Impoverishment and the Money Laundering Economy

In recent years, our country has evolved from a democratic, contemporary, and social welfare state in terms of democratic principles into a grey economy and then into a money laundering economy. The political approach of "collect taxes and borrow," which persisted for a period, has been replaced by a sectoral structure and power that first turned into a grey economy and subsequently into a money laundering economy.

An unchecked political and economic structure inevitably creates an illegal politics and economy. The most fundamental condition for the oversight of politics and the economy is the full and accurate exercise of the power of the purse by the legislative body, namely the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

The power of the purse means the collection of revenues, the execution of expenditures, and the oversight of all revenues and expenditures, and therefore, it implies sovereignty over the legislative, judicial, and executive branches. The inability to use the power of the purse correctly—or at all—in the TBMM leads to the inefficient use of budgetary resources.

Because budgetary resources are not distributed to the base of society, some people who cannot access resources from the budget turn to betting games and the crime economy to make money quickly, acting as vehicles for money laundering by using sports branches. Meanwhile, we see that some sports figures, who view themselves as an elite class in the eyes of society, have recently become involved in processes such as religious communities, sects, the crime economy, money laundering, and tax evasion. It even appears that these sports figures have established illegal tax havens for themselves.

The system has transformed into an institution that relies on the impoverishment of the public and provides a transfer of wealth from the poor to itself. This situation, while on one hand providing a transfer of wealth from the poor to themselves, also demonstrates—as seen in recent events—that they are attempting to evade taxes by establishing an undeclared illegal tax haven in our country.

Operating money through illegal channels and acting as an intermediary for this business falls under the crime of tax evasion according to Article 359 of the Tax Procedure Law. One must ask whether MASAK and the Tax Inspection Board have initiated an investigation into these athletes who have recently lost their money to casino capitalism and are attempting to evade taxes.

According to the Gini coefficient, it has been observed that 90% of the population receives 10% of the national income, while 10% of the population receives 90% of the national income. If 70% of employees are receiving wages at the minimum wage level, if the minimum wage earners and other retirees are living on a pension of 7500 TL, and if university faculty members are living below the poverty line, then the middle class has been liquidated, and a flattening has occurred between the capital class and other classes; the grey economy has turned into a money laundering economy.

News Source: 12punto