The Price We Pay

Summary: The Price We Pay exposes how “offshore” finance and the tech giants of the “cloud” economy are eroding the foundations of the democratic state, including progressive taxation, a secure middle class, and social safety nets. In the 1950s, City of London bankers created a web of tax haven dependencies that today puts over half the world’s stock of money beyond the reach of public treasuries. Presently, nation states are being reshaped by this offshoring of the world’s wealth into “competition” states that battle each other for investment and jobs. Lowering corporate taxes to do so, they are caught in a perilous race to the bottom. The spreading de-taxation is paving the way to Depression era – or worse – levels of inequality. Meanwhile, the tax burden is shifted to the middle class and the poor. Our guides on this journey include crusading journalists, tax justice campaigners, and a remarkable cast of former major finance and technology industry insiders now free to speak frankly. They fear these accelerating trends are carrying the Western world to an unsustainable future.