The new measures announced in the Budget illustrate how the government’s response to the crisis has actually been to expand the tax breaks available to foreign and domestic capital. As a result, the percentage of the annual tax take from taxes on capital has plummeted, from 22% in 2007 to 13% in 2012. To compensate for all this corporate tax-dodging, more and more taxes, from USC to Local Property Tax and now the water charges, have been loaded onto the working class, while vital public services continue to be slashed. The Irish economy and state, like all neo-liberal capitalist economies and states, is one which benefits and rewards those ruling, corporate elites who exploit, and impoverishes the majority who labor and create the wealth.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 12:35:59 +0000