During Eddie Hobbs rant against Sinn Fein last Sunday on Marian Finucane (RTE Radio1), he tried the scare tactics of the right to defend not taxing the rich in this country. Part of his theory was that billionaires who were taxed in other parts of Europe, especially France, simply bunny hopped from one country to the other to avoid tax. So we should not tax people because they are wealthy? We should not tax people because they can employ people in Ireland? In case they emigrate for 183 days? Could I ask Eddie Hobbs if he prefers we expel three quarter of a million citizens of our country from 2005 to 2014 because of the dire poverty of our population? Whilst the wealthy of Ireland became 14% more wealthy in that same period? Should we care if 31,762 millionaires and 400 billionaires leave these shores? Yes we should. But if we devote the energy, and the resources that the HSE and Department of Social Protection spent on robbing the disabled children of Ireland of medical treatment, in a relentless campaign to steal their passport to life, the medical card, then we can devise a way to pinch a few billion off those who wouldn't notice the loss.
Something I would disagree with Sinn Fein on is a "Wealth" tax. What we need in Ireland is a declaration of wealth. And a declaration of poverty. Sinn Fein will be tripped up if they try to say they will tax higher at €100,000. I agree that anyone earning €100,000+ should pay a fair tax. But €100k for a single earner with five children and a partner is not wealthy. So wealth should be analysed more carefully. The problem is, Ireland don't do enough analysis of anything! That's why we have so much child neglect and abuse. If we declare a wealth tax in Ireland we will have billionaires hopping around the EU & the Bahamas. But why not declare a wealth "Levy" in Ireland? Then if you are an Irish passport holder and you have a few bucks and want to hold your passport then you could do a deal with the government and pay a one off levy? Like Google pay a €5 billion levy in 2017. We won't look at you till 2022! You can keep your Irish passport. Conditionally. A farmer who owns 5,000 acres of land in County Leitrim, Sligo and Roscommon. But never paid tax in his life because he's a poor farmer and lives on EU grants. We impose €100 per acre "LEVY" for non use of his land. But if he makes his land productive (with government help) and sets up a vegetable processing plant employing 500 people exporting €10 million annually to China he will be exempt from the Levy for five years.
More important is what I said earlier. We need a declaration of wealth. And a declaration of poverty. I have my own formulation of poverty. Poverty is any human being existing on social welfare payments in the Republic of Ireland. EG €188 weekly for a single person. Wealth is any person having an income or assets producing an earnings 20 times that amount including dependents. The levy I propose would not be applied universally. So no-one would know if it would apply to them. It could be applied like the army draft in Australia for the Vietnam war. Or a lottery of rich dicks?
Anyhow "WEALTH" is €195,552 in Ireland. So everyone in politics and the media would have to start making a contribution to medical cards for disabled children and homeless children in Ireland. We in Ireland need to think more creatively! All our creative people exist among our poor and destitute. The Labour Party sucks all that talent out of our working class people and uses it to feed their greedy ambitions. Hence Alex White and Joan Burton campaigning in the middle class areas of Dublin & Galway. If I was looking for a working class voter in Dublin I would be in an immigrants hostel in Dublin. They have no votes. But by Jesus Christ they will have ONE DAY!!!
