Cape Argus

The plan to impoverish and control the world

- Alejandro A Tagliavini Senior adviser at The Cedar Portfolio and member of the advisory council of the Center on Global Prosperity Oakland, California

WHEN US President Joe Biden announced a gigantic $2 trillion (R29 trillion) investment and infrastruc­ture plan, much of the press linked it to his rivalry with the Chinese State, a step towards “war capitalism”.

It is also a rescue plan given the fall of the economy due to state repression­s with the “pandemic” as excuse, and it goes far beyond the Green Pact.

State capitalism is promoted.

That is why the global minimum corporate tax rate on companies’ profits, championed by the US government and the Internatio­nal Monetary Fund bureaucrac­y, is under discussion at the G20. The goal: to raise $2.5 trillion, making multinatio­nals pay taxes, not just on profits at home but around the world. Thus, they will pay for more activities and will pay more: from the current 21% to 28%.

For this, a law must be passed, the tools to control companies improved and, furthermor­e, prevent other countries from competing to attract capital by charging less taxes. And that leads to a global corporate tax rate above 12.5% that the US Treasury secretary proposed to the G20 – and another 120 countries are expected to sign on. It is a strengthen­ing of State interventi­onism and a redistribu­tion of income between the bourgeoisi­e, the business partners of power, to whom the government guarantees businesses, privileges such as subsidies and customs barriers to competitio­n, without which politician­s could not get rich, and vice versa, since the state does not create wealth.

Of course, the poor pay because taxes, even directed towards the rich, fall on them since they are derived downward, raising prices, lowering wages, etc.

It is demagogic to say that what is collected returns to the poor because, in the best of cases, it returns what little remains after going through the inefficien­t and corrupt state bureaucrac­y.

Thus, the state is the main creator of poverty, if not the only one.

It is that violence only destroys, first the weakest, and the state assumes its monopoly with which it exercises its “authority”. By the way, even in urgent and self-defence cases, the efficient methods, science says, are the peaceful ones.

That state “authority” destroys is seen more and more when seeing how the police are dedicated more to repressing those who do not comply with the whims of the politician­s than to defend the citizen. This is how, even if the Covid were so serious (which it is not, only 0.04% of the global population has died in a year and a half) state repression­s, confinemen­ts, and others have aggravated the problem.

By the way, it is credible that the 50 million deaths during the “Spanish flu” were not due to the virus but to other causes related, precisely, to the actions of the states, so there would be no historical antecedent­s of influenza pandemics.

And for this, government­s spread the panic that is precisely the psychologi­cal origin of the violence, amplified by an official press, beyond party politics, that “believes” in official bodies such as the health “authoritie­s” or “experts” without an objective investigat­ion.

But do not lose hope; at the end, good always wins. And I take the opportunit­y to tell you that, after so much writing, for the moment I have nothing to add, so I will not write on politics again until further notice. So long.

 ??  ?? US President Joe Biden.
US President Joe Biden.

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