Christopher F. Rufo has an interesting City Journal piece on the Minnesota welfare fraud story, showing how high the media bar can be for anyone attempting to expose welfare fraud and those who allow it to happen. Worth reading.
The Somali Fraud Story Busts Liberal Myths
Mass immigration, antiracism, and the welfare state lead inexorably to fraud.
There is a moment when every news story either achieves lift-off or tumbles back to the earth. Having covered a few that drove national headlines, I’ve discovered there is no universal formula for which ones hit the stratosphere, and which do not.
Our recent story detailing Minnesota’s Somali fraud rings has been one of the lucky ones, achieving liftoff in record time. City Journal reporter Ryan Thorpe and I summarized a decade of Somali fraud schemes that stole billions of taxpayer dollars, some of which ended up with Al-Shabaab terrorists back in Somalia. These were sophisticated criminal enterprises that exploited Minnesota’s generous welfare state, deployed accusations of racism to deter scrutiny, and looted the public treasury until local prosecutors did the hard work to bring them down.
There is a moment when every news story either achieves lift-off or tumbles back to the earth. Having covered a few that drove national headlines, I’ve discovered there is no universal formula for which ones hit the stratosphere, and which do not.
Our recent story detailing Minnesota’s Somali fraud rings has been one of the lucky ones, achieving liftoff in record time. City Journal reporter Ryan Thorpe and I summarized a decade of Somali fraud schemes that stole billions of taxpayer dollars, some of which ended up with Al-Shabaab terrorists back in Somalia. These were sophisticated criminal enterprises that exploited Minnesota’s generous welfare state, deployed accusations of racism to deter scrutiny, and looted the public treasury until local prosecutors did the hard work to bring them down.
6 comments:
and the same thing is happening in the UK - just not Somali!
Ian - yes it is, probably far worse than we know.
It occurred to me the other day there's another down side to the importation of low trust people into a high trust society. Welfare isn't the only system in Western societies that relies to a great degree on personal integrity. The tax system does too. There is literally no way that the State can inspect every tax return, so it relies on people being honest in their declarations. Or at least honest within certain parameters. A little bit of leeway here and there is not going to break the bank. People out and out lying through their teeth about everything is. Its pretty obvious to me that many people nowadays do not even pretend to tell anything approaching the truth regarding their tax affairs, and the State either actively does nothing about it, or is overwhelmed by the wall of lies its being fed. Either way its another part of Western civilisation that has been destroyed by untrammelled immigration - the ability to impose taxes fairly and equally according to the law.
Sobers - I've been thinking about that too, there may be much more to it than the rise of cash businesses on the High Street. As you say, the state could be overwhelmed by a wall of lies. Add in an official reluctance to pursue certain groups and that's another aspect of what looks increasingly like terminal decline.
A small example of what triggered my thought above was my experience when I went to a small local tyre business to get my car tyres changed. The business used to be owned by a local chap, I went to school with his daughter in the village primary school. But he must have retired and sold up, and its now run by some foreign types, possibly Portuguese/Brazilian judging by the name on the sign. The owner was very helpful, ordered me some tyres, fitted them fine. The problem started when I paid (by card) and then asked for a VAT receipt (as the vehicle was part of my business). He waved his hand at the card receipt, and said 'Thats your receipt'. I persisted, demanding a proper VAT receipt, with business name, VAT number etc. He kept refusing, saying I should have asked for that before I paid, because he did me a 'special price' for the tyres. It was obvious that he was involved in avoiding paying VAT in some way, whether through ignorance or malice I wouldn't say. I persisted, pointing out his legal requirement as VAT registered business to produce a VAT receipt to a VAT registered customer, and eventually he found a receipt book and a stamp and wrote out a proper VAT receipt. But he wasn't happy.
But there you have the perfect example of the old UK giving way to the new. An old business that was run honestly and paid its taxes, a new one that obviously is out to scam the system for everything it can.
Sobers - that's interesting, raises a question about how many other businesses have opted out of paying VAT in that way, how soon HMRC finds out, the scale of it and how quickly they do something about it. Brings home your 'wall of lies' comment.
Part of the problem seems to be complexity and transparency as we've increased complexity and seen a decline in voluntary transparency - the high trust, low trust problem.
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