Recently, Abigail Disney wrote an article entitled, I Was Taught From a Young Age to Protect My Dynastic Wealth (Miss Disney is the granddaughter of Roy Disney who founded with Walt Disney the successful entertainment company in 1923).
According to Miss Disney: “When ProPublica published its report last week on the tax profiles of 25 of the richest Americans, jaws dropped across the United States. How was it possible that plutocrats such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Warren Buffett could pay nothing in income taxes to the federal government? What sneaky sleights of pen, what subterfuge, what acts of turpitude could have led to this result?
The shock stems, in part, from a disturbing reality: Nowhere does ProPublica assert that these men cheated, lied, or did anything felonious to lower their tax burdens. The naked fact of the matter is that not a single one of the documented methods and practices that allowed these billionaires to so radically minimize their tax obligations was illegal.”
I perfectly understand Miss Disney’s statement that, “not a single one of the documented methods and practices that allowed these billionaires to so radically minimize their tax obligations was illegal.” However, to consider is what the economist Frédéric Bastiat already observed at the beginning of the 19th century: “When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”
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