June 4, 2013
By: Kelly Diamond, Publisher
It’s sad when we have to give one another a pep-talk and remind ourselves that keeping what we earn is NOT a criminal act: it’s NOT theft, it’s NOT cheating!
It’s equally tragic when we find the system we once relied upon for fair and consistent adjudications, is selling the private sector down the river, leaving us little or no recourse to defend our wealth and assets.
Imagine if you were out with a group of folks for drinks and dinner. You hear the orders of each person: one orders a caviar starter, others are ordering vintage bottles of wine, some order rare game for their entrée, others are ordering several side dishes along with their meals… Meanwhile, you’ve ordered a glass of wine, a side salad, and a chicken entrée. As if there was even a break in the ordering, the server comes by and asks if anyone wants dessert. Another wave of orders rolls in with folks ordering aperitifs, dessert wines and ports, dessert plates, and cappuccinos. You pass on the dessert.
Then the bill rolls around. You consider what you ordered and tabulate in your head – rounding up even! You factor in tax and gratuity, and you get your $40 ready. Someone calls out, “Okay! The tab came to $1,500. So divide that by the ten of us… that makes $150 each. Plus tax and tip… and we don’t want to be cheap toward the server, so let’s make it an even $200. Pay up everyone!”
Choose your own adventure time! Do you:
A. Shell out the $200 for your $40 meal… or…
B. You leave your $40 on the table, excuse yourself to the restroom and never come back.
If you chose A, then you just overpaid by FIVE TIMES for what you ordered. Perhaps you were under the impression that this is just a rare or special occasion. What if this were a regular occurrence? You could say, “Then I just wouldn’t go!” What if that was not an option? Whether you show up or not, you’re on the roster, and you get a bill in the mail for your tenth of the tab.
If you chose B, you’re a cheat and a scoundrel. You’re not a team player. You’re all the epithets the other nine in the room can conjure up to the power of infinity! What if they came after you for that $160 difference? Demanded it and threatened you for it. What if they ran a full smear campaign against you indicating that you “dined and dashed”? You’ll say, “But I paid for the food I ate! I left $40 there on the table!”
Cheap skate.
THIS is what the US and Eurozone are doing to its earners. It’s getting to a point where people might be better off burying their wealth in some isolated plot of land, make a treasure map, and hide that image on a chip embedded in a postage stamp! But for now, there are countries who are desperately trying to defend the sanctity of their clients’ privacy.
In order to justify this relentless pursuit of other people’s wealth, the politicians have to vilify them first. Otherwise, it’s a tough sell. “We need to chase these people down because they won’t give us their money!” That doesn’t exactly invoke a burning desire to grab a torch and pitchfork.
This sort of messaging is far more impactful and pervasive than some folks think. There are countless people on Facebook claiming that austerity measures are “stealing from the poor”. Stealing? That would mean they had something belonging to them taken away. Welfare doesn’t belong to them. It belongs to someone else.
People who try to avoid taxation are regarded as greedy cheats. Really? Keeping your own money is considered greedy… and earning an honest wage is cheating. THIS is the linguistic manipulation of a machine funded by tax dollars.
But remember, these are the gluttonous parasites at the table criminalizing the guy who paid for only what he consumed. Let’s not focus on all the frivolous spending they’re doing… let’s set our sights on the guy who paid only for what he used.
UK & EU: The Crackdown Begins
UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, wants to crack down on international wealth safe-havens. On May 20th, the Prime Minister released a letter to the leaders of the British islands, including the Channel and Cayman islands, urging them to share details of accounts used for company ownership.
Cameron said, the islands should “provide for fully resourced and properly managed centralized registries that are freely available to law enforcement and tax collectors, and contain full and accurate details on the true ownership and control of every company.”
Luxembourg and Austria are refusing to join in on this information exchange until the UK addresses the tax fraud allegedly taking place in its own overseas protectorates. Undeterred, the UK will be sitting down with Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Andorra and San Marino to discuss an exchange of private account information.
This should concern folks. The UK, and the EU in general, want the cooperation of Luxembourg and Austria. They won’t budge until the UK gets their islands to disclose in the same manner. How much pressure will the British Islands receive over the course of the next months? In what form will that pressure come? And will those islands remain steadfast to their sovereignty, or will they be forced to buckle under the tactics of the UK?
Is Google the Future?
I try to take a holistic view of what is happening in the world, and while I don’t want to prematurely conclude that one thing is indicative or linked to another, there are certain patterns that I find worrisome. To that end, I suspend judgment, but keep a watchful eye.
In this case, it’s the recent events with Google. Albeit, this is a domestic case in the United States – thus far – it shows a sick deviation from what the general public has come to rely upon for consistent adjudications of justice. Google took a commendable stand against the FBI’s requests for private and personal information (including, but not limited to, financial information and phone numbers) of its users. (Perhaps you remember the “2511 Letter” I wrote of earlier? They are now being called “National Security Letter Requests”. The FBI issued 16,511 of these letters requesting information regarding 7,201 people in 2011 alone.)
Because these requests from the FBI were so nebulous in nature, Google refused to cooperate. Furthermore, they insisted that a warrant be issued for such sensitive information. Seems a rather reasonable position, but given the times we are in, it’s heroic!
On May 28, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston ordered Google to comply with the warrantless search requests of the FBI. Interestingly enough, this same judge ruled that the letters issued by FBI were UNCONSTITUTIONAL in a separate case involving the Electronic Frontier Foundation earlier this year.
Yes. You read correctly. The judge ordered that Google comply with letters that she ruled to be unconstitutional two months prior. She seemed more concerned with whether the FBI followed proper protocols in administering these letters, than whether or not they held any legal standing or could supplant an actual search warrant.
What does this have to do with the UK or offshore accounts? Well, this is what happened when the US government wanted private information from Google: It wrote itself a permission slip to get the information, and when the private entity resisted, they went to court only to have a judge rule in the government’s favor to supplant a search warrant with a note, ordering the private entity to comply. Who’s to say this can’t happen with the UK and the British Islands? Judges are selling folks out, and I doubt that’s unique to the United States.
I want to believe that there are a few places out there where the judges are not for sale, and privacy is still regarded as sacrosanct. I was rather encouraged to read about the Cook Islands telling the US government to get bent!
Back to the UK & EU
This witch hunt for honest earners is a severe table flip of who is really responsible for the financial woes of the Eurozone. Wantonly spending on social programs and wars, taxing individuals and businesses to the point of fleeing the country (or at least having their wealth flee the country)… Look at the two courses of action repetitively taken by the elites: chase down the earners or take from the mouths of the poor and dependent.
I am in no way, shape or form trying to make a case for the existence of public assistance programs. However, when countries go through the line items of various expenditures, it’s not the housing projects that dominates the pie chart. The pet projects of the politicians that serve no common good and their various crony collusions — when properly tallied — is where the weight of the spending happens.
Austerity measures can be instituted as well, as part of an overall fiscal correction plan; but in no way is instituting a bedroom tax on people who don’t have the means to pay it, or hunting down the wallets of producers the silver bullet to right the economic ship of the EU or the UK. In fact, I would go so far as to contend the oppressive tax structure of the EU and UK in themselves are stifling economic growth. Look at all the broken-window expenditures being made just to avoid those taxes! Hiring CPAs, hiring services like ours, and hiring lawyers… this isn’t job creation or economic stimulation. This is money being spent specifically to HIDE money.
I don’t put much stock in the government holding itself accountable. Between the recent Google ruling, the revolving door between public and private sectors, and the unscrupulous propensities of the power elite, my bet is, the little safe havens of Europe and their protectorates are not going to hold out much longer.
Now more than ever, earners the world over should be looking for ways to protect their wealth. Given the landscape, I would say it is no longer sufficient to simply take the first company that offers that service. You need a company who doesn’t just keep pace with the dynamics of the political tides, but stays a few steps ahead. That takes research. That takes constant evaluation. That takes a company who holds a certain reverence for private property, and a deeply held respect for the honest earner.
One of the qualities I happen to like about Global Wealth Protection is not just the driving philosophy (although, that is awesome!), it’s that we don’t regard wealth as some dirty little secret. We want to be successful, but we want YOU to be successful. We don’t just want you to protect your wealth, we want you to continue to grow it! We celebrate and embrace success.
When you get sick of being spit upon by the class warfare propagators, just know, there’s people like us out there ready to welcome you into our fold of hard-working, success-loving, and wealth-respecting individuals!
Another source, longer version,
To Robert Morris (unpublished)
Passy, Dec. 25. 1783.
Sir,
I have received your Favour of the 30th of September, for which I thank you. My Apprehension that the Union between France & our States might be diminished by Accounts from hence, was occasioned by the extravagant and violent Language held here by a Public Person in public Company, which had that Tendency; and it was natural for me to think his Letters might hold the same Language; in which I was right; for I have since had Letters from Boston informing me of it. Luckily here, and I hope there, it is imputed to the true Cause; a Disorder in the Brain; which tho’ not constant has its fits too frequent. I will not fill my Letter with an Account of those Discourses; Mr Laurens when you see him, can give it to you; I mean of such as he heard in Company with other Persons; for I would not desire him to relate private Conversations. They distres’d me much at the Time, being then at your earnest Instances soliciting for more Aide of Money, the success of which Solicitation such ungrateful and provoking Language might I fear’d have had a Tendency to prevent. Enough of this at present.—
I have been exceedingly hurt & afflicted by the difficulty some of your late Bills met with in Holland. As soon as I receiv’d the Letters from Messrs Willink & Co which I inclose, I sent for Mr Grand, who brought me a Sketch of his Account with you, by which it appear’d that the Demands upon us, existing & expected, would more than absorb the Funds in his Hands. We could not indulge the smallest Hope of obtaining farther Assistance here, the Public Finances being in a State of Embarrassment, private Persons full of Distrust occasioned by the late Stoppage of Payment at the Caisse d’Escompte, and Money in general extreamly scarce. But he agreed to do what I propos’d, lend his Credit in the Way of Drawing & Redrawing between Holland and Paris, to gain Time till you could furnish Funds to reimburse Messrs Willinck & Co. I believe he made this Proposition to them by the Return of the Express. I know not why it was not accepted. Mr Grand I suppose will himself give you an Account of all the Transaction, and of his Application to Messrs Couteulx, &c. therefore I need not add more upon this disagreable Subject.
I have found Difficultites in settling the Account of Salaries with the other ministers, that have made it impracticable for me to do it. I have therefore, after keeping the Bills that were to have been proportioned among us, long in my hands, given them up to Mr Grand, who finding the same Difficulties will I suppose return them to you. None have come to hand for the two or three last Quarters, and we are indebted to his Kindness for advancing us Money, or we must have run in debt for our Subsistance. He risques in doing this, since he has not for it your Orders.—
There arise frequently contingent Expenses for which no Provision has yet been made. In a former Letter to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs I gave a List of them, and desired to know the Pleasure of Congress concerning them. I have only had for Answer, that they were under Consideration, and that he believed House-Rent would not be allowed: but I am still in Uncertainty as to that and the Rest. I wish some Resolutions were taken on this Point of Contingencies, that I may know how to settle my Accounts with Mr Barclay. American Ministers in Europe are too remote from their Constituents, to consult them and take their Orders on every Occasion; as the Ministers here of European Courts can easily do. There seems therefore a Necessity of allowing more to their Discretion, and of giving them a Credit to a certain Amount, or some Banker who may answer their Orders, for which, however, they should be accountable. I mention this for the sake of other Ministers, (hoping & expecting soon to be dischard’d my self) and also for the Good of the Service.
The Remissness of our People in Paying Taxes is highly blameable, the Unwillingness to pay them is still more so. I see in some Resolutions of Town-Meetings, a Remonstrance against giving Congress a Power to take as they call it, the People’s Money out of their Pockets tho’ only to pay the Interest and Principal of Debts duly contracted. They seem to mistake the Point. Money justly due from the People is their Creditors’ Money, and no longer the Money of the People, who, if they withold it, should be compell’d to pay by some Law. All Property indeed, except the Savage’s temporary Cabin, his Bow, his Matchcoat, and other little Acquisitions absolutely necessary for his Subsistence, seems to me to be the Creature of publick Convention. Hence the Public has the Right of Regulating Descents & all other Conveyances of Property, and even of limiting the Quantity & the Uses of it. All the Property that is necessary to a Man for the Conservation of the Individual & the Propagation of the Species, is his natural Right which none can justly deprive him of: But all Property of the Publick, who by their Laws have created it, and who may therefore by other Laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand such Disposition. He that does not like civil Society on these Terms, let him retire & live among Savages.—He can have no right to the Benefits of Society who will not pay his Club towards the Support of it.
The Marquis de la F. who loves to be employ’d in our Affairs, and is often very useful, has lately had several Conversations with the Ministers & Persons concern’d in forming new Regulations respecting the Commerce between our two Countries, which are not yet concluded. I therefore thought it well to communicate to him a Copy of your Letter, which contains so many sensible and just Observations on that Subject. He will make a proper Use of them, and perhaps they may have more Weight as appearing to come from a French man, than they would have if it were known that they were the Observations of an American I perfectly agree with you in all the Sentiments you have express’d on this Occasion.
You have made no Answer to the Proposition I sent of furnishing Tobacco to the Farmers General. They have since made a Contract with Messrs. Alexander & Williams for the same Purpose; but it is such a One as does not prevent their making another with you, if hereafter it should suit ou. I am sorry for the Publick’s sake that you are about to quit your Office, but on personal Considerations I shall congratulate you. For I cannot conceive of a more happy Man, than he who having been long loaded with public Cares, finds himself reliev’d from them, & enjoying private Repose in the Bosom of his Friends & Family.
The Government here has set on foot a new Loan of an Hundred Millions. I enclose the Plan. It is thought very advantageous for the Lenders. You may judge by that how much the Money is Wanted, and how seasonable the Peace was for all concerned.—
If Mr Alexander, who is gone to Virginia, should happen to come to Philadelphia, I beg leave to recommend him to your Civilities, as an old Friend of mine, whom I very much esteem.
With sincere Regard & Attachment, I am ever, Dear Sir, Your most &c
Honble Robt Morris Esqe Superintenant of Finances
http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp?vol=41&page=044
Thanks for this superb article, Kelly. The world is getting so Orwellian when it comes to property of the individual. The frightening part is that it is happening in so many places simultaneously and getting harder to find a safe haven for rationality. The positive news is that the internet allows those of us of like minds to organize and communicate. Otherwise I think we’d go insane from the propaganda. Haha.
I’m thoroughly grateful for the internet! But for this technology, we’d be sitting in our living rooms imploding with frustration and propaganda overload! LOL!
10393551_860820077285808_3900829753896328119_n.jpg
To Robert Morris (unpublished)
Passy, Dec. 25. 1783.
Sir,
I have received your Favour of the 30th of September, for which I thank you. My Apprehension that the Union between France & our States might be diminished by Accounts from hence, was occasioned by the extravagant and violent Language held here by a Public Person in public Company, which had that Tendency; and it was natural for me to think his Letters might hold the same Language; in which I was right; for I have since had Letters from Boston informing me of it. Luckily here, and I hope there, it is imputed to the true Cause; a Disorder in the Brain; which tho’ not constant has its fits too frequent. I will not fill my Letter with an Account of those Discourses; Mr Laurens when you see him, can give it to you; I mean of such as he heard in Company with other Persons; for I would not desire him to relate private Conversations. They distres’d me much at the Time, being then at your earnest Instances soliciting for more Aide of Money, the success of which Solicitation such ungrateful and provoking Language might I fear’d have had a Tendency to prevent. Enough of this at present.—
I have been exceedingly hurt & afflicted by the difficulty some of your late Bills met with in Holland. As soon as I receiv’d the Letters from Messrs Willink & Co which I inclose, I sent for Mr Grand, who brought me a Sketch of his Account with you, by which it appear’d that the Demands upon us, existing & expected, would more than absorb the Funds in his Hands. We could not indulge the smallest Hope of obtaining farther Assistance here, the Public Finances being in a State of Embarrassment, private Persons full of Distrust occasioned by the late Stoppage of Payment at the Caisse d’Escompte, and Money in general extreamly scarce. But he agreed to do what I propos’d, lend his Credit in the Way of Drawing & Redrawing between Holland and Paris, to gain Time till you could furnish Funds to reimburse Messrs Willinck & Co. I believe he made this Proposition to them by the Return of the Express. I know not why it was not accepted. Mr Grand I suppose will himself give you an Account of all the Transaction, and of his Application to Messrs Couteulx, &c. therefore I need not add more upon this disagreable Subject.
I have found Difficultites in settling the Account of Salaries with the other ministers, that have made it impracticable for me to do it. I have therefore, after keeping the Bills that were to have been proportioned among us, long in my hands, given them up to Mr Grand, who finding the same Difficulties will I suppose return them to you. None have come to hand for the two or three last Quarters, and we are indebted to his Kindness for advancing us Money, or we must have run in debt for our Subsistance. He risques in doing this, since he has not for it your Orders.—
There arise frequently contingent Expenses for which no Provision has yet been made. In a former Letter to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs I gave a List of them, and desired to know the Pleasure of Congress concerning them. I have only had for Answer, that they were under Consideration, and that he believed House-Rent would not be allowed: but I am still in Uncertainty as to that and the Rest. I wish some Resolutions were taken on this Point of Contingencies, that I may know how to settle my Accounts with Mr Barclay. American Ministers in Europe are too remote from their Constituents, to consult them and take their Orders on every Occasion; as the Ministers here of European Courts can easily do. There seems therefore a Necessity of allowing more to their Discretion, and of giving them a Credit to a certain Amount, or some Banker who may answer their Orders, for which, however, they should be accountable. I mention this for the sake of other Ministers, (hoping & expecting soon to be dischard’d my self) and also for the Good of the Service.
The Remissness of our People in Paying Taxes is highly blameable, the Unwillingness to pay them is still more so. I see in some Resolutions of Town-Meetings, a Remonstrance against giving Congress a Power to take as they call it, the People’s Money out of their Pockets tho’ only to pay the Interest and Principal of Debts duly contracted. They seem to mistake the Point. Money justly due from the People is their Creditors’ Money, and no longer the Money of the People, who, if they withold it, should be compell’d to pay by some Law. All Property indeed, except the Savage’s temporary Cabin, his Bow, his Matchcoat, and other little Acquisitions absolutely necessary for his Subsistence, seems to me to be the Creature of publick Convention. Hence the Public has the Right of Regulating Descents & all other Conveyances of Property, and even of limiting the Quantity & the Uses of it. All the Property that is necessary to a Man for the Conservation of the Individual & the Propagation of the Species, is his natural Right which none can justly deprive him of: But all Property of the Publick, who by their Laws have created it, and who may therefore by other Laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand such Disposition. He that does not like civil Society on these Terms, let him retire & live among Savages.—He can have no right to the Benefits of Society who will not pay his Club towards the Support of it.
The Marquis de la F. who loves to be employ’d in our Affairs, and is often very useful, has lately had several Conversations with the Ministers & Persons concern’d in forming new Regulations respecting the Commerce between our two Countries, which are not yet concluded. I therefore thought it well to communicate to him a Copy of your Letter, which contains so many sensible and just Observations on that Subject. He will make a proper Use of them, and perhaps they may have more Weight as appearing to come from a French man, than they would have if it were known that they were the Observations of an American I perfectly agree with you in all the Sentiments you have express’d on this Occasion.
You have made no Answer to the Proposition I sent of furnishing Tobacco to the Farmers General. They have since made a Contract with Messrs. Alexander & Williams for the same Purpose; but it is such a One as does not prevent their making another with you, if hereafter it should suit ou. I am sorry for the Publick’s sake that you are about to quit your Office, but on personal Considerations I shall congratulate you. For I cannot conceive of a more happy Man, than he who having been long loaded with public Cares, finds himself reliev’d from them, & enjoying private Repose in the Bosom of his Friends & Family.
The Government here has set on foot a new Loan of an Hundred Millions. I enclose the Plan. It is thought very advantageous for the Lenders. You may judge by that how much the Money is Wanted, and how seasonable the Peace was for all concerned.—
If Mr Alexander, who is gone to Virginia, should happen to come to Philadelphia, I beg leave to recommend him to your Civilities, as an old Friend of mine, whom I very much esteem.
With sincere Regard & Attachment, I am ever, Dear Sir, Your most &c
Honble Robt Morris Esqe Superintenant of Finances
http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp?vol=41&page=044
I get it already. I was talking and thinking like GWP before I found your website. Yesterday, I proudly received my Swiss passport. So before I unsubscribe from your emails, what can you guys do for me to protect my assets, suggest a way I earn an income outside amerika, and prove to me that being on your mailing list is in my best interest? I would really like to get out of here and live a life. I am open to suggestions. You can contact me via email.
We have over 40,000 subscribers. Threatening to unsubscribe doesn’t exactly motivate me to jump through hoops for a non-customer.
Benjamin Franklin to Robert Morris
25 Dec. 1783 Writings 9:138
The Remissness of our People in Paying Taxes is highly blameable; the Unwillingness to pay them is still more so. I see, in some Resolutions of Town Meetings, a Remonstrance against giving Congress a Power to take, as they call it, the People’s Money out of their Pockets, tho’ only to pay the Interest and Principal of Debts duly contracted. They seem to mistake the Point. Money, justly due from the People, is their Creditors’ Money, and no longer the Money of the People, who, if they withold it, should be compell’d to pay by some Law.
All Property, indeed, except the Savage’s temporary Cabin, his Bow, his Matchcoat, and other little Acquisitions, absolutely necessary for his Subsistence, seems to me to be the Creature of public Convention. Hence the Public has the Right of Regulating Descents, and all other Conveyances of Property, and even of limiting the Quantity and the Uses of it. All the Property that is necessary to a Man, for the Conservation of the Individual and the Propagation of the Species, is his natural Right, which none can justly deprive him of: But all Property superfluous to such purposes is the Property of the Publick, who, by their Laws, have created it, and who may therefore by other Laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand such Disposition. He that does not like civil Society on these Terms, let him retire and live among Savages. He can have no right to the benefits of Society, who will not pay his Club towards the Support of it.
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/…/documents/v1ch16s12.html