It is a truism that, no matter what system of taxation is in force, the rich get richer.

If tax becomes confiscatory, as planned by “Red” Richie Ryan, when the top rate was 83%, the rich will leave the country.

This fact does not negate any argument.

And, of course water desalination costs. So does drilling for oil & gas. Yet the drilling continues and the search for alternative sources continue as OPEC screws Europe.

I merely pointed out that Bertie Ahern, our long-serving PM, has left a legacy of unanswered questions; a nice smile and little else.

He has decided to do a bunk, passing Brian Cowen the hot potato of his chronic mismanagement.

There are interesting days ahead as the SS Ireland sinks into the mess that Bertie made.

Considering something like a third of water in Dublin is lost to leaks that probably would be a better start. Also desalination takes copious amounts of energy. Probably requiring Nuclear Power which is copiously expensive. Even compared to the Bertie Bowl.

Copernicus, placed the Sun at the centre of the Universe – and, reading his post, I feel that eponymous writer places Bertie at the centre of His Universe?
put a smile on my face cheers

many visitors to Ireland procreate, in vast swathes, to obtain hand-outs – or, in other instances, to obtain an Irish passport.
That was stopped by a high court judgment and the citizenship referendum i believe

Laughable?

Copernicus, placed the Sun at the centre of the Universe – and, reading his post, I feel that eponymous writer places Bertie at the centre of His Universe?

He might then ponder on some of Master Ahern’s better ideas to further his Pauline conversion – such as the so-called mega million euro “Bertie Bowl” – a howler if ever…

To benefit the needy & the poor?

Bollocks.

One can visualise the fat cats – the ones Jack O’Connor so despises – squatting in the Royal Box – with King Bert.

Perhaps even the Lenin lookalike might find time away from the RTE cameras to join the Elite Developers and Bung Donors.

After all, de Bert is best buddies wit de brudders & might proffer an invite.

Instead of building marginal football facilities for the elite, miles from anywhere into the bargain, Why not build two water desalination plants?

Something that benefits everyone.

Too obvious.

All boats rise with the tide, all go down with the ebb.

Social tinkering will never alter the tide.

Positive taxation can correct imbalances – not by re-distribution, as you seem to advocate – but by re-investment of retained profits; by savings; by prudent spending of what one can afford.

Not everyone is in the position of Bertie Ahern & Charlie Haughey – able to dispense favours in return for Bungs.

Hopefully Brian Cowen has seen the errors of the Old Fianna Fail corrupt ways & can make amends by progressive (non-confiscatory) taxes – and spend wisely – on growth – not plugging gaps of imbalance.

Your explanation of the effects of a consumption tax is laughable. If only poor people worked harder, they’d have more income. There are only so many hours in the day and at a low hourly rate, you can never make more than marginal increases in your income. Of course, the poorest aren’t in employment at all, especially in periods of recession such as the one we are about to enter.

Why don’t you have the guts to admit you just don’t want to pay any income tax and leave it at that? Why the need to insult people’s intelligence with these ludicrous and economically illiterate models of taxation?

I’m sure paying 23% interest was traumatic, but plenty of other people lived through it without becoming unhinged.

In 1983, I was paying 23% on borrowings, from a high street bank, not a bucket shop moneylender. As a consequence, almost my entire after tax income was being used to service my mortgage.

If the writer had read my post, he would have seen that only the uplift of the site value would attract CGT.
Any increase in the sale price of one’s principal private residence, constructed on the site, would be free of all taxation.
This is completely equitable, as the windfall gain was unearned.

In a system of Consumption Taxation one would pay as one spent. The Black Economy would deal in the market place as an equal.

It was common during the first 50 years of the last century for people to save up for goods for which they had no ready funds available. Compound inflation between 1930 & 1957 was about 3%, so one could wait & not suffer the effects of inflation on the price.

But the UK socialist government saw fit to allow Budget deficits to fund their ambitious social programmes, which they could not fund out of current taxation, and the can of inflationary worms was opened.

Ireland could not resist the opportunity to follow suit, as usual,and I well remember George Colley when he made his apology for going down the same slippery slope.

The motivation was honourable, had it been kept in check, but, once that can was opened, every scrounger in the 2 countries was queuing up for the hand-outs.

They were quickly followed by the British passport holders in the Caribbean and Nigeria etc…

This can hardly be described as surprising.

“Something for Nothing” must be irresistible to people with no conscience.

Fianna Fail have regularly pandered to such people. Remember the abolition of Rates in 1977?

Copernicus is of the opinion that the poor will always suffer under a system of Consumption Tax.

Why?

They have a choice, which they don’t have now. They are prevented from retaining what they earn. Under a system of CT, the harder they work and the more they earn, the more they keep to buy the goods and services that they can afford.

Look at the price today of a pint of milk and a sliced white pan .

The cost of the former is a result of guaranteed prices for Milk Production. All production is purchased from dairy farmers. This, in turn, is pasteurised, packeted and distributed.

Charities have asked for the surplus production, but are told they must collect it from the dairies – an impossible task, with their limited resources.

So, the surplus milk is dumped in the sea.

It is so easy to blame the leaders of industry for the cost of living, but, as Copernicus said about the CGT being passed on to the consumer, every satisfied wage demand, by Messrs. O’Connor; Begg; Halpenny & Doran, is also passed on to their members in the High Street.

And to the poor.

Bertie Ahern “outed” himself after his Pauline conversion, by Sean Healy at Inshidorney, as some sort of “born-again” Socialist, then promptly pays himself €300,000 every year & still cannot afford to live on that and has to scrounge from developers & other interested “friends” – to pay alimony to his dishonoured ex-wife – or so he said to Brian Dobson.

The same beards & sandals – Begg; O’Connor etc. pay themselves hefty six figure sums from the dues they filch from their overtaxed members.

And what do they do for all that loot?

Appear on RTE for photo opportunities to spout a pile of guff.

The consumption tax is of course a right-wing shibboleth. It’s effect would be to reinforce current social imbalances because as anyone with a smattering of economic knowledge knows, the poorer you are the greater proportion of your income you are forced to devote to consumption. Thus a very poor person subjected to a consumption tax would be taxed on all their income, whereas a Tribunal Lawyer would be taxed only on a very small percentage of his.

It’s much easier for someone with a large disposable income to avoid consumption and thus build up a fund which can be leveraged to provide even more income. Especially by investing in sheltered schemes or abroad.

Property Speculation has arisen because house owners saw an opportunity to trade. If the Site (upon which all houses are built) was registered and valued, then the increase in value could be indexed and the house valued at the Insured Compensation for Reinstatment cost.

The increase in the value of the Site would be subject to Capital Gains Tax.

This would effectively stop the House Price Inflation spiral that we have witnessed under Fianna Fail.

In addition, all fallow land and empty housing should be taxed and the yield transferred to those who work the land and occupy the houses, by way of “soft loans”.