Nick Clegg Quotes
You see people literally in a different galaxy who are paying extraordinarily low rates of tax.
Clegg, Nick. Interview on Tax Avoidance. The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 2012.
Romney, a very wealthy businessman running for President as a Republican, had owned and controlled companies that had outsourced jobs abroad. In addition, he personally maintained large bank accounts in Switzerland and Caribbean tax havens and kept his tax returns secret to minimize his exposure. Ironically, there was nothing illegal in his maintaining such accounts, and most very wealthy people did. However, Romney, never secure in his own skin, didn’t want his opponents to focus on the fact that he did what rich people did and what most middle class and poor people rarely did and considered somewhat unpatriotic. So this insult was very effective as most people thought that when the American banks were in danger of collapsing in the Meltdown of 2008, and had to be bailed out by the taxpayers, he would not keep much of his money in the American banking system—easy to understand for a wealthy investor, but not so good for a politician claiming to have the nation’s interest as a first priority. Many conservatives argued that it was patriotic for a citizen to maximize his personal wealth and economic security and Romney should have defended his actions so Romney was caught in the middle, hence a good target for his opponents.
The tax rates on income from working is much higher than on income generated from money which is invested. The reason for this is that the government wants economic growth and lowering the tax rate on investment profits will produce more investment which theoretically creates more jobs and strengthens the economy. However, most workers have no choice about whether they have to work. Lowering their tax rate will not induce them to work more. This not only produces a patently unfair burden on the worker compared to people who have capital to invest—usually among the wealthiest Americans. Another problem is that there are many forms of investment that does not produce any benefit for the United States. Many people invest in overseas banks, non American companies. These we tax at a low rate and all the benefits of the investment go to the foreign country.
Sir Nicholas William Peter Clegg is a British media executive and former politician who has been Vice-President for Global Affairs and Communications at Facebook since 2018, having previously served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2015 and as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2007 to 2015. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Hallam from 2005 to 2017. An "Orange Book" liberal, he has been associated with both socially liberal and economically liberal policies.
