by Sara Forrest, Commission Member
Recent headlines on BBC News have reinforced my idea that members of the multi-millionaire and billionaires club are exercising great influence over those who bear responsibility for taxing and protecting the majority of people in their jurisdiction. The numbers are staggering.
Sir David Beckham nets £38.5M after World Cup ad deals, and that’s his dividends on his share of his business.
Continuing with football, there’s the issue of Man City disregarding the fiscal rules set by the Premier League, the deal Giani Infantino of FIFA did with members of Trump’s family, offering a stake in the World Cup, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Man United owner, presiding over a loss making club whose debts have increased to £1.15 B after the summer transfer window.
US Government backing Musk's bid to overturn 120M Euro fine against X.
Other recent headlines featured a settlement of $18 Billion to the States who sued them for the harms to children caused by the addictive nature of their products. In exchange for this money the States accepted age verification and time limits rather than a change in the operating model to reduce the addictive nature of it.
Then of course the £72M donations from cryptocurrency Billionaires to a UK political party. A party who assured us, the electorate, that they would not give them peerages for example.
I see a pattern of the very rich buying and maintaining their advantage and power. Perhaps emboldened by the activities of the current leaders of Russia, USA and China over whom the censure of the UN seems to hold little sway. The days of philanthropy, especially in the USA where in a low tax environment the very wealthy funded used to fund free hospitals and other charitable institutions to alleviate the poverty of most of the people seem to be long gone.
The poor don't matter.
Christian teaching tells us that we ALL matter. We should share wealth so that we each have enough. The Gospels give us plenty of examples of how to decide what is the right thing to do. But it pays us to be aware of where the very rich are spending their money and asking ourselves ‘ Who benefits?’
In the UK we are supposed to give our vote to the candidate who we think most represents our views and values. Not the party they purport to represent, especially as the days when someone changing political party was rare. 'Be careful what you wish for’ was regularly said when I was growing up, and it pays to keep abreast of what is happening in politics so that you are able to cast your vote in confidence.
