The scale of unpaid tax now outstrips the entire deficit.
This article is from The Guardian and describes the situation in the UK. It seems like it could also apply to the situation here in the US.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/30/roll-call-corporate-rogues-tax
"Those at the sharp end are being hit hardest: from cuts to disability and housing benefits, tax credits and the educational maintenance allowance and now increases in council tax while NHS waiting lists are lengthening, food banks are mushrooming across the country and charities report sharp increases in the number of children going hungry. All this to pay for the collapse in corporate investment and tax revenues triggered by the greatest crash since the 30s.
At the other end of the spectrum though, things are going swimmingly. The richest 1,000 people in Britain have seen their wealth increase by £155bn since the crisis began – more than enough to pay off the whole government deficit of £119bn at a stroke. Anyone earning over £1m a year can look forward to a £42,000 tax cut in the spring, while firms have been rewarded with a 2% cut in corporation tax to 24%.
Not that many of them pay anything like that, even now. The scale of tax avoidance by high-street brand multinationals has now become clear, in no small part thanks to campaigning groups such as UK Uncut. Asda, Google, Apple, eBay, Ikea, Starbucks, Vodafone: all pay minimal tax on massive UK revenues, mostly by diverting profits earned in Britain to their parent companies, or lower tax jurisdictions via royalty and service payments or transfer pricing."
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But this is hardly new- I grew up during the Reagan era, which means everything I heard was a lie too. I had to unlearn everything I thought I knew about what our gov't stands for and how our economy works.
I can't even imagine it now of the people who have bought into the war on(of) terror and the idea of preemptive war and drone assassination as legitimate tools of diplomacy while not taxing the rich is somehow the basis of a strong society.
