It isn't like me to step into a foodfight, but since my colleague Alex has opened the subject up to discussion not once but twice (and, since I am also apparently a "comically rightwing American") I thought I'd take this opportunity to both shamelessly promote my writing and also point out how incredibly inclusive we are here at the European Weblog Review.
Turns out, I actually wrote a piece which An Englishman's Castle might even agree with. In Global Politician not so long ago, I indicated that the 2nd Bush Administration could do far worse than leave as its legacy a simpler and fairer tax code. I used the examples of the new EU member states as an argument for pursuing the idea, which is incidentally taking hold in Britain. Notwithstanding the comments of my Yorkshire colleague, I see no reason to change that opinion. Let's take his arguments:
- The Heritage Foundation and Mitchell: Yes, they're conservative. Stop the presses.
- Malta and Cyprus' tax systems and the OECD blacklist: Should it surprise anyone that two developing nations have corruption problems? Shouldn't their entry to the EU be an opportunity to prove that they can reform themselves? And while we're talking about corruption, what about the French and the oil for food scandal recently? And is Britain without its share of corruption scandals (ahem, BLUNKETT)? Glass houses and all that...
- Glassman and Tech Central Station: If you read Glassman's latest piece on Dow 36,000, you'll note that his only regret is the title of the book. His point, that stocks are the best investment over time, has been proven over and over to be true. And thank goodness for that.
- Social security contributions and "New Europe": If you stop and think about it, there are two issues here -- (a) these states are coping with the legacy of communist social security promises and trying not to impoverish their people while maximizing their growth (and they're succeeding -- have you been to Tallinn or Vilnius recently?); and (b) in total Euros (or dollars or kroons or lita or whatever) they're still scraping to make sure their people have something when they get to retirement, so contributions will remain relatively higher until they catch up with the bloated social systems of Western Europe. Oh, and let's not forget that most of these states have actually lowered taxes -- except for the EU-imposed mandatory minimums -- since the introduction of their flat taxes.
We could go on and on about this, I'm sure. Anyone interested in disputing any of this can feel free to move over to the comments section of my personal blog, lest we continue to dilute what would otherwise be useful content in this blog.
As I said, though, isn't the spirit of open debate wonderful?
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