Swimming Pools and the lying rich.

We are all familiar with the financial crisis in Greece. The country is in danger of defaulting. One of the reasons for this is the staggering amount of tax fraud by the rich. In one wealthy Northern suburb of Athens 324 residents checked the box on their tax return to say they had a swimming pool. Tax collectors were dubious so they carried out an aerial survey. The actual number of pools? 16,974.

One study estimates that tax fraud may be accounting for $30 billion a year of the Greek government's deficit. The worst tax cheats include engineers, architects, lawyers and doctors. Only a few thousand residents in this country of 11 million declared an income of more than $132,000. One study shows that the shadow economy in Greece represents 20 to 30 per cent of the economy. The equivalent in the US is 7.8%.

Wall Street, the City of London, the financial institutions worldwide, the rich and the capitalist class world wide, their supporters and collaborators in the upper middle class have brought the world economy to the edge of the precipice. It has only been saved from going over by the bail outs which have been financed with working class peoples' taxes. Capitalism as a system does not work. The capitalist class as a class are not capable of running the world. The capitalist system has forfeited the right to exist, the capitalist class has forfeited the right to rule. we need to work for a democratic socialist system world wide which would be owned and democratically managed and controlled by the working class.

Sean.