Agreed. And she's right...we do have regulations in place, but they've been weakened by other regulations. Each procedure has a loop-hole or a workaround. We don't necessarily need new laws, we need to strengthen and implement the laws currently in place.
For example -- it's not that billionaires don't have to pay taxes, they do. But there are a lot of ways to avoid it, if you know how. Pre-tax dollars, 401 Ks, tax shelters, charitable contributions...etc.
Have you seen "The Big Short" -- it talks about how the banks were regulated, regulations are in place along with regulatory agencies, but the regulatory agencies were making deals behind the scenes and not regulating the banks. It's a fascinating breakdown on how the system collapsed on itself and why.
And I've talked with my co-worker who emigrated from Russia to the US and he said the problem with Russia was all the back room deals, bribes, and bureaucracy. Certain people, people who could work the system, could get anything they wanted, while honest folks couldn't get scraps. It wasn't the rules, but how they were implemented and who was implementing them.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2016-01-30 07:27 pm (UTC)Each procedure has a loop-hole or a workaround. We don't necessarily need new laws, we need to strengthen and implement the laws currently in place.
For example -- it's not that billionaires don't have to pay taxes, they do. But there are a lot of ways to avoid it, if you know how. Pre-tax dollars, 401 Ks, tax shelters, charitable contributions...etc.
Have you seen "The Big Short" -- it talks about how the banks were regulated, regulations are in place along with regulatory agencies, but the regulatory agencies were making deals behind the scenes and not regulating the banks. It's a fascinating breakdown on how the system collapsed on itself and why.
And I've talked with my co-worker who emigrated from Russia to the US and he said the problem with Russia was all the back room deals, bribes, and bureaucracy. Certain people, people who could work the system, could get anything they wanted, while honest folks couldn't get scraps. It wasn't the rules, but how they were implemented and who was implementing them.
The devil is the details.