Oxfam recently released an impactful video titled “The Heist No One Is Talking About”, which vividly illustrates the consequences of the harmful tax practices employed by corporations and the wealthy elite. Like masked criminals they feel invisible to the eyes of the law when they use tax havens to avoid taxes. Be warned: “Some viewers may find this content distressing.”
400 million people worldwide don’t have access to essential healthcare services (source) and 830 mothers still die every day from preventable causes related to pregnancy and birth (source). Without access to free, quality, public healthcare, people can be trapped in a cycle of ill-health, loss of livelihood, catastrophic debt, and death which entrenches poverty across generations and especially for women. Conversely, when everyone has an equal chance to get needed medical treatment, a good education, clean water and other vital public services, it builds more equal societies and can lift families out of poverty for good.
This is why Oxfam cares about tax dodging. Their film ‘The Heist No One Is Talking About’ was made to illustrate how some big companies are starving governments of vital funds through their tax avoidance practices. While these companies are not literally stealing medicines or equipment from hospitals, they aren’t paying their fair share in some of the world’s poorest countries. This of course has adverse consequences for overall government resources, including those for healthcare.
The video is also available in French and Spanish.
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