this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2024
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[–] [email protected] 83 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Worlds tiniest violin plays

I still haven't forgiven them for knowingly stealing most of the west's' tax base for years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement

They're a huge part in the downfall of our societies and did it for a quick buck.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Well, quick buck or not, check their economy before and after and report back to explain what else exactly they could leverage to their advantage

[–] masterspace 21 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You do not have a right or obligation to leverage your advantage at the expense of everyone else, no matter how many Ayn Rand loving psychopaths will try and argue otherwise.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's capitalism, playing your advantage for gain.

[–] masterspace 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

As an abstract system, yeah, that is mechanistically how it works. If you live your life and make real world decisions based on an abstract system that doesn't accurately and wholistically model the real world, then you're either lying to yourself, or us, or you don't understand the purpose of money and capitalism in the first place.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Is this supposed to justify the behavior?

Should Ireland be sanctioned or put on that list?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm sorry, Ireland will never be sanctioned for this. They're aligned with two powerful trading blocs.

Inside the EU: they don't meaningfully do anything to stop this practice of tax avoidance. They'll play a good game taking US multinationals to court, yes, and imposing laughable fines. But ultimately they're not going to outright ban this practice or force Ireland to stop. They're either not capable or unwilling. Time has showed both.

Friends with the US: if there's any "special relationship" with the US, it's not France it's not the UK it's Ireland. There's too many votes, to be blunt, in the "Irish American" caucuses for The US to change any position on Ireland regarding tax evasion.

Time to face facts. That tax isn't coming home. It's being funneled via Ireland for the benefit of US multinationals who wish their CEOs to vacation in Hawaii twice a year for a small cut taken by Ireland.

Luck of the Irish, eh?

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Russians, Chinese and Arabs in London are bigger issues city no doubt. At least in Ireland the good guys launder their money and evade taxes.

Good to see irelsnd so rich and homeless population is on rise. As if that's how system is intended to work.

The richer the country the more homeless

American way?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Just how this is structured shows how angry you are, there is a lot of information and these a complex issues but they are not all linked to the corporate taxation policy.

People are wildly angry about these small things, the corporstions that HQ in ireland are active in te US and likely have less pay and conditions than they do in Ireland. The US should be fighting for better working conditions not giving out about corporate taxation, every country does their best to attract investment.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Economy of what? A country that has no jobs outaide of Dublin, and rents beyond what a median income can afford in Dublin? Ireland has a fake economy that is built entirely on lies with no money going to actual working people. It's like if Rhode Island eas an independent country.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Well this is completely wrong, there are in fact loads of jobs outside dublin...where most of the population lives.

There is a housing crisis yes, more should be done.

[–] masterspace 26 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

If anyone thought we were heading to a future of lower power consumption they were deluding themselves. We can lower emissions by eliminating fossil fuels, but per capita net power consumption will, on average, continue going up, because it will still always correlate with getting useful physical work done.

Western countries need to figure out that the future will lbe dominated by who can produce the most clean energy, the cheapest.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

That's just not true, western countries have been on a downward trend of per capita energy usage for two decades now. Electricity usage may go up because we're changing how we use energy, but we're on a downward trajectory overall.

[–] masterspace 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

In the short term it has and will, while we have low hanging fruit we can tackle, stuff like insulating houses, not burning fossil fuels, and taxing carbon output so that commercial / industrial processes take it into account has all lead to reductions, but those won't last forever. I mean, now that Solar / Wind are cheaper than fossil fuels, a carbon tax alone no longer incentivizes reductions in energy use since energy and carbon output have been decoupled.

Once we finished doing those basic things that we should have been doing for decades, per capita energy use will trend back up, and overall energy use has still been trending upwards this whole time anyways due to population growth.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Energy use increasing isn't an issue if carbon output is decreasing. That's happening in the EU and the US, and countries like China and India will eventually get there.

a carbon tax alone

Sure, no single change will undo over a century of pollution, but I think you're discounting the impact too much. I don't know about the EU, but we haven't even tried a carbon tax in the US. We have gas taxes and carbon credits, but those are largely ineffective IMO.

If we place a carbon tax on imports, it'll act like a selective tariff, so imported goods would have an incentive to reduce their carbon footprint. I think it could be quite effective at accelerating change.

[–] masterspace 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Yes, my point is that many green advocates / leftists mistakenly think that per capita energy usage will go down, and they jump and get angry at any increased energy usage, including explicitly green energy (see people flipping out about ai datacenters signing green energy contracts).

My point is that once energy usage is decoupled from emissions there is no reason for it to decrease, so it will skyrocket as it was doing before our growing awareness of climate change, so western governments should be focusing on building out excessive seeming levels of clean electricity generation.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Yup, focusing on energy use misses the forest for the trees. The focus should be on net CO2 output, and as long as that's trending downward, we're making progress.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Didn't Ireland recently bump their corporate tax up from like 7/8 to 15% to align with basically the test of the world as well?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

It’s still 12.5%. I don’t think it was ever as low as 7 or 8. I don’t think it’s gone up to 15% yet either, but it was being talked about for sure.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Ireland are moving closer and closer to renewables with huge sites coming online anually and more getting permission to start. These sites were going to be put somewhere, ireland has a strong tech centre, an eucated work force, an amazingly stable grid and plenty of space to house these.

Why would Ireland push these out, only for them to be built somewhere else with the same downsides and no upsides. Sure on paper Ireland's usage goes up but as a planet, where it is housed makes no difference only how the power is produced.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Especially when Ireland is a tax heaven.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Its haven, and sure whatever. Obviously a very well made counter agrument

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I didn't make a counter argument.

Of course they won't do anything to harm their precious little GDPR violating babies.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

Their self deprecating race to the bottom knows few limits.