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<TITLE>Re: (urth) Gene Wolfe Fans Talk Politics (Again)</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">James,</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">I think the flight of wealthy Americans to Ireland is as we had until recently a special law here allowing artists</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">to pay no tax. The law has since been done away with and we saw an outflux of some of our wealthiest citizens.</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">(Aside: Including U2 who went to another tax free haven. I find it a little annoying that Bono asks us to donate money to charity</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">all the time when he is unwilling to pay his tax bill.)</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">As for Europeans fleeing to America because they are working as waiters in Europe, I think this is inaccurate.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">In the pre-credit crunch days there were huge rates of employment in Ireland (about 97%) and across Europe </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">(averaging about 94%). In a recent poll run by my college following up on those who graduated 5 years ago 70% of my class </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">were in industry, 25% were in further education and the rest were occupied in various ways. </FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">Message: 1</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">Date: Tue, 19 May 2009 15:25:37 -0500</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">From: "James Wynn" <crushtv@gmail.com></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">Subject: Re: (urth) Gene Wolfe Fans Talk Politics (Again)</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth@lists.urth.net></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">Message-ID: <50586EEE2CA14862AA7A038867E0B211@eMachinePC></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";</FONT>
<BR> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">reply-type=response</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">>> You can say that "Well, we live in a society, and that's just the burden </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">>> that rich people will have to bear to live in it with us. Fine. The Wall </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">>> Street Journal has an article yesterday by Art Laffer on what the </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">>> response of rich people is to that ultimatum.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">>> <A HREF="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124260067214828295.html">http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124260067214828295.html</A></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">>> They leave.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">>> Just as the pilgrims left when Wat set up shop in the forest.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">>Adam sez: And yet, I see very few millionaires moving to Mogadishu.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> Why do you suppose that is?</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">Because the people there do not respect the integrity of private property?</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">You will find millionaires hiding out in the Bahamas. And many millionaires </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">have left the "more equitable" welfare state of the U.K. for the "less fair" </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">U.S. and Ireland. The flight of load-bearing citizens from NYC and </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">California are test-tube examples of what happens when you increase benefits </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">for all on the backs of a voting minority.</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">There is another reason America is not (yet) Mogadishu. V?clav Havel said </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">that it's easy to get a Communist society from a Capitalist one. It's as </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">easy as getting seafood from an exotic fish aquarium. You just boil the the </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">aquarium. It's harder to go the other way. Those calling for increased </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">social benefits from government are currently benefiting from a society that </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">has (relatively) eschewed those things in the past. They are essentially </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">living off the principle of an inheritance.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">People talk about how much Europeans *love* their free health care and </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">education. But educated people there are quite anxious to come to the U.S. </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">anyway. Why? Limited opportunity. It's not uncommon for Europeans to take </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">their free Ph.Ds and go to work as waiters. It's not "How many millionaires </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">are leaving?" The tradesmen (the rich) didn't leave the village in "The </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">Devil in a Forest". The question is "How many new ones are coming? Is the </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">rate of new ones being created here increasing or decreasing?" </FONT>
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