Since we’re talking about taxes and “the rich,” let’s discuss the whole meme regarding risk and reward.
Far too often, we hear that “the rich” earned their wealth by taking risks that others wouldn’t take. Personally, I think that people should be entitled to whatever they can get **IF** they are the ones who are actually taking the risk (as opposed to risking other people’s money and livlihoods), and IF they are the ones who will suffer 100% of the consequences of these risks. In other words, no corporate veil or limited liability, no bankrupting the company and stiffing vendors, employees, lenders, and investors, etc. In every case I’ve seen, the ones who reap the greatest rewards are those who are most insulated from the consequences of their own actions.
Here’s a good piece on fraud settlements and who is paying for them:
WASHINGTON — Pharmaceutical companies, military contractors, banks and other corporations are on track to pay as much as $8 billion this year to resolve charges of defrauding the government, analysts say — a record sum and more than twice the amount assessed last year by the Justice Department.
…But while the collections are a boon to the government and taxpayers, they are resurrecting questions about the relative lack of charges against executives at the companies that are getting the stiffest penalties.
“A lot of people on the street, they’re wondering how a company can commit serious violations of securities laws and yet no individuals seem to be involved and no individual responsibility was assessed,” Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island and chairman of a subcommittee that oversees securities regulation, said at a recent hearing.
President Obama, lawmakers and government watchdog groups have called for holding more individuals responsible. The Justice Department has collected $8.6 billion over the last three years, more than in any similar period in history, but relatively few prosecutions of individuals have come from the biggest settlements.
