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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lou Weed who wrote (252891)	1/3/2008 12:57:51 PM
From: Katelew	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Figures of around $44000 US per capita income overstates the financial health of the average American family, I think. Per capita income is derived by dividing GDP by the number of the population, so it's not truly a measurement of actual dollars of income flowing to workers. In the US it overstates things because of the numbers of products that are partly built and assembled overseas. A good ex. of this would be Boeing's new Dreamliner airplane. Wings, rudders, electrical panels, etc. are sub-contracted to Japan and multiple EU countries......nearly 50%, I think, is being sub-contracted to foreign corporations. The total value of each airplane sold will be booked to GDP, when in reality a substantial amount of wages and corporate profits went offshore. The other reason per capita income is a misleading number is again in the arithmetic. As the income disparity between rich and poor has widened in this country, using 'averages' becomes increasingly meaningless. For ex. if a business has 10 employees and sells $1,000,000 worth of widgets, the average per capita is $100,000. The reality, of course, is quite different. The owner might receive 80% of the income with the rest divided among the other nine. Although it varies from country to country, income is more evenly distributed in the EU. And important benefits such as health care and education are MUCH more evenly distributed. These are two reasons experts argue that Europeans have a higher standard of living on average than we do. Nadine uses backward looking numbers and she cherry picks. She extrapolates from those numbers and thus fails to recognize the unhealthy shifts taking place in this country. In terms of income disparity, unchecked we're on the path of becoming a banana republic. As an investor, this troubles me. Forgetting the moral dimension, it's just plain unhealthy financially.

To: Lou Weed who wrote (252891)	1/3/2008 1:24:53 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

What's interesting from my personal point of view is how far Ireland has come in the last 20 years. Wonder if its because I left?!?!? Maybe, but I daresay their tax policy for the last 20 years has had more to do with it. Can you say "investment friendly low tax environment"? Or does that hurt your socialist impulses too much?

To: Lou Weed who wrote (252891)	1/3/2008 1:49:25 PM
From: michael97123	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Isnt it because ireland opened itself up to american style capitalism? As for big euro countries sans GB, i think the demographics are pointing to problems for these countries. Seems thats what sarkozy sees. Only thing that can save them is slavery since they cant get open immigration right. If you have only old folks and have a half kid per family and you dont import productive people to do the work necessary to support the pensioneers, how do they make it? With all the problems, i take my mexicans anyday to do the low level jobs and I would go a step further and steal young euro folks who know whats coming. US is in a bit of a bind today because of deficits and lack of saving but this is cyclical---it comes and it goes. Euro is far more structural and their entitlements are bigger and their unions able to shut down countries. Am i nuts Mike?