"Without understanding tax havens, we'll never properly understand the economic history of the modern world," wrote Nicholas Shaxson, author of 'Treasure Islands.' "Tax havens are now at the heart of the global economy. Their tentacles have curled their way into pretty much everything." Do tax havens matter? You don't see them. So whether they're in Delaware, Switzerland, or the British Virgin Islands, let havens be, right?

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"Right now we're saying this is a tax issue. Well, the issue is not only why or how he's (Mitt Romney) paying so little in taxes but more importantly, if he's honest and has nothing to hide, why in the hell is it that he's not depositing money in mom and pop banks right here in the U.S.?

"Why do you send your money offshore? Why have 130 or so accounts offshore? Where does that money come from in those accounts? Why does Mitt Romney have his personal investment accounts in offshore banks? Who is invested in those accounts?... " Attorney Mike Papantonio on Ed Schultz Show, speaking of Romney's tax havens.

U.S. Corporations (or Supreme People, I guess) have stashed $2.1 trillion in offshore tax havens.

On the clearly recognizable people side, more than 30% of the world's 200 richest people, or the uber- rich, who have a 2.9 trillion collective net worth, according to Bloomberg's Billionaires index, use offshore tax havens to hide and grow their personal fortunes.

Goldfinger admires such tax haven cohorts, notwithstanding Bond's moral standings, barely shaken by martinis, which clashes with Goldfinger and Tax Haveners' worldly designs (video).

When America's middle class was growing through the forties, fifties, sixties, and seventies, tax loopholes were not huge enough to allow mega-corporations and uber- rich to stockpile their money without some of it being taxed and used for the common cake-eaters' good. During those periods, income and corporate tax rates were much higher, and during that period freshly- infrastructured America grew to be a world power, because its people were also strong--economically, morally, and logically.

In that era, CEO's considered themselves paid well when they earned 10 to 40 times what their average worker was paid.

In the seventies, you started hearing people like Milton Friedman claiming in New York Magazine that "The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits." Guys like Arthur Laffer promoted this amoral belief that if you left the rich alone they would supply all of society's needs. Supply-side economics became the mantra. Even Fed Chair Greenspan bought into it, at least until the Crash of 2008.

Bush I correctly called it, "Voodoo economics." VD economics finally punched a hole through the prophylactic economy of Bush II, and we prostituted ourselves to mega-financers as we tottered on the brink of an Ugly Depression.

VD economics infected some politicians, especially those connected to the wealthy influencers they wanna-be like. Mega corporations and the uber-rich sent their lobbyists to write tax sections that would reduce their tax liability and whittle away at the onetime accepted American CEO's moral obligation to build a financially secure, smart, and consequently strong nation of workers. The "Henry Ford" motto of pay workers a wage that allows them to buy your product while having a healthy family life started slipping away, and that 10 to 40 times CEO to average worker earnings ratio was replaced with 100-1,000+ times what the average worker earned.

Amazing isn't it? General Motors used to pay its average worker $50 bucks an hour (adjusted for inflation to today's dollar including then common health and pension benefits).

Wal-Mart, run by a family who in the 40's-70's would have been taxed some for being so garishly rich and unpatriotic to the American worker, pays its workers an average of $8.81 an hour and has them use taxpayer funded food stamps, Medicaid, and subsidized housing to strengthen their workers' characters.

Supply side's trickle-down economics reigns" and rains.

Consequently, it is logically imperative that we lower taxes on tax-haveners and gangs like the Waltons!

Why? So guys like Rob Walton can add to their character building car collection, which reportedly includes a Ferrari 250 GTO (which sell for $35 to $52 Million),[vii] a 1965 Shelby Cobra (valued at $820 Thousand),[viii] a 1964 Ferrari 250 LM (valued at $14.6 Million),[ix] a 1960 Maserati T60,[x] a 1958 Scarab MKI,[xi] a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB (valued at up to $4.1 Million),[xii] a 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa (purchased by Rob for $12.1 Million;[xiii] one recently sold for $39.8 Million). Might even be a GM car in his stable, but probably not a Nova.

We have bridges built during the WPA (Workers Progress Administration) era about to collapse, potholes blistering our roads for which your car needs a computer game handle to avoid, 21 soldiers a day committing suicide and hundreds of PTSDers who could use more counseling if we only had a bigger budget for them, once middle class people now living in homeless shelters with their kids often going to bed hungry, climate weirding requiring hundreds of billions of repairs and new protections, national smart energy grid seeking dollars, etc... Fill in what you may be concerned about and it probably needs funding, and then decide who has more imperative taxing revenue needs.

It takes money to fix these problems. Should it come from small businesspeople, like you, or from those who use their power, wealth, and influence to dramatically influence tax and fiscal policy in their favor? Tax-haveners have done so well over the last 40 years that American wealth and income have never been as inequitable as they are today, which you may have noted forces the low and middle classes to work harder and longer.

Since this builds character for those not blessed with butlers and well-paid lobbyists, that's good for America, right?

Those of us who have seen "Pretty Woman" should not forget the theme that it was built around. (Admittedly, I was paying a lot more attention to what was built around Julia.) William Lazonick, at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, uninfluenced by Julia, states the historical and philosophical movie theme played out between Richard Gere (the Supply Side monopolist) and Ralph Bellamy (old time moral CEO):

"Up until the 1980s, CEOs were extremely reluctant to shut down factories and lay off a large number of workers. Mass layoffs were actually seen as a serious abnegation of corporate responsibility. It was understood that the company had a responsibility to it workers, and that if it failed, society at large would be on the hook for that failure."

Morally, are we losing a lot from the days when we built an up-to-date infrastructure and an envied middle class?

Do you think that those with tax havens who have been hollowing out America's middle class should pay something for the weakening they have been doing for decades? What's the price the fraction of the 1% hiding in Tax Havens should pay?

Let's roll! I mean, poll!

Authors Website: http://peopleslobby.us/

Authors Bio:

Dwayne served in the Peace Corps in the slums of Mumbai, India, worked several Habitat Projects, and was on the start-up team of the California Conservation Corps. He has a Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University, has been a builder, teacher, political organizer, small businessman, affordable housing developer, and a rock-piler at Rubel's Castle. Some pics and stories at http://peopleslobby.us/more-projects/rubelia.

Some story tidbits about his recent well-regarded book about Rubel's Castle are available at http://peopleslobby.us/more-projects/rubelia.

In 2013 Rubelia was designated a National Historic Monument, right up there with Hearst Castle. CBS clip: Rubel's Castle is on verge of listing on National Registry http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/08/07/rubel-castle-in-glendora-on-the-verge-of-getting-national-historic-recognition/

Dwayne is presently Executive Director of People's Lobby Inc (PLI, 501c4)and People's Lobby's Education Foundation (PLEF, 501c3). You can read PLI's American World Service Corps Congressional Proposal (AWSC) at
http://peopleslobby.us/awsc-congressional-proposal

Rebuilding People'Lobby web site is available at http://peopleslobby.us/

Congresswoman Woolsey (D, CA) offered to introduce it in the 111th Congress, then retracted. Please contact your Congressional reps and ask them to become an original sponsor or cosponsor. The AWSC citizen-initiated congressional proposals could be, with you pushing your representatives, among the most significant legislation passed and implemented in decades. Imagine having 21 million Americans cost effectively doing good at home or abroad over the next 27 years.

In December 2009 Ralph Nader choose People's Lobby's book, "Ordinary People Doing the Extraordinary, The Story of Ed & Joyce Koupal's People's Lobby" as one of the Ten Best Books to Read for 2009. You can purchase the book from PeoplesLobby.us or learn more at http://peopleslobby.us/more-projects/books.

"This country runs on laws. If you want to change the country, write its laws," People's Lobby's founders Ed and Joyce Koupal used to say. If you want to enlighten public policy, involve millions of Americans in addressing public needs, prepare for climate weirding, etc., help make it happen. The AWSC addresses with people action many of our most pressing and costly needs. To sign the reopened American World Service Corps petition/letter, which contacts Congress for you: Paste http://www.change.org/petitions/view/field_21_million_american_world_service_corps_volunteers_over_the_next_27_years
Please help make the AWSC happen. To learn more about People's Lobby, visit the web site at www.Peopleslobby.us.

Recent books both available on line and from publishers: Every Town Needs a Castle (Prelude to next book, Every Country Needs a World Service Corps)
http://peopleslobby.us/more-projects/rubelia


Ordinary People Doing the Extraordinary (Nader's 2009 TopTen Books to Read List)
http://peopleslobby.us/archives/736
Library: http://peopleslobby.us/organizations/peoples-lobby/library