– Regarding the general rape of the world for profits by the big corporations, I’ve long held that once they do manage to pull the pillars down around us by crashing the environment and the world’s economies, they will take their earnings and go and hide away in high security enclaves living the good life that only big money can buy.  Yes, they’ll be living well, insulated from the consequences of their rampant greed while the rest of us are left to slug it out for survival in what remains.
– This article may be the first we see like this.  Remember it when you think to yourself in the future, “I wonder where those bastards went?“
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The plans of a Swiss canton to attract the super-rich by offering them the chance to buy property in exclusive, previously out of bounds locations has sparked a political row and accusations that the country is encouraging apartheid of the rich and poor.
The canton of Obwalden is planning to launch “special living zones” for millionaires in an attempt to boost its tax take by luring the wealthiest residents. Like other cantons in the tax haven, Obwalden finds itself short of revenue because it has been competing with other jurisdictions to see who can offer the lowest rate of tax.
The result has been a drastic shortfall in tax revenues as people set up PO box companies to take advantage of the low rates, while contributing nothing to the local economies because they live elsewhere.
Obwalden’s answer is to lift construction bans on land reserved for agricultural use, offering the rich the chance to secure property on protected land, with the promise of spectacular views of lake and alpine landscapes.
Details of Obwalden’s plan, published in the Swiss press, suggest selling villas on an exclusive basis to those who pay high taxes or who create work in the area – “a sunny location, with low noise emissions, good amenities … as well as an unrestricted view that cannot be built on”.
The homes would be constructed on land not usually accessible to ordinary citizens, leading to accusations that the policy discriminates against less wealthy inhabitants while rewarding the rich.
More… ➡
– hat tip to Cryptogon