Notes on the Front

3 responses to “Friday Stat Attack: A Simple Graph That Can be Used in the Tax Debate”

1. 

   Ciaran

   February 23, 2014

   Michael,
   Many thanks for highlighting this problem. However, I do think that we are only a low-tax country in terms of direct taxation. On the other hand, we are fast becoming a flat-tax jurisdiction, which always leads to economic catastrophe.
   A rapidly increasing segment of total taxation is of the indirect, regressive kind, such as VAT. Quasi-mandatory (soon to be straight-out mandatory) health insurance and water charges can also be added to the list of regressive taxes in this jurisdiction. These indirect taxes/levies lead to greater inequality, and amount to being a tax on the poor.
   ‘Middle Ireland’ (which isn’t really in the middle, but that’s another story) is certainly being ‘squeezed’, as the Sindo would have it – but they’re being squeezed from above.

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2. 

   The Dork of Cork

   February 24, 2014

   This misses the core point – tax relative to money velocity is probably up there with Greece now – and that is what matters baby.
   Mr. J. A. Hobson ” Democracy After the (Great)
   War”:—
   “Where the product of industry and commerce is so divided
   that wages are low while profits, interest, and rent are relatively
   high, the small purchasing power of the masses sets a limit
   on the home market for most staple commodities. The
   staple manufacturers, therefore, working with modern mechan-
   ical methods, that continually increase the pace of output,
   are in every country compelled to look more and more to
   export trade, and to hustle and compete for markets in the
   backward countries of the world. . . . Just as the home
   market was restricted by a distribution of wealth which left
   the mass of people with inadequate power to purchase and
   consume, while the minority who had the purchasing power
   either wanted to use it in other ways or to save it and apply
   it to an increased production which still further congested
   the home markets, so likewise with the world markets. . . .
   Closely linked with this practical limitation of the expansion
   of markets for goods is the limitation of profitable fields of
   investment. The limitation of home markets implies a
   corresponding limitation in the investment of fresh capital
   in the trades supplying these markets.
   Dork – nearly 100 years later ~ a fantastically.accurate description of todays euro soviet.
   Talking about tax rates in a money vacuum is strange.
   We have almost no local currency for local exchange / domestic back scratching.
   This means we have almost zero local cooperation , zero society …….
   Much more paper currency is needed (typically in small denominations) and all free banking should be banned so as to preserve precious capital.
   In the real world this means no more credit for cars and a return to village and market town life.
   It turns out Dev was right !!
   Dancing at crossroads was impossible with so much credit / and oil…..now not so much.

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3. 

   The Dork of Cork

   February 24, 2014

   Tax is used to pay for the depreciation of the machines and yet you want us to be taxed more which means working for the machines !!!
   The problem is capital goods overproduction via the bank credit / scarcity process.
   Sure reducing tax under the current system will most likely will be worse for most but why do you accept the current monetary arrangements ?
   You must be a socialist / capitalist or something!!!
   We must redistribute the wealth Micheal
   No more Faux Fabian socialism. / concentration of wealth.

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