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Farage Bashes Tax-Advantaged Hypocritical European Politicians
With Tim Cook being fried on Capitol Hill, it is perhaps ironic that the issue of taxes is front-and-center in the European parliament today. However, as usual, the always-willing-to-tell-the-truth Nigel Farage points out the gross hypocrisy of a political elite calling for higher taxes (on the wealthy and more broadly in peripheral nations) when the reality is that the higher-ups in the European parliament have their marginal tax rates capped at 12%. Of course, none of that matters because stocks are rising and interest rates are falling; but perhaps the 60% of Greek youth or 57% of Spanish youth, as we discussed here, might be intrigued at the new normal idea of 'fair share' in Europe.
And I hope that the taxpayers all over Europe listen to this. If we look at the EU officials who work for the European Commission and the European Parliament, the highest category [the most common grade is AD12] are people that earn a net take home pay of just over 100 thousand pounds a year. And yet under EU rules they pay tax of 12 per cent. It is tax fraud on an absolutely massive scale.
And Mr Barroso I would say to you, how can that be deemed to be fair? How can people out there struggling - the 16 million people unemployed in the eurozone - how can they look at these institutions, not only paying people vast sums of money but allowing them tax and pension benefits on a scale not seen anywhere else in the world? So I suggest we have a bit less of this high moral tone.
And what have these officials given us? Well, they were the architects of the euro, which is a complete disaster. Their obsession with global warming which chimes very strongly here means we are despoiling our landscapes and seascapes with these disgusting wind turbines and driving up energy prices.
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What's in HIS wallet?
Probably a credit card, id, few euros.
What do you expect? The Loch Ness Monster to be in there?
This is not surprising in the least. The reason the D's here don't mind raising taxes is they just don't pay them. A la Daschle, Geithner, the Racist Al Sharpton, Kerry, etc etc etc etc etc etc.
Why would it be different in any other country?
I just want to know when govt tax dollars will be spent to build a giant mall exclusively for "Party" members, like the GUM mall in Soviet Russia?
I think that's what DC is...and all the best lobbyists shop there too...
What this man says is so genius, so simple, so painfully obvious, that there's just no possible way in hell anyone would listen.
Who would have thought that with a 10,000 page tax code the only people who could afford to find loopholes would be the megarich? Surely not I. I thought that every working class shmuck had a lawyer on retainer and the time after working 40+ hours a week to sift through the tax code and set up dummy corporations around the globe...you know...in between hot pockets
agree on tax codes which get bigger only for the interests of tax lobbyists, tax consultants, tax lawyers etc.
nevertheless he is talking about EU officials. without making the +100k/-100k, this affects max 30k - the full EU staff. this is a deal the council made so that nobody has a disadvantage dipending from his fiscal residence (tax codes are 99% national affairs in europe)
cheap shot, Nigel. you can do better. shaken from the last Scottish pub visit? Those guys looked like they seriously hate you...
The Oligarchs don't like Nigel and his epic rants, and are trying to get him.
In May 2013 Farage tried to hold a press conference in a pub in Edinburgh's Royal Mile. Protesters forced him to abandon it, the landlord of the pub told him to leave, a taxi driver refused to take him, and he had to be taken away in an armoured police van.
Those protestors may have been the Elites' agents provocateurs and might have been a setup attemp to intimidate him, or worse.
Be careful Nigel, the work you are doing is too important.
The Oligarchs? Murdoch and the Barclay Brothers like him. and the whole Commonwealth Loyalist set, of course, with many billionaires in it
BTW those Scottish protesters? Not on a oligarch's pay, them. More of a genuine Scottish Nationalist and Socialist "rabble"
just read how they called him, and how he replied in interviews
A lot of them were from England. Rent-a-mob.
Nigel Farage called them Scots in an interview, and had very unkind words for them. Fact is that he is not popular with EU-friendly Scottish Nationalists and he is not popular with Scottish Socialists. And it was in a Scottish pub where the publican himself was not happy to have him there
Perhaps you are American and projecting your politics on the British landscape? I never heard of rent-a-mobs in the UK
Did you see the follow up interview? (Not Nigel, but UKIP's MEP) If you weren't sold before...
+1 for the interview link. here you can see and hear the leader of this anti-Nigel students protests, Scottish Nationalist James Moohan
Congratulations, you are the official Zerohedge wet nurse for Barroso and his chums.
Your paymasters are the ones that are shaken piggy. Nigel's fringe party of loons are exposing the EUSSR for the scam that it is, and the threat is palpable.
yeah, sure. If I had to save Barroso and Farage in a boat accident, I'd save Farage first. but go on with EUSSR loonie tunes, if this makes you happy
Now that Farage is doing well with voters he needs to be destroyed. Good try trying to discredit him. He is now the establishment's public enemy #1 and watch how they scratch through his closet trying to find some dirt on him. I hope the British people don't fall for this con. And regarding the Scottish Pub - if you'd done your homework you would have seen it was a handful of Lefty Socialists trying to do what they do best - lie and create mountains out of molehills. They sure are scared of old Nigel when they need some students to do their dirty work for them.
so you think that Scottish Nationalist students haven't the drive to protest against a man that embodies all what they despise without "someone" guiding them? imho again a matter of projection
Say it ain't so, Joe. Hypocrite politician???? What has the world come to?
Calling them cunts, is not fair to cunts.
Vaginas are God's gift to mankind.
..let them eat vaginas!
This guy must not have been playing by the rules of the criminals
Instead of using a tax haven where they could track and monitor him he stored 90K $US in his freezer
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/13/william-jefferson-ex-cong_n_357667.html
I know of another William Jefferson that the authorities might want to look into.
Where else would you hide it, especially if you're into cold, hard, cash.
I thought the only requirement to be a politician was to be corrupt, what's intelligence got to do with it?
And he put it in the freezer, apparently, because he was trying to hide the fact that it was hot cash.
Quick fix for hot money......
Farage gave up a good career in the city of London to go into politics, a man with ideals.
Kind of like Dr. Ron Paul's sucessful career in medicine before he chose to jump into the den of vipers?
Actually getting kind of sick and tired of listening to all the platitudes. Who is going to lead the revolution? Sick of talking about getting my ass reamed, ready to act
seems as though fainess lasts briefly after revolutions, then reverts to the norm over time. so where are we in this cycle?
The fix is in for the elites. Just us plebes are punished.
Yep ...remember it's one rule for us, another for them throughout history... the USSR even had one beach for the esteemed Commie Party and another beach for the plebs, sorry Comrade citizens
A marginal tax rate cap? So... that's like trying to make taxes equitable across income groups (read: "fair"), yet without actually doing so, due to the cap?
Gee, I wonder where they learned that trick?
The Finnish MEP has that very infectious disease that renders the victim unable to distinguish the expression of disgust from the object of disgust.
Hypocritical statists? No! Look at our own Congress and their healthcare vs Obamacare.
No, those 57 and 60% youth unemployed do not care at all, they have their iphone, galaxy etc. and...nice weather. So, what to care about?
Indeed. What's so bad about living with your parents, getting welfare benefits, hanging out with your friends and enjoying the benefits of modern technology. Sounds like paradise to me. People should enjoy it while it lasts, and if the Unabomber is to be trusted society after collapse won't be that bad either: the power process will be fulfilled by gathering the basic necessities of life!
PARADISE!
He's right about those wind-turbines- they are a blight upon the land ,sea, and sky.
Unlike those beautiful open-pit shale oil mines, and mountain-top coal mines - both of which give Yosemite stiff competition for picturesque grandeur, right?
Did I compare them? Or simply comment upon the one on which he spoke?
Citxmech - Tidal is guranteed & far stronger and below surface can be used on most unnavigable and non beachy coastlines..as he siad Turbines are ugly and who said it is just open cast mining as the alternative. Strawman creation and destruction on your behalf.. get rational.. or go to other boards
They kill millions of birds annually, but people only notice the large ones like eagles. Lets all go whale watching and ignore that unpleasantness. I heard all the complaints about noise so i stopped at a wind farm and walked around the bases. Most of the noise seemed to come from the conversion equipment installed inside the towers at the bottom. There were just a few small dead birds in the field but this was in North Dakota where the bird population is very seasonal and the large bird population small. Others have done a real survey and confirmed my casual assesment. Any one with a $100 Db meter can refute the noise claims scientifically.
I reckon that global warming is a convenient proxy for peak oil. Hence all the local distributed and renewable energy projects.
When it comes to European Union apparatchiks and taxation...........
"All pigs are equal. Some are more equal than others."
apparatchiks - by which I presume you mean State Employees - are often taxed at a rate of 0%. then after all they are paid with taxes
so the EU taxes them at 12%. progress! ;-)
[correction: the EU nations "force" a budget on the EU (it's parliament is still grumbling), pay those funds to the EU, which then pays salaries to those employees, which then pay taxes in their countries of residence/origin, at a fixed rate of 12%. additional sillyness might have escaped me]
now let's say we tax them at 50%. for a 100k salary, this means 50k instead of 78k after taxes. so they either quit or ask for a raise, which then means that they cost... more tax money
Erm. I think you mean 50k instead of 88k. Right?
In the UK, state employees - including the Prime Minister - are subject to the same levels of taxation as the rest of us. But of course the PM and other ranking people have a lot of other perks, like free security, expense accounts and privileged travel etc. 0% taxation may be the norm in socialist Europe, I dunno.
Point is that the likes of Barroso and his ilk aren't worth €100,000 salary, let alone it being taxed at a mere 12%. Has he ever added to the creation of wealth? No, he consumes wealth and pursues policies which destroy it.
meanwhile I realize he is talking about the Members of the EU Parliament... hmmm...
anyway, yes, Continental Socialists were always in favour of paying gov employees and Members of Parliament well and tax free
In the case of MPs their idea is that this makes them less easily bribable, particularly if they don't have serious money before getting in politics
still see it as a numbers game, mostly irrelevant
the whole speech is for English political consumption anyway, to push Cameron into allowing a referendum earlier
Perish the thought, the voting populace of a sovereign nation being given a real live vote on a decision of utmost national importance? What a privilege!
But we hire such HONEST and CLEVER politicians in Brussels to do our thinking for us, dont we?
don't get your point. the decision about a referendum in the UK about leaving or not the EU is a British National Matter - it has nothing to do with Brussels - it's in the hands of Cameron, the UK's PM and the elected UK parliament. who are very, very undecided about that
"...it has nothing to do with Brussels..."
This is technically true. But you can bet your life that if Britain gets closer to an actual referendum, EU people in Brussels, Berlin and Paris will poke their noses in to make their own views clear and to generate fear in Britain about leaving the EU. Outside Europe, Obama has already made public comments on the subject which were entirely out of order IMHO.
Add to that, UK MSM (especially the BBC & Sky News) will wheel out every pro-EU Tom, Dick & Harry to ratchet up the fear of leaving. It will be a media campaign flooded with pro-EU talking heads. In fact it's already started. Those with rational arguments in favour of leaving will hardly get a look-in and will be presented as "weirdos" and "little Englanders" etc.
Mr Tony Blair (EU President wannabe) will likely be given centre stage in the pro-EU campaign. And when it is successful (as I believe it will be), it will help his application to become the unelected EU President. He will only have one objective left: to drag Britain into the Euro currency whether the British people want it or not.
The future is bleak.
yes, Obama wants the UK to stay in the EU (for many US interests, but also for the trade deal he wants to push on europe in June). but the european continental countries are getting more and more of the opinion that the UK should leave. last French poll: 50%. it's more and more: bye bye, have fun (and keep the fish)
and the pro-EU talking heads that are relevant are the British ones (as you write, Blair could be one of the main ones)
meanwhile, BrExit is getting more and more also a question of Scotland saying: if this helps making Scotland independent, be it
then the Scottish Indipendentists are - interestingly - mostly Pro-EU and often even Pro-EUR. IF the UK leaves, they'll probably want to leave that Union and join the European one - and if the Bank of England is less than cooperative even join the ECB
note that the other 26 countries are trying to keep Scotland calm
meanwhile Blair is utterly tainted on the Continent - and "generating fear" about leaving the EU is still a national debate point - it was never an EU one (and rightly so - they have no business in a national scare campaigns)
meanwhile the whole position of "President of the EU" should be scrapped, imho. we don't need a President, particularly not one that is directly elected by the people(s). it only murks the co-decision (confederative) system of Council and Parliament
When this ends, when this farce we call representative democracy of the fucking thieving swines who should be representing our views comes crashing down, know this.
These fucking work shy communistic bastards deserved it. They have been found out, they have been expossed the world over, that living off the backs of the hard workers have failed. Lets give these fuckers a lesson in doing a real job, doing something more than mouthing off at each other at our over taxed expense.
The cheapest of these scum bags get each month sitting in the EU parliament not including EXPENSES is 10,000 Euro's.
Burn the whole of this never signed off books show down. Fucking self serving bastards.
I second this motion.
We need more politicians like Farage
I'd respect Farage more if he just walked over and punched that commie fuck Barroso right in the cocksucker
farage, hands calloused from years of hard manual labor, stood up to make one last impassioned plea to the emotionless bourgeoisie whom he despised on behalf of his fellow proles. Later he planned to help finish the concrete outside the Our Lady of Fucking Humongous Hypocrites Orphanage on STFU Avenue in downtown Eat Shit and Die Township.
I sense a slight twang of cynicism buzzsaw. That was funny as shit.
I got that there buzz,
This Mr Farage you speak of has never done a constructive days work in his life, you know this of course? You do know he was one of those evil speculators though dont you?
He is not an answer mate, he has been having behind closed doors meetings with none other than Mr Rupert Murdoch, you know him? Controlled opposition is all he is along with UKIP, as much as it gave me heart to see folk give the big three liblabcon a smack in the mouth, these insiduous bastards have no intention of giving up the reigns of power.
Look it up, what I say is truth.
Yes, at first I was big on UKIP and Farage. Now I know more and see this guy is in thick with the powers that be. I had hoped UKIP was for the people, no. It is for the "City of London", for the "elite rich", for "the aristocracy", and all the power brokers.
His hanging around with Rupert is damning evidence of who pulls his stings. It is sad, I was so hopeful that UKIP and Farage were on our side. Now I know different. The Powers That Be cover all their bases. The insidious bastards! I noted Farage crying over the rich elites being picked on! Fuck that, they avoid most all their taxes, while the work a day bloke is taxed to death. Fuck them all.
Well done Jack,
Do you really for one minute believe or think these money changing fuckers will put the likes of you or I on the same footing as them?
I posted a few weeks ago how I was over the moon that UKIP had given the big three a bloody nose, knowing full well good old Nigel was chowing down with Murdoch, distraction, deceit, the whole fucking lot. They have no intention of getting these fucking parasites off our collective backs, infact if we go the full way of UKIP, far from being an antagoniser here mind, this is middle to far-right we be going.
Do we really want to repeat history once a fucking gain? We need rid of all them friend, Nigel is not what he seems, niether is his party, disgruntled right wingers, who will lead us where?
We need rid of all them, we need to go local and diversify between the whole community and keep these bastards away from the wheels of power. And when I say get rid of all the common purpose arseholes, I dont exclude extreme predjudice.
Told You So
How could you for even one fleeting second think that any politician could be squardinkum, Iv'e been around this old coil for a long time now, and have never met a polly I could respect, the trouble is that the few good ones are soon corrupted by the party line.
[/sarc.]
Hahaha,
Nice one mate.....
;-)
You may be right about Farage, only the fullness of time will tell... but lets at least give him a chance he is breathing new life into politics not only in the UK but in Europe as well, and for that he deserves our support and not derision...
Sorry just,
Do a quick search through google. Google the man Farage dining with satans spawn Murdoch, its not even hidden friend, its right there where you can see it. he is controlled opposition, nothing more, nothing less.
And do a search history on the man himself, just a normal hard working city bankster trader, on the back of those who produce the stuff he speculated on.
Thats enough from me, do some homework on him and his party, just more of the same.
that wanker ain't gonna do nothing but flap his jowls
his mentor : a lord whose pedigree is more rancid than haggis drowned in mercury (he hates anything that rocks status quo, incuding climate change and ecology, and salutes anything that is unquestionaly "british" in an age of neo-nonethnic renaissance of man's destiny).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Monckton,_3rd_Viscount_Monckton...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2317677/Photos-Hitler-Nazi-salut...
Those who lead the world to the abyss (the oligarchy clowns) and those who profit from past obscurantism at the bottom of the chasm (the tribal remnants of dogmatic "hang on to your ethnically pure nuts").
Welcome to drop to "deep down Mordor" in first world regression.
Correct falak,
Thing is, folk be awakening. It cant be stopped. Jesus, just me, this insignificant 96 knew nothing some five years ago, and now I do. Party political partisan bullshit doesnt work, the rise of the UKIP should tell you that, we are slowly becoming aware of those who would prey on us.
You know what? Its a fucking joy, a down right joy to behold, these fuckers cant control the common narrative, its now beyond their control, and what a fucking joy it is to see it happening in real time, we are exposing these fraudulent children quicker than they can counter.
We cant be far from the end game, they are losing control everywhere you look, just look at the 'O', never mind damage limitation, they dont know what to do friend.
Tick tock NSA blokes reading here, pick sides carefully, as your lot have more guns than you do.
and for supplements here is Farage's sister act in France :
http://www.huffingtonpost.fr/2013/05/21/suicide-a-notredame-le-fn_n_3313...
Now you have the true flavour of upcoming euro fascism diguised in "nationalism", in fact totally oligarchy compatible.
Murdoch is far from perfect, but is still head and shoulders above the other media tycoons. How do you compare him in stature to the family owned New York Times? Guilt by association is something less than critical thinking.
Google this dunce,
Milly Dowler,
This spawn of satan knew his goons were tracking a dead little girls phone.
Unforgivable, and beyond the realms of decency, I dont do guilt by association, I like verifyable facts.
Mr Farage is now in bed with this filth, just think on that.
Murdoch? the perfect Imperial War Drummer
Comparing media tycoons is like comparing US senate leaders, or EU commissioners. No matter their apparent background (Murdoch's father was a spook, BTW) ... the "least dirty shirt" is not a basis of choice for 'the people'. Murdoch is a single-minded manipulator for the Khazarian Kriminal Konspiracy.
Murdoch is right in the heart of Mordor.
my main beef with Murdoch is about how strongly he drummed up support for the Iraq War
My main beef with Murdoch is that he's the son of a crypto-Jesuit spook, is a Papal Knight of St.Gregory, and his family has intermarried with some well-konnected Ashkenazis. Oh...and he's a Zionist warmonger.
PS. You've made some fine comments so far today.
thanks. becoming Papal Knight through Cardinal "Jolly" Roger Mahony and a 10m donation for a cathedral is nothing "special", imho
note that he usually portrays himself as without confession - though he is seen in various churches, from time to time
He's in good company with the Knights of St.Gregory ... along with John Jacob Rascob, founding member of the American Knights of Malta (and also, like Murdoch's father, married to a Greene...though probably just coincidence).
I wasn't aware that Jesuits went to "regular" confession. Shows how little I know.
I probably mistranslated. with confession I mean denomination (catholic, episcopalian, etc.)
the American Knights of Malta and their antics (what I mean is the more-mafia-like-than-necessary ways)... better if I don't get started there
That's riduclous... capped at 12%. Real nice
Check this Roller Coaster ride out http://youtu.be/WcihlniVgm4
Europe is on one messed up ride, ...we all are.
You don't have to be on the ride though ...there are ways ...many
Lemmings to the left, those with brains to the right
I like lamp!
European financial collapse coming soon.
Get the Orville Redenbacher.
Nigel should fly more,
Clearly.
Farage makes good points sometimes but other times he really doesn't know what he is talking about. "Disgusting" wind turbines "driving up energy prices?? What planet is he on? Come on Mr. Farage, fossil fuels are on their way down. Believe it or not, there is only so much coal and oil available to dig up out of the grond and burn. The UK rose up the oil production Hubbert curve a few decades ago, during the Thatcher era. Of course, everyone sympathetic to her economic policies credits her with any economic prosperity experienced during that time, when it really came from being a net oil exporter. A decade ago the UK oil production plateau started going down and the UK now "produces" (actually, it "extracts" oil, it doesn't "produce" it) less than half the oil it did at peak. It is now a major net oil importer.
No Mr. Farage, the reason energy prices are rising is because the world is addicted to fossil fuels as a source of energy, and ... the world is running out of fossil fuels! You know, that whole supply / demand thang which I would hope you should be at least vaguely familiar with, being a card carrying libertarian.
Mr. Farage, what is your plan for how society is going to function when energy runs out? Name one thing in the economy that DOESN'T require energy. By far the vast majority of our energy comes from burning fossil fuels, and the UK is increasingly import dependent.
Learn about the true energy crisis, Mr. Farage, and then you might not find those wind turbines so icky.
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/9946#comment-958268
Bollocks. Look up the lifetime EROEI of a large wind turbine. It sucks.
Everything I've seen on wind turbines points to a lifetime EROEI of about 50 to 1, about the highest there is of any energy source. The problem is it takes many decades to get that energy back, as compared to a few years with oil, which makes the investment part of it a little more difficult. Plus intermittent electricity isn't as useful as liquid fuels. But, we will have to make wind and solar work, or we'll quite literally all die, because they are basically our only two options. Nuclear is a fantasy, there is no way we're going to be able to convert over to that when society is falling apart.
And we´re paying for it... I´m so tired of being a "European citizen" (Europe is apparently a country now, never heared of Asian or African citizens...) and having to finance this charade. I voted "no" in the EU referendum but a measly 3% casted the wrong vote and here we are.
By the way, if any Swedish ZH readers that voted "yes" are reading this: thanks a lot...what am I saying? I meant fuck you.
A case study for the impending disaster of globalization. I am sorry that enlightened people such as you have to pay for others stupidity with the loss of your nation's sovereignty.
do you realize that globalization and trade zones are more at war than at peace with each other?
Trade is war. Your profits againt mine, strongest wins.
Oh, man...don´t get me started. I really wish our 349 members of parliament could get together and institute or abolish laws according to the will of the Swedish people with total disregard to Brussels but since 3 point something percent of my people put the wrong piece of paper in a ballot box twenty years ago they can´t....
Did I mention I´m a bit drunk? Thought that might give you an explanation to all the bad spelling and grammer...
europe is not a country and for sure not a nation
it has no central government directly elected president, no central taxes, no army, no navy, no air force, no secret services, no police, no FBI, etc. etc.
it has a central, glorified "secretary of the club of countries". Yes, this secretary would love to boss The Board of the club around, and for sure there are lots of EU Federalists around, and some of the secretary services look like the "real thing", but it's mostly mimikry
meanwhile I wonder what your exact reasons are to disparage nearly half of your country
Wait a moment now... We have a president directly voted by the parliament (there is a lovely Farage video on that subject too...), we have indirect taxes to fund tge EU, we have EU planned and lead "battle groups" and I don´t dout for a second that there are co-operation between police forces that can be compared to some sort of police/FBI.
They told us this wouldn´t happen. A union for trade and trade standards they said. Of course there were people that said no, we´re building a superstate they said. No one believed them. I did and voted no. The idiots didn´t want to go to the exchange office before flying to Club Med to change money and they were offered cheaper booze so they voted yes. We´re screwed and I´m not to blame...
PS. Disparage half of my country? No, I disparage that 3% that made the pro-EU side win the referendum. Thay made us in to serfs. I hate them with all my heart. DS:
I am a bit drunk though. That´s entirely my own fault.
well, I was past a few glasses, yesterday, too. ;-) no, I mean directly elected from the people(s) - the recurring proposal we hear from the federalists (oh, 'Mericans have it, too). I'm not a friend of the superstate idea, too, and imho a directly elected president is the last thing we need
------
btw, the "President of the EU" is appointed in the same way as the whole Commission: the Council (who are the governments of the member countries) proposes, the EU Parliament approves/rejects
damn federalists and superstate-proponents should have called the position "Secretary General to the Council" - imho more fitting
But will they be able to find the loophole when the guillotine comes?! hujel
I heard that IRS Official that was testifying today that the IRS employed 90,000 people. 90,000 people! Tim Cook of Apple said that his company employed 60,000 (I hope I remembered that right) people. Amazing! Apple can generate Billions upon Billions of profits with 60,000 people and the IRS costs the US taxpayer Billions upon Billions!
Wrong. With just a measly 50% more employees the IRS is making much, much more money for their owner than Apple ever did. I wish I had a stake in the IRS...
I'm surprised he hasn't been taken out by now...or taken down by "scandal"...
Nigel,
Re: paying people vast sums of money but allowing them tax and pension benefits on a scale not seen anywhere else in the world?
I wish I knew your email.
I would point out a former colony of jolly old England that may be worse!
But, I don't have all the numbers to match your analysis.
The CONgress of the Hoo Hess of Hay is salaries 340% higher than the average american. If you believe the average salary is $51,000?
They also receives Health care benefits that far exceeding what we people get, IF we had a job!
And Pension Benefits that we can only dream about, an old fashioned Defined Benefit plan that can't be outsourced to China or India.
Source: http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/uscongress/a/congresspay.htm
I would be very happy if 1 Democrat & 1 Republican would offer up their personal AND corporate tax returns to prove me wrong!
Barroso looks at speakers list:
Facepalms..."Oh fuck no...not Farage..."
finally I'm at a place where I can watch the video, and I must say Nigel Farage delivers his speech in a fabulous manner
so, let's post-mortem the speech itself:
- "common enemy: rich people..." -> +1 for Nigel, good reminder for all the socialists in the room that some do pay lots of taxes
- evading taxes / avoiding taxes -> +1 for Nigel, there is a difference, good reminder
- oh ho ho "it has the added bonus of driving a wedge between the UK, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man and the Caymans" -> seriously, Nigel? 26 countries trying to demolish this special tax-haven construct? come on, they want to get rid of all tax havens, not only the darlings of the City, -1
- paraphrased: the EU rule of 12% is tax fraud on a massive scale -> didn't you just make a fine difference between evading and avoiding, legal and illegal? now the legal agreement on 12% for all those who are on the EU payroll is... fraud? this is the populist part, -1
- "a bit less of this high moral tone..." -> a pity you used such a bad example, but yes, +1
- "the architects of the euro, which is a complete disaster" -> don't see the connection, actually, but ok
- "their obsession with global warming" -> don't see the connection, actually, but ok
- "the danger of olive oil dripping bowls has been removed" -> LOL, +1 for delivery & lulz, -1 for relevance
- LOL, now a Finnish Socialist calls his views cynical. because he "praises UK tax havens"
- so he comes back and says "the reasons we have tax havens is that we got this statist mindset that we must get as much tax as possible out of successful individuals as we can..." Nigel, the UK has an uncomplicated tax code? I agree with you that we should have simple tax codes (+1), but is this relevant in this context? You could do something at home for that. and your "as in the US" is utter BS, -1
so +5 and -4 for Nigel = +1
but boy, if I had the chance to grill you in that chamber (instead of such a clueless socialist) I'm quite sure I could have pushed you in a corner regarding the hyperhypothecating megabanks based in the City and their use of the British Tax Havens