Henry,
Most countries give tax exempt status to religious organisations and charities because of the social good arising from their works.

You sound angry about something.

Siobhan
You sound deluded about something:

So your attitude to this economic black hole is “monkey see, monkey do”. The CCL’s tax free position does not in any way derive from the common illusion that it is an organisation involved in “good works” (sic).

The fact is there are the PAYE workers contributing a disproportionate amount into the system while unfairly carrying groups of freeloaders. PAYE workers have to carry the Catholic Church, travellers, over subsided farmers, politicians who overpay themselves and non-resident (but resident) multi millionaires.

When we start dealing with the basics of the economy with a view to making a more equitable system then we can build a solid foundation for future growth.

The involvement of the CCL is central to the economy. Look up the Indemnity Deal since you will be paying for it in the future.

Of course as I said so ingrained is this organisation that none may make even the mildest logical observations about it. Anyone that does will be immediately mistaken for being angry by members of the deluded flock.

Just imagine what the reaction would be if, despite the way the Catholic Church Limited warps our tax system, some well know economist was to examine its role?

Angry economist, heretic….blasphemer…. ….

http://www.shayconway.blogspot.com

you have spoken about wealth being passed from the younger to the older generations as being an anomaly in the natural state of affairs. One effective way to curtail this is to starting taxing the ownership of property according to its value while reducing the level of tax taken via PAYE. That way the older generation are incentivized to trade down thus increasing the availability of Dublin city 4/5-bedroom houses needed by young families. Property taxes are levelled in various forms in most other western countries. Why not in Ireland?

I watched your programme last night and read some of your web chat today.

A lot of what you say is true, there is an ‘accidental’ amount of wealth that has been distributed from those that had property/land and were able to sell it and those that have had to buy it. However, I think the categories, whilst amusing and helping in some way to make people understand, are over-simplified.

There are lots of people in the Jagger age group that wont have done exactly as you describe, as well as the Juggler. And, there are more age groups as well.

Economic trends and cycles whilst having patterns and affecting demographic groupings, are in each case unique, as the surrounding circumstances are never exactly the same.

It is true that some houses are overpriced, some way over, some less so, and there are still ‘bargains’ to be had if you can find a way of life outside a city commute area, so corrections will take place. Some people will get stung, and some will have to live through the pain. This has happened before in econmic cycles and will happen again. But people cannt change when they are born or wait to lve their lives.

What is unknown is how long, how deep, and how painful our correction will be, and then for each individual person’s case it will be different. Some of the Jaggers will be bailing out the Jugglers. And as the Jaggers get older in the next 10 years or so, some of the Jugglers may well move bck into the homestead, if they can. Many wont be able to whilst ‘Dublin-opolis’ is the main show in town in terms of econmic activity.

You covered the move of manufacturing to China, etc and the threat of the future. Ireland, like all wealthy countries, just has to compete. There is a large local EU market of people which isnt going to go away any time soon and there are loads of services, well-paid ones (ie: in demand), that they will need and do need. Not everything can come from China or a low-cost alternative, such as the Vietnams (where the Chinese outsource to!).

China is a huge country going through vast economic change, so its incredible to study it and observe whats going on. However, it is not without its problems. There are 100′s of millions of very poor people, which the local people term land peasants. There are also property ‘bubbles’, where vast swathes of brand new cities are being built but there are no people that can afford to live in them and they lie idle.

China is a large planned economy, but who knows if it will be plain sailing all the way over the next 25 years. Life expectancy and toxic medical effects from high levels of pollution are just one of the invisible side-effects of their great economic “miracle”, which you wont see on the streets of Shanghai or Beijing, so its not all gloss. But China is clearly a rising boat in the sea of global trade.

Steering Ireland through some choppy waters wont be easy. Like before, I expect us to be unplanned and uncontrolled, reacting rather than being pro-active, and being a paper boat on the sea of global economics, being driven by winds.

Hopefully we will find a safe harbour ….

-MK

Most countries give tax exempt status to religious organisations and charities because of the social good arising from their works.

You sound angry about something.