Recent default on Greece’s debt

03/11/12

In recent news, Greece has defaulted on its debt. This is bad for the European Union and for the world economy. Greece must stop spending more money than it has. Another nation in that category that comes to mind is the United States of America.

One of Greece’s problems is government workers cashing a paycheck but not working a full week.

Another problem that Greece apparently has is the lack of enforcement of tax laws. I read of a traveler to Greece who bought something there. After the purchase, they asked for a receipt. They said, “Oh, if you want a receipt, we will have to charge you the highest price which includes sales tax. Apparently, this is very widespread in Greece, that the government is being scammed with sales tax, taxes that help pay what the government owes if they were better at enforcing the tax law.

American gangster Al Capone was jailed not for his many gangster activities, which were harder to prove, but for income tax evasion.

In the movie “The Untouchables,” with Kevin Costner and Sean Connery, the FBI accountant was always trying to obtain accounting evidence against Capone. In reality, Capone’s finances were not essential to prove income tax evasion. Capone’s lifestyle of living in expensive hotels, eating in expensive restaurants, traveling in an expensive, bulletproof limousine, etc., was enough to show that he was living the life of a rich man and therefore He must have had the life of a rich taxable man. income needed to maintain that lifestyle.

Similarly, it can be shown that the expenses of the prosperous Greek entrepreneurs who cheat on their sales tax payments to the government have more income than they pay taxes.

Undercover police could be dispatched to Greek merchants, perhaps a man and a woman could be dispatched, posing as husband and wife, to make a purchase. After the purchase during which the sales tax was illegally bypassed, a police team would go in and arrest the corrupt salesperson and close the store until the case was resolved, perhaps with the confiscation of all merchandise in the store.

Include the arrest on the news and on television. When word gets out that cheating on sales taxes will land you in jail, the government will start charging more sales tax.

Greece may not have to default on its debt again.