The Fall of the American Empire

I say it's a business decision.

The Canadiens pay Price $10 mil.

Other teams would too. The market decides!

If you're so smart, why aren't you president of a bank?

Or of a university?

Lennoxville gave theirs a $650,000 buyout.

That's my point.

I'm too intelligent.

Pardon?

Intelligence isn't?

It's not an advantage.

It's a handicap.

Say you sell vacuum cleaners.

You're not too bright.

You tell a lady, 'Ma'am. this vacuum will make you happy'

You believe it, 'cause you're not too bright.

She's touched by your sincerity.

She buys the vacuum, the deluxe model.

You're named salesman of the month. general manager, CEO.

But if you're the least bit intelligent,

you know vacuum cleaners don't bring happiness.

The lady reads your mind, doesn't buy the vacuum,

and you lose your job.

You use the time to write a great novel about human misery, and become famous?

Again, intelligence is a handicap.

The great writers were as dumb as mules.

Dostoyevsky hocked his wife's furs to gamble.

He was sure he'd win, blind to the laws of probability.

Tolstoy forbade his serfs to be vaccinated.

Louis-Ferdinand Céline fled France to take refuge with the SS in Germany. A fool!

Hemingway saw himself as a boxer!

Some geniuses!

And your philosophers?

Worse!

Heidegger was a Nazi.

Jean-Paul Sartre was a Stalinist.

Late in life he sang the praises of Pol Pot.

Althusser strangled his wife.

Just as pathetic as politicians?

George Bush?

Silvio Berlusconi? Nicolas Sarkozy?

Tony Blair.

All of them total losers!

Donald Trump!

63 million Americans voted for him.

Of course. Imbeciles worship cretins.

So we're all just imbeciles?

No, some people are very intelligent.

Mostly men, I suppose.

No, as many women as men.

Where are these people?

Isolated.

On the seashore.

In the mountains.

Sometimes in downtown apartments...

in monasteries...

in laboratories?

You won't see their names in the papers or on TV.

They don't have blogs or Facebook pages.

They work as deliverymen, date divorced bank tellers?

That's right.

I'd love to have money.

I'd take my son on a trip.

You might one day.

Meaning I'm stupid enough to get rich?

Not what I said.

How long have we been together, Pierre-Paul?

112 years?

Why haven't you ever said you love me?

Because?

I don't know what that means exactly.

One must not say just anything.

Wittgenstein.

That is, Ludwig Wittgenstein.

I can't go on like this.

Then don'.

What counts isn't intelligence, it's your heart.

Yeah.

That's right.

I feel sorry for you.

You'll end up so alone.

Roger Federer earns $128 mil. and he's Swiss.

Only what he earns at home is taxed.

Next to nothing.

The Fall of the American Empire

The Street, our magazine.

Hey, Jean-Claude!

Hi. Pierre-Paul! The new issue.

The new one?

No, that's OK.

Thanks. Providence will reward you.

I don't have much trust in Providence.

If it weren't for Providence, I'd have OD'd long ago.

$3, sir.

Thanks, have 3 good day!

One day you'll be rewarded, my friend.

The Lord is very compassionate and merciful.

He rewards the Just, even in this world.

St James, Acts of the Apostles.

Yeah, see you.

Bye, pal!

Have a good day.

Hello.

Fill it up!

Fill it up!

Don't move. Raise your hands.

Higher.

Turn around.

Against the van, spread your legs!

Spread 'em!

Don't move!

43-1 studio, we are 10-12 on the 409.

Call confirmed, one person down.

Send an ambulance for gunshot victim.

Christ!

I got out of my van, a guy was lying there.

I heard sirens and the police arrived.

You didn't see anyone run out?

Go ahead.

It's incredible. There was a holdup.

I won't be able to make all my deliveries.

I'll call you back.

Sometimes you forget details.

If you remember anything. call us.

Alright.

What's going on?

Attempted holdup.

You lost Morosi.

Nick? Why was he here?

He's your bodyguard, not mine.

My chief of security.

He's dead.

How much was in your safe?

I dunno, business is lousy.

Then why a bank safe?

I got it second-hand.

It's empty.

Empty?

You weren't holding cash for friends?

What friends?

I dunno.

The West End Gang?

They're acquaintances.

Well investigate.

The term we hear every day in the media is...

tax evasion.

Accounting firms prefer to call it fiscal optimization or aggressive tax planning.

The strategy's the same.

Send your money to countries with lower or no taxes.

The practice dates back over a century.

The Bank of Nova Scotia opened its first branch in Jamaica in 1899.

All went according to plan until our governments, always strapped for cash...

forced all OECD member banks...

to disclose the identity of foreign account holders.

So if you've hidden $5 million in the Bahamas, you're faced with a dilemma:

either you make a voluntary disclosure to the Canadian government...

which will impose a penalty of 30, 40 or 50%7?

T's open to negotiation.

Or you invent anew strategy for evasion.

Put on your thinking caps.

This applies only to individuals.

Corporate taxation, for behemoths like Google and Microsoft...

is an entirely separate issue that we'll examine next term.

No cash aboard

What are you doing at home?

I wanted to change.

Why didn't you tell me?

It only took a minute.

You're not on the road.

I'm heading out now.

You got cash?

We hit a snag. I'll get some.

No cash, no treatment.

Please!

Self-storage

This morning?

Where were you?

On René-Lévesque.

Street's blocked, cars are stuck.

So drivers shell out.

Enjoy your meal.

Hey, Joseph.

Hi. Pierre-Paul.

Marcel was looking for you.

I was picking apples in Rougemont.

You didn't stay long.

T's just Mexicans working there now.

They work crazy hours for starvation wages.

There's not much room for us anymore.

I'm not hungry!

I just want my bag.

Here, try this one.

Weren't you up north?

I went for my sister's funeral.

Hadn't seen her in 30 years.

They read the will.

Turns out she left me $200.

Turns out she left me $200.

My nephews were fuming.

Tried to have It annulled.