A few days ago, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published what it described as an "offshore data tsunami". Nearly 3 terabytes of "data storage" reveals the offshore secrets of wealthy elites from more than 200 countries, according to the authors. We are talking about people who use tax havens and offshore to buy property and hide assets. They include more than 330 politicians and 130 Forbes billionaires, as well as celebrities, fraudsters, drug dealers, royalty and leaders of religious groups around the world.
The purpose of the ICIJ is admirable, as are its efforts. But, unfortunately, even revelations like the Pandora Files will not make the world a better place.
Despite its size, this "treasury" is a drop in the sea of illegal and fraudulent money transfers taking place around the world. Today, when the ego is out of control, we cannot know what lies under the surface.
The desire to possess is the worst and wildest manifestation of the ego. But this is human nature, and we should not judge these people until we ourselves are in their place. If you could accumulate millions of dollars effortlessly and go unnoticed, would you be able to resist the temptation? And if you didn’t do it right away, how long would you resist it? ..
In fact, despite its material manifestation, greed is a basic desire. The ego makes us want more and more until we give it up completely. But until then, the ego is insatiable. The sages wrote about this in the book Ecclesiastes: “You cannot leave the world with half of what you want in your hand, for he who has a hundred wants two hundred; he who has two hundred wants four hundred . So precisely because greed is insatiable, it brings itself to an end.
When people give up self-satisfaction, they will realize that happiness cannot be found in the accumulation of wealth and possessions. After death, we cannot take anything from this world with us. And we will never be satisfied with what we have, because, having received it, we want twice as much.
But even in this case, humanity must go through the stage of excessive greed and thirst for power, and no revelations will stop it. The only thing that will change the world for the better is when we realize that the pursuit of wealth and power does not bring happiness, but rather more hunger: spiritual hunger for the rich and physical hunger for the poor.
Apparently, humanity still has a lot to learn before it is ready to move on to a higher and more humane stage of its development .
Very rich people do not talk to us, who are often smart, literate and even know the books of the Bible. They leave their wealth to their descendants, and how they dispose of it ... is on their conscience. No matter how much they call to give at least 30 percent, they will always hide them, if possible. This is how our egoistic nature works. We need such laws that cannot be circumvented and they will probably be able to come up with people with criminal brains who have been made such an offer that cannot be refused.
Today, many people are already aware that big money does not bring happiness. Modern youth is not ready to work day and night for a good salary. Young people prefer a modest standard of living and personal freedom to communicate with friends and find their place in the world.