THAT's tellin' 'im

[drwex]

Following one of r_ness's excellent pointers into the worldwide financial meltdown, I found Counterpunch's story on "Make Bono Pay Taxes".

The gist of the story is that U2 have joined a long line of super-rich who are using Irish tax loopholes and offshoring their income to avoid paying. All the while exhorting their countrymen to fund more charitable work in the third world, which makes for a special kind of savory hypocrisy. And then there was this bit:

The best response to one of those breathless Bono appeals for uplift came at a Glasgow gig when he hushed the audience to reverent silence before starting slowly to clap. "Every time I clap my hands," he whispered into the microphone, "a child in Africa dies..."

A voice responded in broad Glasgow accent: "Well, fucking stop doin' it then."

ETA: Dr Memory, via Snopes - it's apocryphal. Which is to say, not true.

Comments

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

Ah, the attention to detail and research that Alexander Cockburn is famous for. I pass no judgment on the taxes issue, but almost needless to say, the clapping story is total bullshit.

Counterpunch is the anarcho-leftist equivalent to World Net Daily. Pass it on.

Oh, bother

[drwex]

There goes a perfectly good laugh line. Thanks for the check - I'll update.

[wotw]

What is hypocritical about giving less money to the US Treasury so you
can give more to third world charities?

You're joking, right?

[drwex]

I assume you're asking for hyperbolic and/or rhetorical purposes.

Re: You're joking, right?

[wotw]

I'm asking because your post made absolutely no sense to me and I was
wondering what you meant by it.

Re: You're joking, right?

[drwex]

I mean that people who use extraordinary means to avoid paying the dues that their countrymen are not wealthy enough to engage with ought not at the same time exhort those same countrymen to give up still more of their money. Or at least when they do so, they demonstrate prima facie evidence of hypocrisy.

Re: You're joking, right?

[wotw]

I am genuinely (not just rhetorically) utterly baffled as to what you could
possibly be thinking, at multiple levels:

1) Is it hypocritical to contribute to AIDS research without contributing
to cancer research? Is it hypocritical to contribute to NPR without
contributing to the local art society? Is it hypocritical to contribute
to CARE without contributing to the Palestinian Relief organization?
If not, how can it be hypocritical to contribute to third world charities
without contributing to the US government?

2) Apparently you have some idiosyncratic ethical theory that makes the
latter case different from all the others. Fine. But do you really want
to conclude that anyone who fails to buy into every idiosyncratic theory
you come up with must be a hypocrite? Maybe he just doesn't buy your
theory.

3) I should think that the more you care about funneling money to the
Third World, the greater your ethical obligation to avoid paying taxes.
Presumably you don't buy that, though it's obvious to me. Should I
conclude, because you don't live by my values, that you are a hypocrite?

Re: You're joking, right?

[drwex]

Apples and oranges. Tax obligations != voluntary charitable giving. Also, you're burning the wrong strawman.

I'm not critiquing them for contributing to charity rather than their country's treasury. (Though I could critique that, it'd be a separate issue.) Nor am I critiquing their choice of charities (though again, I believe that charity begins at home and could write up a critique along those lines).

I'm critiquing them for using their wealth to avoid debt obligations their less-wealthy countrymen cannot avoid while at the same time exhorting those less-wealthy individuals to give away still more of their income.

If they said "here, let us share our tax shelter with you so that you may have more money to give to these worthy causes" that'd be interesting. But that's not at issue here any more than my specific concerns about where people do funnel their charitable contributions.

Re: You're joking, right?

[wotw]

You're joking, right?