I just have to make this point from the debate last night. This is important!
McCain and Palin have mentioned the comparison of US company taxes being so much higher than taxes in Ireland. This is a TERRIFIC example of how you have to understand political economics!! McCain is absolutely right that Ireland has very low taxes for private firms. Why is that?, you might ask. Well, I'll tell you: it's because the government of Ireland absorbs the huge social costs of private industry. What does that mean? It means, unemployment is virtually nill because the government reimburses and retrains workers at huge cost to the government, unions have a huge role in government operations, private pay raises are negotiated through the government. The Irish government owns all utilities, transportation infrastructure, parcel delivery, and broadcasting. All education pre-K through college is free. Healthcare is completely government run. THAT is the context in which Ireland is able to offer very low taxation on private business; because they tax their population to pay for social services. Fascinating!
So in other words, to use John McCain's example from last night's debate, why can't we be like Ireland and have low taxes on private business? We can. But it means we would have to implement a number of so-called "socialist" measures in order to do it. So McCain's argument, if we take it through, essentially means that we need to become more socialist, way more radically than anyone has ever done in the history of America. Fascinating. I hope you're following this. It's a good example of how complex differences get reduced to ridiculous debate points with candidates just counting on the fact that we are all ignorant.
This is why it is important to know a little bit about economics and politics in addressing the current election.
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