turn creates unrests via strikes in our public services.

We need a little insight: we need to encourage people to start re-investing in our own banks not (foreign banks), we need to get people spending cash in the economy in small ways i.e. like having coffee with a friends in a local cafe, having a pint with a friend in your local pub, buying Irish products where at all possible. Brown coinage - why not collect it and then make the point of re-circulating same in the cash pool - you can pass it on to charities in your local supermarket, or change it in the bank. Take taxis rather than park in expensive carparks in town. Then there is the old Punt. It is said that there is a couple of hundred million still to be presented to Central Bank!! Who has it?

Income tax is one source of revenue but another is where the wealth generates tax and we need to balance in our minds eye who generates most and work from there before we engage in militancy.

Jamie.

by Clyde - Source Transparency International/Ireland Tue May 03, 2011 15:07

What has happened especially to the readers of our newspapers on the Island of Ireland?

We hear that O'Reilly the Independent newspaper earns in excess of 1 million euros p.a., and yes the newspapers today are spun on the US coup d'etat and Osama Bin Laden but what about May 3rd being set aside as the day for World Press Freedom and the safeguarding of free speech and democracy. May 3rd surely is worth mentioning in the light of this extreme paradox of events on this day especially.

Show me the money or follow the money are about the root causes and impact of corruption. Transparency International press release today makes excellent reading. It challenges its readers to review what corruption means and emphasises how it 'ruins lives' and urges people to 'Fight Back'. Here is the challenge for the sinking abyss of the Irish economy. We are aware that the Europeans and the IMF have valued us at rock bottom economically but we must have some investigative journalists out there who can find answers to where the capital flows took flight to back in 2007 (the CAB, fraud squad, the DPP etc. appear to need some assistance). We know that recently as in the last few months 16.5 billion euros approx. left the Bank of Ireland as more people became less certain of being sufficiently nationalistic to keep their monies in our economy. We know that at the time of the Guarantee 2008, Anglo Irish had funds in excess of 100 billion euros. Where did these Euros go to? Logically we know that those who had shares in Anglo saw their holdings devalued to nothing but what about those who had funds in excess of the 100,000 euros guarantee cover - their euros are not devalued, diminished - but they may be overseas in safe havens.

The Financial Times today (front page) is reporting that Billions of Sterling pounds held in Swiss Bank accounts are now to be subject to UK tax at 50%. So what about Ireland? Have we made similar changes to the powers of the Revenue in Ireland that we can access who holds accounts in Switzerland and then charge them tax and note at a higher rate? Maybe our neighbour would negotiate on our part for a similar concession from the Swiss bankers?

Article 19 : Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek receive and impart information through any media and regardless of frontiers'

Media is essential to maintain a system of Governance.

For Indymedia contributors this may be of significant interest: It talks about Citizen Journalism and Social Media. This is about an interaction between the media and civil society groups with the objective of being a watchdog and working for the Public Good. The theme of this day is about 21st century media. Interestingly, it states:

'The shift towards citizen reporting also brings with it new opportunities. But with the now public crowded space given to citizen reporters and social media users, traditional journalists also play an ESSENTIAL ROLE INVESTIGATING WRONGDOING, MAINTAINING CREDIBILITY AND PROVIDING REPORTS THAT SERVE THE PUBLIC GOOD'

Keep up the good work Indymedia as a source of grassroots citizen journalism but as for the newspapers Ireland could do with more of the philosophy of investigative journalism with particular emphasis relating to the Public Good.

by Herbert - Citizen Journalism promotion Thu May 05, 2011 16:35

Ordinary Citizen - a piece well written. What we need is more open disclosure similar to the Nordic countries and if that means paying higher taxes that is the route to follow.

Equality in society is an essential source of motivation and research now shows that the greater the bipolarity in society, the greater the inequality. We have two tiers presently in Ireland with the middle class being lambasted as the drive globally is those that have versus those who have not. The belief system seems to be to keep the worker bees so busy doing the mundane chores that they have no time to think about using their income/no wealth to create their tax incentive benefit income and derive (income)/wealth from wealth). Sadly we see the excesses of this with Sean Quinn when a man through years of occupation and wealth gathering can make a mis-TAKE which in effect is nothing other than a gamble and lose all. Yes, we can all watch Bloomberg (if we pay for it) but the contracts for difference need caution and some of our 1st generation entrepreneurs got a little too greedy and were caught. Yes it was CFD's on Anglo Irish shares predicted as an upward option that ignited the fire. Let us wait and see the outcome now. What will be the next gamble for the Quinn Empire i.e. if they retained their personal wealth as distinct from their companies and assets. Will they use the legal route to regain acclaim, power and position, if not but in their own minds only.

The momentum is slow to deal with the so called Golden Circle and Anglo Irish Bank. My humble belief is that 'insider trading' must apply to what underlies this major collapse of a Bank that set the competitive advantage for our homegrown AIB and Bank of Ireland.
It comes down to the old equation about abuse of power and anyone is susceptible to that. What is essential though is that the Law of the Land, the media, the journalists are hungry to establish the sense of what is Justice and how it is applied.

Clyde - you lay it right at the feet of the media and journalists in particular and the power of Article 19 and Freedom of expression. Our broad sheets are not making money and yet Indymedia hasn't the profile that is indicative of its archives and open newswire. Journalists in the broad sheets by now should be crediting those of us in citizen journalism and moving forward with their new forensic invetigative capabilities. As Clyde states - 'The shift towards citizen reporting also brings with it new opportunities. But with the now public crowded space given to citizen reporters and social media users, traditional journalists also play an ESSENTIAL ROLE INVESTIGATING WRONGDOING, MAINTAINING CREDIBILITY AND PROVIDING REPORTS THAT SERVE THE PUBLIC GOOD'

Show me the money. The money is somewhere - it just doesn't disappear. It didn't in Nazi Germany because lots of it made its way into Swiss bank accounts and some of the other 20 tax havens around the world. The search is still on for this.

Daily the ordinary punter on the street needs to look around, think a little outside the box, listen to what another person might be saying. People who have small businesses are really suffering. They are putting in long hours and cutting back on prices of the stock they are selling, they are cutting down on staff or cutting back on wages and bonuses are no more. People are waiting for the Minister for Justice to bring in legislation to retract on the Upward Only reviews on leases. This is what is killing small businesses.
Xtravision is one of the latest companies to fall into financial problems. They are seeking examinership which will give them 100 days to re-structure. This means the shops are open for 100 days. If you ask them what is the major problem you will find out that if they have 180 shops, as many as 150 landlords have refused to make any concessions on rent. Rent - they may have the excuse that it is legislation that excuses them from reducing the rent but where is their morality. If they fail to be human in their approach to being a landlord with a conscience then surely they ought to suffer from a taxation system that impedes on their ability to generate wealth.

Journalists need to investigate more and also take chances to report on wrongdoing.

Herbert