The price we pay for Capitalism

Those of you who have an ear for the financial papers will have heard that Apple and Ireland as co-respondent, are being fined by the EU for fragrantly avoiding paying taxes by shifting the domicile of the Apple European Head Office to a mythical offshore address where corporate taxes are virtually non existent. 

Apple are complicit, Ireland are complicit in a fraud that if, as an individual I were to be similarly engaged I could expect a jail sentence but of course you can't put one of the wealthiest companies or a country in jail.

The spokespeople who defend the situation begin by telling us that this tax collecting fraud is the reason why Apple agreed to site one of its factories here and therefore we should be grateful and what ever we do, we must not upset the monolith otherwise it relocate. This suggestion, that if we meddle in the affairs of companies like Apple we must understand the consequences, (consequences for ourselves), is close to blackmail, its close to the type of racket for which  the Mafia was famous.
Here is the root of the problem.  

Generally the Commentariat (the press and media) in the 21st century have little time or inclination to educate society to understand that, any 'healthy society' is built on seeing the society in the round, not just the needs of the successful but also the needs of the unsuccessful and that a society which encompasses every member. It's the price we pay for being civilised. To pay for the sanctity of being civilised one relies on taxation to bring the essential services and place them within reach of the people in dire need.  Without taxation there will be no schools, no hospitals, no repair to the fabric which makes life bearable for everyone .
High taxes in the Scandinavian countries are an example of the quid-pro-quo, for the society recognising and being responsible for all its citizens.
An economist was deriding the European authorities for daring to throw a spanner in the works of a very profitable company by asking that they pay a tax, which when due by a normal company, is levied at 20% on the annual profit made by that company. This company tax is collected on profits made from sales within specified national boundaries and includes 99% of the companies operating i.e. doing business in the UK. The fact that in the new 'Global Society', which now over arches the national economy, company's such Apple and Amazon, Pfizer and Roche, see their role towards the societies into which they sell their products to be much like the Digital Cloud, which captures so much of our information in this Internet age, a structure without a home and beyond the rules which bind us. These business' have shareholders and a management structure which in the past would guide anyone into conceptualising where they were located and under who's legal regime they fell, but somehow with an 'accountancy package' which goes with the Globalisation,  they can, or cannot exist.  It depends on the address chosen by the accountant as to where the calculation begins to appraise the tax on profits. It's a surreal world contrived by businessmen and the people who work for them and is seeming impregnable to national politics or the sovereign governments who's citizens have contributed massively by buying the product in the first place.
It's a sham it should illegal but no one seems to have the clout or the will to do anything about it until along comes the European Union.
Having recently been through the BREXIT ordeal, with its many conflicting claims, trying to weigh up the pros and cons, one is again reminded that one of my concerns was the pedigree of successive governments in this country to cosy up to big business. London is seen, in banking at least, a pretty sleazy place where deals are made which boarder on the criminal. London also harbours many of the architects of the corrupt and nefarious financial empires which abound across the world and we in the UK are often accused of conveniently turning a blind eye.
The EU has refreshingly refused to bow to the threats of at least one global enterprise (Apple) and is pursuing them for back taxes amounting to over $13 billion.  The ironic twist is that Ireland, to whom Apple owe the $13 billion in unpaid taxes, say they don't want the money since by taking the money their image of being 'business friendly' would be tarnished.
What corrupt times we live in and the flippancy with which the commentators dismiss it all with, "its the price we pay for Capitalism" is nauseating.