IIn 1956, a man
TK “Ken” WhitakerAn Irish civil servant by training as an economist, he was appointed Permanent Secretary to the Treasury in Dublin at the relatively young age of 39. From his vantage point as the head of the national treasury, the outlook was bleak. The Republic of Ireland was in deep economic and social crisis. It had no natural resources, little industry, and was in deep depression. Inflation and unemployment were high. Ireland’s main export was young people, who fled by the thousands each year in search of work and a better life. The proud dream of Irish independence produced an impoverished nation of priests on the verge of collapse.
Mr. Whitaker quickly assembled a team of young officials to critically analyze the country’s economic failures and devise a series of policies to remedy them. As a result, a report titled “First Plan for Economic Expansion” was published in November 1958, and subsequently
Sean Lemas He was elected Taoiseach (Prime Minister) in 1959 and became Ireland’s survival strategy.
At its heart were several important proposals. Ireland will have to embrace the idea of free trade. That would mean boosting competition and ending the protectionism that had been a feature of Irish economic policy under Lemas’s predecessor Airmon de Valera (whose economic philosophy was once described as “non-British”). But most importantly, the strategy requires that Ireland must welcome foreign capital in the future, which essentially means being nice to national companies, giving multinationals generous tax breaks, giving them help finding land to build on, and generally being responsive to their needs.
Whittaker’s strategy was bold, but it worked. (Of course, joining the European Economic Community in 1973 didn’t hurt either.) The republic moved from a state of deep socio-economic problems to an apparent paradigm of neoliberal prosperity. I have transformed. Foreign companies (mainly American companies) flooded in. German crane manufacturer Liebherr was an early entrant. In 1980, he was followed by Apple, and then came pharmaceutical companies. (Perhaps Viagra is manufactured in Ireland, once the holy land of Catholicism.) Then along came the big technology companies, many of which now have their European headquarters in Dublin.
If any of these behemoths had any doubts about coming to the Emerald Isle, two things would have reassured them. The first is Brexit. These companies had to join the EU. The second was how the republican government rushed to the rescue of one of its compatriots, Apple. When the European Commission concluded in 2016 that the company had been unfairly granted €13 billion in tax exemptions by Irish authorities, Apple not only successfully appealed this decision in 2020 but also had a similar ruling in 2020. was lowered.
The republican government did it.. Think about it for a moment. A small country is refusing to accept her 13 billion euro payment. (Incidentally, the Commission has appealed this decision, and it appears Apple may still have to pay an additional €1.2 billion in interest. This money is currently held in an escrow fund with the Irish government.)
But the subconscious message to corporate bosses was: “If you run into trouble with the EU, we will support you.” This message may have reached Beijing as well. In any case, it is
interesting to learn It comes just as the US and EU are considering cracking down on TikTok (whose owner ByteDance, coincidentally, is based in Dublin), and the Irish government is considering cracking down on popular e-commerce app Temu and other companies. It says that it welcomes Chinese-funded companies. Shein, and tech company Huawei.
I might regret this for the rest of my life, but for now, isn’t that all the treble? Only up to a certain point. On the one hand, the influx of foreign capital into Ireland was transformative. Tax revenue from resident high-tech companies is, on paper, making the country richer. The government is paying out of its ear.
surplus
65.2 billion euros by 2027.
Meanwhile, Ireland faces some difficult problems. For example, corporate wealth has done to Dublin what Silicon Valley did to San Francisco, turning a once livable city into a highly unaffordable metropolis. There is a huge
lack of affordable housing. A related homelessness crisis: around 12,000 people are in emergency accommodation, with an average monthly rent of €1,468. Add to that a creaky public health service (along with lavish and expensive private health services).
And it is the only country in Europe.
Population explosion underway: Current demographic trends indicate that the Republic
The population in 2016 was 4.7 million
somewhere in the range of about $5.5 million.
6.7 million people by 2051 By the end of this century, there will be 10 million people living on the entire island of Ireland.
There is a paradox here. Mr. Whitaker’s strategy is to build enough affordable housing to build all the affordable housing the country needs, to fund a world-class public health system, and to build a mass transit system that frees up the nation’s capital. It brought in tax revenue and created a society that was clearly richer than his wildest dreams. Traffic congestion, electrification of everything, etc. Nevertheless, it is ruled by a coalition government that appears unable to look ahead to the next election. Perhaps it is true that we are getting the government we deserve.
what i was reading
A game with a frontier
A great essay by Bruce Schneier
How “Frontier” became the slogan for uncontrollable AI.
talking points
Salvo, Volume 5 Featuring a fascinating interview transcript by Gavin Jacobson.
new statesman With the famous French economist Thomas Piketty.
into the clouds
The incredible ecological impact of computing and the cloud Anthropologist Stephen Gonzalez Montserrat details what he learned while working in a giant data center.
Source: www.theguardian.com
