Swiss Bank Secrecy Laws and Swiss Morality: Something Disturbing Going On
The Swiss legislature is considering dropping all laws that make incest a crime. They want to allow any blood relatives - as long as they are "consenting adults" - the right to have sex and not be prosecuted.
I'm not going to attempt to argue the point that this is not just absurd, but immoral. All I can suggest is that you think about the idea that any country operating under legitimate rule of law - laws based upon natural law - would possibly consider incest OK. If you can't understand the problem here, I feel sorry for you.
What blows my mind here is that the Swiss - whose bank secrecy laws have been and remain the recent and ongoing target of the U.S., the UK and the Euroland - think this important enough to create what is a fairly heated debate inside the country. Don't they have better things to worry about? (Well, at least it is a heated debate and not just something people shrug their shoulders about, I suppose.)
Switzerland has had a bull's eye painted on it for years. They're the target of the tax-happy governments of the U.S. and the European Union (of which Switzerland is not a member.) The specific target of these tax-happy governments has been Swiss "bank secrecy" laws. And now that secrecy has been breached, although not after some resistance on the part of some of the Swiss.
If you don't know anything about bank secrecy in Switzerland, you might think that, well, lots of criminals - like money-launderers and drug kingpins - are the only ones who need secrecy. But that's not true.
For example, in the 1930's, the Swiss kept the identities secret of some who were persecuted by the Nazis - for example wealthy and not-so-wealthy Jews - and others. Those folks wanted to get their personal wealth somewhere safe, and Switzerland - a neutral country for centuries - seemed the perfect spot. Even during World War II, in spite of threats from Germany, the Swiss kept the identities of account holders secret.
That's just one small example of people in desperate straits who arguably were helped by Swiss bank secrecy. But many other people from countries in South America and Asia hid their money there. Their governments would not uncommonly expropriate the wealth of individuals either through high taxes or direct expropriation. So these people - naturally - preferred to keep their money rather than fork it over to strong-arm government bureaucrats.
Sure, there have probably been some criminals and unsavory types who held and hold Swiss bank accounts. In fact, many government autocrats have Swiss accounts where, presumably, they sock away the money they've expropriated from their citizens through taxes, bribes and extortion.
But from the beginning, the Swiss laws specified that opening and holding a bank account to cover criminal activities was against the law. More recently, they made their laws even more explicit, so that a government pursuing criminal activities can appeal to the Swiss to reveal information that would help a legitimate criminal investigation - as long as your could show proof that your investigation was for criminal and not political activity, or that you were just trying to get your hands on some wealthy persons assets to line your own pockets.
What the U.S., the UK and the Euro countries can't abide is that any citizen should dare to keep money "off-shore" out of their reach. The U.S., in fact, taxes its citizens on any income they get anywhere in the world - anywhere. So it really irked the government when, for example, it was discovered that some U.S. citizens had accounts in Switzerland that earned money that went untaxed by the IRS.
OK, so those people - a relatively small number of people, by the way - broke the law. But what gives the U.S. permission to demand access to someone's private account without any suspicion of criminal activity?
To their credit, the Swiss - in spite of some recent compromises - continue to resist allowing governments easy, complete access to private accounts. We'll see how long they can hold out under the continuing pressure to relent.
Meanwhile, this country, known for its centuries of neutrality, democratic government and law-abiding citizens is now on the verge of legalizing incest.
Something's rotten in Switzerland.
I'm not going to attempt to argue the point that this is not just absurd, but immoral. All I can suggest is that you think about the idea that any country operating under legitimate rule of law - laws based upon natural law - would possibly consider incest OK. If you can't understand the problem here, I feel sorry for you.
What blows my mind here is that the Swiss - whose bank secrecy laws have been and remain the recent and ongoing target of the U.S., the UK and the Euroland - think this important enough to create what is a fairly heated debate inside the country. Don't they have better things to worry about? (Well, at least it is a heated debate and not just something people shrug their shoulders about, I suppose.)
Switzerland has had a bull's eye painted on it for years. They're the target of the tax-happy governments of the U.S. and the European Union (of which Switzerland is not a member.) The specific target of these tax-happy governments has been Swiss "bank secrecy" laws. And now that secrecy has been breached, although not after some resistance on the part of some of the Swiss.
If you don't know anything about bank secrecy in Switzerland, you might think that, well, lots of criminals - like money-launderers and drug kingpins - are the only ones who need secrecy. But that's not true.
For example, in the 1930's, the Swiss kept the identities secret of some who were persecuted by the Nazis - for example wealthy and not-so-wealthy Jews - and others. Those folks wanted to get their personal wealth somewhere safe, and Switzerland - a neutral country for centuries - seemed the perfect spot. Even during World War II, in spite of threats from Germany, the Swiss kept the identities of account holders secret.
That's just one small example of people in desperate straits who arguably were helped by Swiss bank secrecy. But many other people from countries in South America and Asia hid their money there. Their governments would not uncommonly expropriate the wealth of individuals either through high taxes or direct expropriation. So these people - naturally - preferred to keep their money rather than fork it over to strong-arm government bureaucrats.
Sure, there have probably been some criminals and unsavory types who held and hold Swiss bank accounts. In fact, many government autocrats have Swiss accounts where, presumably, they sock away the money they've expropriated from their citizens through taxes, bribes and extortion.
But from the beginning, the Swiss laws specified that opening and holding a bank account to cover criminal activities was against the law. More recently, they made their laws even more explicit, so that a government pursuing criminal activities can appeal to the Swiss to reveal information that would help a legitimate criminal investigation - as long as your could show proof that your investigation was for criminal and not political activity, or that you were just trying to get your hands on some wealthy persons assets to line your own pockets.
What the U.S., the UK and the Euro countries can't abide is that any citizen should dare to keep money "off-shore" out of their reach. The U.S., in fact, taxes its citizens on any income they get anywhere in the world - anywhere. So it really irked the government when, for example, it was discovered that some U.S. citizens had accounts in Switzerland that earned money that went untaxed by the IRS.
OK, so those people - a relatively small number of people, by the way - broke the law. But what gives the U.S. permission to demand access to someone's private account without any suspicion of criminal activity?
To their credit, the Swiss - in spite of some recent compromises - continue to resist allowing governments easy, complete access to private accounts. We'll see how long they can hold out under the continuing pressure to relent.
Meanwhile, this country, known for its centuries of neutrality, democratic government and law-abiding citizens is now on the verge of legalizing incest.
Something's rotten in Switzerland.
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