America has the greatest wealth in the world and the infamous 1% of America posses the vast majority of the world’s wealth. The GDP of the state of California is $2.5 trillion dollars more than the entire country of Brazil, Italy, India, Russia, Canada, Australia, and so on. With so much wealth and such high taxes it would be logical that the 1% uses offshore bank account to hide their wealth, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Last week a group of investigative journalists shocked the world by disclosing the “Panama Papers”. An “anonymous” source gave 11.5 million confidential documents of the Panamanian corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca. This tiny company help setup front companies for some of the richest people in the world to hide and move their wealth around. Not surprising to the public is the type of people that were on the list like leaders of nations (Pakistan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iceland, Ukraine,…), celebrities, sports figures, and other industries that have high net worth individuals.
The release of the report brought shockwaves in many parts of the world like in Iceland where the prime minister resigned, FIFA officials being investigated for bribery, celebrities being investigated for dodging taxes and other high profile cases that are being developed. When the news broke out many outside reporters were asking where are the Americans?
The public was anxious to see the names of the 1% that represent Silicon Valley, Wall Street, Motor City, Washington DC and so on, but nothing has emerged yet. On April 12th CNBC had an interview with Bradley Birkenfeld, the former UBS banker that became the biggest offshore whistle blower in history. When asked why haven’t Americans been exposed on the Panama Paper his response was “The CIA I’m sure is behind this, in my opinion,”
Birkenfeld pointed to the fact that the political uproar created by the disclosures have mainly impacted countries with tense relationships with the United States. “The very fact that we see all these names surface that are the direct quote-unquote enemies of the United States, Russia, China, Pakistan, Argentina and we don’t see one U.S. name. Why is that?” Birkenfeld said. “Quite frankly, my feeling is that this is certainly an intelligence agency operation.” [CNBC}
Fiscal Polices in Islam are as simple as you get! There is no personal income tax in Islam we just have Zakat which is a simple 2.5%. The money collected in Zakat can only be used for only certain categories like taking care of the poor. America’s complex tax system is designed to allow the super rich to pay nothing and puts the burden on the 99% of America. America’s Free Market Capitalism has created a system where the vast majority of wealth is hoarded and the 99% picks up the tab for the 1%.
Allah SWT says: “And let those who hoard gold and silver and do not spend them in the way of Allah know that a severe and painful punishment is awaiting them.” [TMQ At-Tauba: 34]
