Ireland has a population of about 6.3 million people. That is one sixth of Californian. They had to borrow 90 billion buckos just to stay afloat! How could this country with such a small population have so much debt? Why is it only the property owners responsibility to pay? Wow, lots of questions. If all those people refuse to pay, how will the authorities deal with it?
Here is a quote from the article that reminds me of Prop 13 somewhat. It also reminds me of the recently passed tax for Fire passed by fiat here in California.
" The charge this year is a flat-fee €100 ($130) per dwelling, but is expected to rise dramatically next year once Ireland starts to vary the charge based on a property's estimated value. Anti-tax campaigners have urged the public to ignore the tax demand, arguing that the government doesn't have the power to collect it."
How can a shortfall of 90 billion representing 10% of GDP be possible at all? Maybe the politicians pensions and utter ignorance in budgeting might have something to do with it? You decide. I can see this spreading around the planet as government sending is out of control. When it gets to the level of the property owner, where it can become a lien forcing the sale of their land and home, you have the possibility of revolution.
Hi Todd. Interesting article. Hard times all over the world right now. To have any country's economy shrink by 10% during the current tailspin doesn't surprise me at all. Nobody ever seems to plan for the lean years and the "worst-case scenarios". Global economies rise and fall together and we are all in the midst of a scary crash. Nobody wants to get squeezed even more when they're already gasping for breath but the alternative is defaulting on the bailout loan they received to remain solvent as a nation. If that were to happen the instability created would effect every other nation in the EU directly and, of course, most other developed countries indirectly. That means us too. I don't think we want China buying up large tracts of Ireland as they've done here. If they default who else would be willing to step in and extend help to them? Us? Nope, sorry, can't afford to. We would all be watching in horror as the country crumbled and desperation set in. A long cold winter (a very polite euphemism) the likes of which we've never seen would beset Ireland and we would watch them eat their own. These are also the basic ingredients of revolution. There are no easy answers here.
ReplyDeleteI see you are still using a fake email and when clicked on I arrive at a picture of Bigfoot. Why can't you use your real email? Since you actually addressed the post without profanity I will leave it here. After this though I must delete if you don't use a real email.
DeleteOf course there is no easy answer and there will be lots of economic pain in Ireland and in most countries that have overspent their budgets and driven their countries into default. What I see though is overspending and lack of scaling back. Governments will fall and a readjustment will take place to get balanced because the little people are being hosed.