Freeman

ANYTHING PEACEFUL

Ominous

MAY 12, 2011 by SHELDON RICHMAN

From the Wall Street Journal:

Ireland’s new government entered office in March with a choice: to continue pretending that more borrowing will get everyone’s bills paid in full and on time; or to face up to an insolvent banking system, work on restructuring or even defaulting on their national debt, and, in all likelihood, exit the euro zone.

The government chose the former, and now it is planning to raid citizens’ private pension funds to help pay its banks’ debts.

The plan is for a four-year 0.06 percent tax on private pensions in order to fund a jobs program.  This is where profligate government leads. Imagine its effect on incentives.

ABOUT

SHELDON RICHMAN

Sheldon Richman is the former editor of The Freeman and TheFreemanOnline.org, and a contributor to The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. He is the author of Separating School and State: How to Liberate America's Families.

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