Thoughtful, apolitical policies and consensus among traditional adversaries to promote economic development is a winning combination. Capitalism, with a dose of Socialism, e.g., free education and health care, has been a winning combination. Can the same be said of Northern Ireland?
"Ireland's advice is very simple: Make high school and college education free; make your corporate taxes low, simple and transparent; actively seek out global companies; open your economy to competition; speak English; keep your fiscal house in order; and build a consensus around the whole package with labor and management - then hang in there, because there will be bumps in the road - and you, too, can become one of the richest countries in Europe.
'It wasn't a miracle, we didn't find gold,' said Mary Harney. 'It was the right domestic policies and embracing globalization.'"
1 comment:
Thomas Friedman, as has become customary, totally misses the point-- he looks and sees what he desperately wants to see rather than what's actually there. Ireland's economic success is fabulous and a shot in the arm for those of us with Irish and Scotch-Irish heritage, but some of the things which even Friedman cites for Ireland's success are nothing less than government incentives designed to "prime the pump" of the population and get things in motion. That is, many of the bases for Ireland's success are more the types of things used in Continental Europe (e.g., Konrad Adenauer's Germany) rather than the USA.
"Make high school and college education free"
What? Government-funded high school and college education? Those damn socialistic Irish pinkos, what are they thinking? Funny, because this is precisely *the France and Germany model* of education, not that of the US. Higher education is virtually free in Continental Europe, whereas in the US we charge very high tuition and other fees for public as well as private universities. Maybe Ireland is following "Old Europe" more than Friedman cares to admit??!!!
"Speak English"
Truly one of Friedman's all-time most idiotic comments, even for him. They speak English over there in Iraq, Sierra Leone, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Pakistan-- all former British colonies-- yet this obviously hasn't turned these countries into tigers of commerce, has it? (Or bastions of political freedom, either.) On the other side, over in Japan, China, South Kores, they speak-- shockers-- Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Spanish, yet somehow those countries have become very successful. Economic prosperity has absolutely nothing to do with the specific language you speak-- it's a result of *what you do* in the language that your people speak.
"and build a consensus around the whole package with labor and management"
Yes, and Ireland has especially strong labor unions, much like Continental Europe and unlike the USA.
Friedman's obsessed with Iraq and sticking it to Old Europe, and this is just one more lame attempt to do that. He still has this neocon fever fantasy about turning Iraq into an unbridled version of a multinationalist corporate honcho's playground-- even if hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have to die to allow for it. He makes me sick-- I've begun to use his columns in the Times as a doormat when walking in from muddy ground.
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