The cure to Ireland's economic woes

[netwhizkid]

I have analysed our economy for many months and done some enlightened thinking on it and have come to some conclusions. I have several ideas which will bring Ireland back its roaring economy and develop the country further. We need true leadership and I believe Brian Cowen has the potential to develop Ireland's economy in much better ways than Bertie Ahern ever did.

We as a highly globalised economy must deliver more competitveness and better opportunities for people here.
Three key areas must be targeted, The public service must be overhauled, our taxation system must be revamped and we must revamp our social welfare and Education systems.

Firstly, I believe our public servants deliver bad value for money and the entire service needs to be overhauled with massive restructuring needed. We must axe thousands of civil servants and outsource their functions to private firms both in Ireland and overseas if necessary. Then and only then will will taxpayers get value for money and accountability. Our Health Service is in a shambles and must be Privatised, this however does not mean that the poor will be left behind it means that excellent levels of care can be delivered and the poor can avail of treatments at the expense of the state, this can be paid for by higher cigarette taxes and by savings encrued by the aforementioned Civil Service cuts. The more well off in society can continue paying Private Health Insurance which most already have and P.R.S.I must be made optional, i.e. you can go it alone in life and be successful and not expect anything from the Government or you continue to pay a lower rater with less obvious benefits.

Our Taxation system is unfair and needs surgery, VAT (sales tax) should be reduced to 13.5% and fuel duties also lowered, Corportation tax which stands at 12.5% should go to 10% thus enabling us to continue poaching corporate tax from other countries. Indirect Taxation must end and make the system more transparent and introduce a "home tax" which will be responsible for water, rubbish, lighting etc. This will enable vital services which are currently optional become mandatory to the benefit of everyone, it will clean up estates and help handle the garbage mountain. A flat tax is needed which means that X Guy working in McDonalds pays the same certain percentage of his wages as Mr. Millionaire in D4. This can be cut off for individuals earning more that 250,000 a year who should pay less as these are the people that are responsible for Mr. X in McD's having a job in the firstplace.

Our Social Welfare and Education systems need work big time.

Firstly major and I mean major surgery needs to be carried out on our welfare system, Dole Payments should be cut off to individuals who actively refuse work and the Welfare must work with jobs agencies to ensure that the unemployed get 1st preference on job offers not people switching jobs. This will get alot off the dole and if the refuse the work cut them off simple as. Also Rent allowance and single mothers payments should be abolished. Also only Irish nationals who were born in Ireland to Irish Parents should be eligible for the limited welfare. Paying childrens allowance to children in eastern europe whose alleged parent works here is totally unacceptable. Immigrants are a key part of Irish life now, however as part of Global Immigration you build a country not sponge off it, we should position ourselves as a low tax economy not a welfare state, for welfare tourism. That said however I am in favour of granting our diasporo access to our labour market, provided it can be proven and such individuals can only build Ireland further. We should also actively encourage immigration to Ireland from the Anglophone world in countries with populations of British Isles descents. This immigration benefits the country better as the language barrier is broken and we share a common identity. Allow greater access to US citizens, Australia, NZ etc.

We need to invest in Education heavily and punish truancy hard, Adult Education also needs more work, getting a highly skilled workforce is important and offering education vouchers for the amount invested in your childs education by the state needs to be investigated, this will enable private schools colleges and universities to prosper. It is only by bettering ourselves that we can truly prosper.

I also have several ideas on changing the constitution to create a Federal Republic delegating more autonomy to the councils while weaking the power of Dail Eireann, this will allow for personal liberty and help us achive more freedom, ie. what the residents of Dublin want may be different to the residents of Leitrim etc. This method along with protracted economic growth will also allow for greater links with Northern Ireland and may achieve unity should they prefer to be a county of the "federal republic of the island of Ireland".

I will elaborate on this furthur but tis too late now,

Any opinions on this posting would be great!

[JCSkinner]

Sounds like you're a PD in the wrong party.

[The Collective.]

My opinion. Join fine Gael.

[Mikewex]

So basically your enlightened opinion is Boston rather then Berlin?

Fair enough.

[jetttxyz]

Good thoughts, netwhizzkid!

[color=#008040]

Sounds like you're a PD in the wrong party.

[/color] says jcskinner; but, haven't every Irish political party fed off PD policy?

[color=#008080]

My opinion. Join fine Gael.

[/color] says The Collective
Why?
They're ineffective and....according to the FGers here....are going through a leadership wrangle....AGAIN!
If only.....................

[JCSkinner]

I await to hear how Sinn Fein, the Green Party, the Socialist Party, the Democratic Unionist Party, the Ulster Unionist Party, The Social and Democratic Labour Party, the Alliance Party, the Immigration Control Platform and indeed the Socialist Workers Party have fed off PD policy with truly agog interest.

[Twin Towers]

Apart from your suggestions on income tax everything there looks pretty sound. And we could take even less corporation tax

[bnbn]

Would you consider introducing a negative income tax?

[Sidewinder]

So basically your "big idea" is to simply roll back the clock to min-19th century laissez-faire jungle capitalism? You want to junk every advance made by and for ordinary people since the end of WWI. Forward to the past, and the divil take the hindmost! Yeah, brilliant.

Of course the public ector badly needs massive reform. But there is an agenda which uses the frankly ridiculous state of the public-sector - closed recruitment pools, promotion by time served, the tangled web of pay equivalence, the benchmarking scam, jobs-for-life, cash payments for changes in work practices - which uses all that as an excuse to seek the complete dismantling of the State apparatus and a return to the heydey of the Robber Barons.

It is a fact that some industries have economic characteristics which make them natural monopolies. Forcing "competition" on these industries by creating a fake "market" via Licence Capitalism, a rigged and usually subsidised Oligopoly of the politically-favoured, is wildly inefficient and is in fact much less efficient than a State-owned or heavily regulated private monopoly. It is a fact that Public goods are never provided efficiently and effectively - if at all! - by the Private sector and the State must take control on order to ensure the job is done properly and equitably. It is a fact that externalities exist, and that there is a necessary role for the State in ensuring the true cost of these externalities is met.

The fact that a complex, cumbersome and inefficient web of work practices and work cultures have been allowed to calcify within the public sector, retarding greatly its ability to deliver, is not an argument for abolishing the public sector entirely. The public ector has a very necessary role to play. Unfortunately, because so many of those calling for public-sector reform are actually dishonest far-right Privateer bandits, the public-sector unions immediately start on the defensive (over and above their natural human defensiveness in protecting a cushty number) and so no progress is made....meaning that as the situation in the unreformed public-sector worsens year by year, the Privateers get closer and closer to their real goal of abolishing all State controls over their activities, returning us all to a situation of massive inequality and rampant exploitation by the megaprivileged few - a situation the Privateers see as "natural" and "just".

The real cure to Ireland's economic woes runs along the following lines

• War on cartel, restrictive practices, closed shops etc
  
  War on blatant gouging and profiteering
  
  Greatly reduce the tangle of indirect taxes, fees and charges strangling small business
  
  State-led aggressive plans to accomplish within a defined reasonable timescale (say, 8 years) three interrelated aims: reducing our over-dependence on FDI by building and nurturing Irish indigenous productive export-orientated firms, using FDI only where needed to kickstart sunrise industries; reducing the GDP/GNP gap over time to below 5%; and ensuring that no single country is the destination for more than 12% of our exports
  
  Overhaul of education to greatly increase the annual output of scientists and engineers; make such fields more attractive by providing proper pay and conditions in these sectors; overhaul University research to create centres of excellence in targeted fields, attracting the very best international experts, researchers and professors on multi-year contracts, with the benefits and IP of the research being retained by the State for use by Irish incubator firms; tax reforms to encourage long-term research projects by Irish commercial firms
  
  Property, property, property.....end the Irish fanatical obsession with this unproductive asset class by completely overhauling the planning system, the tax breaks and loopholes encouraging property investment, forcing through proper standards and controls in the rental sector like in Germany....high land and high house prices are a bad thing. Low, stable land and house prices are a good thing. Ever since the 60s Irish government policies have been geared towards a "high land prices" builder-and-farmer-friendly policy. This must be reversed, and reversed hard and fast.
  
  Public sector reform, as outlined above. Make the public-sector strong, efficient, effective. Hire the best people, introduce accountability, slash through waste and introduce best-practice...everywhere. Most public-sector workers will benefit in the end - imagine a public sector where the dead wood was gone, where decisions from high-up made sense, where resources were not being wasted tied up in layers of bureaucracy, where the focus was on pumping resources to the (properly paid) front-line staff, where there were enough front-line staff to get the job done not a tiny number of overworked front-line staff struggling in chaos while whole battalions of middle-management sleep at their desks, where the public-sector got the job done and was respected again...
  
  Linked to the overhaul of the planning system, we need effective Mass Transit Systems in place in all the major cities, and we need them yesterday. Stop focusing on roads, stop building housing estates in the arse-end of nowhere, link the cities ports and airports with high-speed rail and build houses near industrial centres and/or transport links to same. We need to completely change our way of thinking wrt complete insanities like Dublin's "commuter belt" beginning in Cavan and Carlow Peak Oil is here and we need to get ready, fast.

Within a few years the current shambolic unbalanced Frankenstein's Monster of the Irish economy could be transformed into something that really was productive, wealthy, low cost, exporting, based round real work in engineering and science not makey-uppy PR parasite jobs, and above all sustainable.

[expat girl]

So basically your "big idea" is to simply roll back the clock to min-19th century laissez-faire jungle capitalism? You want to junk every advance made by and for ordinary people since the end of WWI. Forward to the past, and the divil take the hindmost! Yeah, brilliant....

...Within a few years the current shambolic unbalanced Frankenstein's Monster of the Irish economy could be transformed into something that really was productive, wealthy, low cost, exporting, based round real work in engineering and science not makey-uppy PR parasite jobs, and above all sustainable.

good post