Shoplifting vs. Grand Larceny

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Two articles caught my attention yesterday for different reasons.  The first article discussed banking giant HSBC helping launder billions and assisting in the evasion of billions dollars of taxes.  From the AP:

HSBC's Swiss private bank hid millions of dollars for drug traffickers, arms dealers and celebrities as it helped wealthy people around the world dodge taxes, according to a report based on leaked documents that lifts the veil on the country's banking secrecy laws...

....The leaked documents cover the period up to 2007 and relate to accounts worth $100 billion held by more than 100,000 people and legal entities from 200 countries....

...Academics estimate that $7.6 trillion is held in overseas tax havens, depriving governments of $200 billion a year in tax revenue, according to the ICIJ report...

...In Britain, where HSBC is based, the report sparked criticism that tax authorities hadn't done more to penalize tax evaders. The tax agency clawed back 135 million pounds ($236 million) from some of the 3,600 Britons identified as using the Geneva branch of HSBC, but only one has been prosecuted. France, by contrast, launched 103 actions.

British lawmakers reacted with outrage.

"You are left wondering, as you see the enormity of what has been going on, what it actually takes to bring a tax cheat to court," Margaret Hodge, chair of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee, told the BBC....

You would think that this would stir outrage as around the world austerity measures have cut programs for the poor and middle class further squeezing the middle class all in the name of deficit reduction.  Unsurprisingly, barely a mention on social media, which brings me to the second article a local one, where in upstate New York, 30 people were arrested for food stamp fraud.  Again unsurprisingly, there was outrage.  From WCAX:

BRUSHTON, N.Y. -More than 30 people have been nabbed for food stamp fraud in the North Country.

Investigators say over the past couple month's people used their food stamps to get food or alcohol at the Old Time Butcher Block store in Brushton.

Police also say it's not the first time the owner of that store, Dennis Sauve has been charged with allowing such fraud,

Police say more arrests are expected.

Both of these acts are illegal and both should be punished, but it occurs to me, that worrying about poor people committing welfare fraud while billions in taxes are going unpaid is a bit like worrying about someone stealing a pack of gum from your store while someone else is emptying the register.  There are probably a number of reasons for this disconnect; I theorize that a big one is that we all come into contact with poor people on welfare, where as we don't come into contact with billionaires.

The uncomfortable truth is we have a lot more in common with those committing food stamp fraud then we do with those hiding money in Swiss bank accounts.  Most of us are just a couple missed paychecks away from being in the same position.