I'm Hurt By My Irish Bretheren

It hurts more because it is the Irish that have stabbed my heart, for despite a thorough, indepth post that glorified Ireland, my ancestrial brothers have seemed not to notice their American cousin for all I've gotten was one lousy stinking hit from the homeland.


Come on here guys!

So, in a desperate hope to get more representation from the economic emerald in my eye, I will repost the post on Ireland.

There was a comment made on one of my posts about how he was shocked that Ireland was such an economic success. And I suppose I never really gave much thought about it, but it did occur to me that there are probably some people out there who are still under the impression that Ireland is still the armpit of Europe and are unaware as to just what an economic success story Ireland has become.

Thus, I've decided to highlight some of the key statistics about Ireland and compare them to the UK, the US and the EU for reference.

First things first. Ireland used to have high tax rates, but has since lowered them to become some of the lowest in Europe going from above 50% of GDP in the 80's to 35% today.



Overall taxes weren't the only things being lowered, as Ireland effectively has become a tax haven for corporation, attracting investment from foreign firms wishing to establish a beach head and gain access to the European markets.


While leftists will contest otherwise, history has shown us that as taxes are lowered, certain things have a tendency to go down.

Things like unemployment;


Note the precipitous drop in unemployment from French levels to American levels.

But while unemployment may drop, other things increase when taxes are lowered...like economic growth. Ireland is by far the only European Tiger and leaves most other modern day countries behind, lending credence to my theory that an economy can never grow "too fast."


Higher economic growth results in higher standards of living. This should particularly piss off the Brits since as of 1998, Ireland has surpassed their former overlord's in standards of living and looks set to surpass even US standards (don't ask me why the OECD doesn't have 2003-2005 data).


Today there are very few countries that enjoy higher standards of living than Ireland


Of course statistics and economics isn't everything. I remember a socialist getting into it with me saying, "You know, the whole world isn't all statistics, Statistics Man. There's things like love and friendship count too..."

I couldn't agree more. What is life I ask you, without love? And how can you possibly measure or apply statistics to love?

Thus a comparison of who I can fall in love with from varying countries is warranted;

I could fall in love with a German, such as Chancellor Merkel;

I could court Judi Dench, a renouned, Oscar-winning British actress who currently portrays M in the new James Bond films;


To be fair and representative of all Europeans, we should include some Scandinavians like the head of Sweden's feminist party;


Oh, and let's not forget there's a lot of fine selection in them there US American babes!


And then we have those god-awful redheaded monsters that pass for women in Ireland;

Yuck! What sane, rational-minded, red-blooded male would EVER contemplate moving to Ireland?