Google's Ratner Moment.

Eric Schmidt, the head of Google, has thought about the recent row in Britain over multinationals not paying tax and has decided that his considered reply should be "Up yours." Dodging tax and refusing to contribute to the society that supports your profits is "capitalism" apparently. "I am very proud of the structure that we set up," he told us during an interview in New York. "I am not confused about this." Really? Well perhaps he should consider a couple of other things. In a world where capitalism has forced down wages and reduced demand in the process, where the taxation system seems to offer the only hope of redressing the balance and where, despite all the hubris, the customer is still always right, he might be well advised to consider what happened to Gerald Ratner when he cheerfully admitted that his company's products were crap. People voted with their wallets and took their business elsewhere. Eric Schmidt has not said that his company's product is a piece of crap, he's told us, instead, that we are. Which is why I've changed my browser and why I urge everyone else in Britain to do so. Imagine Eric Schmidt's face if he wakes up tomorrow morning and finds that Google's business in Britain has simply ceased to exist. That, too, is capitalism.

The Limits Of Democracy.

Democracy, like all forms of government, has limits. No one has an absolute right to do what they want and so absolute freedom has to be curtailed by law. These laws are made by those we vote into power to represent us and they are expected to frame laws that are both fair and acceptable to the majority. So much for the theory - the reality, as we are coming to know to our cost, is very different. In Greece that reality has made a mockery of the democratic process as that unhappy country is forced to destroy itself by outsiders whose only aim is to protect their money. Today a Greek journalist, Kostas Vaxevanis, has been arrested for daring to publish a list of rich and influential Greek businessmen and politicians who are avoiding paying their taxes. He has been arrested for an invasion of privacy while the influential businessmen and politicans are innocent of any crime. They are only innocent, of course, because the laws of Greece have been framed by those same influential businessmen and politicians. In Britain we would not go so far and tax avoiders are regularly "outed" by the press. Unfortunately our laws, too, are framed by the wealthy and influential and tax avoiders are likewise regarded as innocent of any crime. Worse yet our government regularly takes "donations" from rich supporters who hope, often with good cause, that they can "influence" the framing of our laws. So the question we have to ask ourselves is this - how can our elected representatives represent us when they are being paid to represent someone else? Democracy? It would be a good idea.