Facebook has set aside more than $2bn (£1.4bn) to settle global tax disputes while refusing to give the British taxman a penny. Mark Zuckerberg’s company, which paid £4,327 in British corporation tax in 2014, is challenging an audit by the Inland Revenue into its operations between 2010 and 2014. The news drags the social networking giant into the spotlight following the Google controversy. (The Week, reporting on an article in The Times)

Meanwhile, at least six of the UK’s 10 largest multinationals — including Shell and Lloyds Banking Group — paid no UK corporation tax in 2014 despite combined global profits of more than £30bn. The Observer newspaper says Tory ministers have been lobbying to protect Google’s £30bn tax haven, telling the European commission that they are “strongly opposed” to sanctions against Bermuda. (http://www.theweek.co.uk/daily-briefing/69102/ten-things-you-need-to-know-today-sunday-31-jan-2016)

The average man in the street has to pay extra taxes to make up for the shortfall created by these huge international companies and their tax evasion boondoggles. Presumably they are playing the same game in every other country they operate in. The taxes saved, one presumes, mostly goes to the management in salaries and perks. How can one support an economic system based on this? It is un-Epicurean to charge people as corrupt without the benefit of actually seeing them give backhanders to pliant lawmakers, but one can’t help but wonder. Bernie is right! At some point the clueless man-in-the-street has to focus on it and vote in politicians who put these tax dodgers back in their boxes. Are there any courageous young people out there we can champion?