Katie Austin

The Importance of Trusting our Government

Taxing has long been a controversial topic, and so, naturally, you would be curious if something happened or promises were made that affected taxation for everybody. This is happening right now with the Group of Eight (G8). The G8 is a group of the eight most powerful countries in the world. They have annual summit meetings where thy gather to discuss the problems that are currently impacting our world. We will be using the G8 to maintain the momentum generated by the G20 on information exchange and the strengthening of international tax standards. Stephen Lillie, British Ambassador to the Philippines, speaks from first hand experience, as he was ambassador of the country that was hosting the presidency that year. Despite the protests, controversies, and various claims surrounding the G8, the G8 is gradually strengthening and improving our economy. Manifestly, there have been serious deficiencies in global economic governance. By addressing them, the G8 can help not only ourselves, but the people struggling in the worlds poorest countries (Collier). People may disagree with the way our leaders are fighting for our countries, but nomatter how they go about it, they are trying to improve our countries through the best ways they can, and have been since the beginning, in the 1970s (Lillie) The Group of 8 was created by the leading countries of the world to make a difference in how problems were solved. Though a group of only eight countries may seem highly selective and exclusive, there is also a group of 20 who meet at different times to solve even more. The G8 now meet to solve problems and improve the world and their countries. Some changes have already been made. Leaders have signed off on promises that will make the world a more equal place. An example of this is what happened at the most recent summit meeting. Plans have been made to change taxing equality by increasing taxing transparency. Specific requests can be made for information from the tax havens. This is important because it is working towards decreasing the gap in taxing equality. Melanie Ward explains this well by saying, The G8 has inched towards the foothills of that mountain; but the leaders have not yet managed to start their ascent (Ward). I think this accurately describes the situation because it represents how the G8 is beginning to help solve these problems but they have not yet been able to act on their promises. This highlights how the protesters think. They are not satisfied with waiting for imminent change, so they make claims that the government is doing nothing. They believe that tearing down the G8 will decrease a gap in power, and changes will only begin to happen after the G8 has been demolished and countries were not valued over each other by power (Peter).

Protesters gather at every summit meeting to protest the G8 and their decisions and power. Ms Dooley said in a peaceful protest in Belfast that the G8 leaders did not have consent, to force their damaging policies on the rest of us and mentions that the unemployment levels have risen to an, unprecedented levels (Mills). While this comment cannot be dispelled by concrete facts, the point still remains that the G8 are doing what they can to solve problems. Perhaps they have not focused on the same problems the protesters focus on. In previous meetings, the G8 has focused on environmental stability and taxing equality. So far, the Group of Eight has signed off on changes that will happen within a few years. Even talking about the changes is a start. Stephen Lillie speaks about the agenda of the G8 Summit and mentions how they are putting three issues at the heart of our G8 agenda: advancing trade, ensuring tax compliance, and promoting greater transparency. Imagine the place we will be when we have fixed these problems. There will always be something else to work on, but for now we focus on the changes we can make in the near future. Various problems that have surfaced before have not been solved long-term by the government, so this does instigate controversy in the reactions that surface from the population. However, our leaders have not yet blatantly denied promises that were previously made. The main focus of the media is on the decisions the G8 has made about taxing equality (Ward). This is why I trust them to solve the discussed problems. They signed on the problems and now must fix the gap between taxing. Going back on a signed promise will entice an even larger uproar among the citizens. However, the current lack of support from the population to the government will possibly impair the rate to which the government is able to solve problems though. Trusting the government would pose a possible solution to the seemingly endless wait for change. Instead of tearing our leaders apart, we could support them with alternate ideas. Confidence in our government may very well be the next step to unity and improvement. If we were able to access that place of unity with our government within our society, we could continue towards equality in leaps and bounds. If we focus on improving ourselves, we can get to a place where we improve the countries we are in agreement with. Global unity and overall improvement would come next. So though there is much controversy around the decisions of the G8, they are fighting for improvement just like everyone else. There are many ways to show others your thoughts, but attacking them is never the right way to go. If we can unify ourselves as a country, we are already making the first steps to unifying ourselves as the whole world.

Works Cited Collier, Paul. "Clear Political Commitment by the G8 Can Benefit Rich and Poor Countries." The Observer. Guardian News and Media, 16 June 2013. Web. 10 Feb. 2014. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jun/15/clear-political-commitment-g8 Lillie, Stephen. "The G8 - Why It Matters Globally." Philstar.com. The Philippine Star, n.d. Web. 10 Jan. 2013. http://www.philstar.com/opinion/2013/01/10/895269/g8-why-itmatters-globally Mills, Tara. "G8 Still Has a Mountain to Climb on Tax Avoidance, but It's Made a Start."Theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 18 June 2013. Web. 09 Feb. 2014. http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2013/jun/18/g8mountain-climb-tax-avoidance Peter, Moira. "G8 Still Has a Mountain to Climb on Tax Avoidance, but It's Made a Start." Theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 18 June 2013. Web. 09 Feb. 2014. http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2013/jun/18/g8mountain-climb-tax-avoidance Ward, Melanie. "G8 Still Has a Mountain to Climb on Tax Avoidance, but It's Made a Start." Theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 18 June 2013. Web. 09 Feb. 2014. http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2013/jun/18/g8mountain-climb-tax-avoidance