You can’t spell Ireland with “ire”
(Trend chart courtesy of the Center for Global Development)
A lot has been said over the past few weeks about U2 moving some of their business out of Ireland to the Netherlands. In earlier blog posts, I listed some stories that quoted some Irish politicians who were quite irate at Bono in particular for taking away potential tax dollars that Ireland could have spent on helping those in need, going so far as claiming he was being contradictory.
What some news organizations missed was the Center for Global Development’s recent announcement that the Netherlands ranks #1 among the 21 richest nations in allocating tax dollars to combating global poverty in seven key policy areas: technology, security, environment, migration, investment, trade and aid.
So, perhaps U2’s asset move isn’t that bad after all? Sure, it’s easy to point out that it’s because of a major tax law change, but maybe the decision might have been different had Ireland made the same level of commitment as the 13 other countries who scored higher.
myownconga said,
August 17, 2006 @ 7:52 am
Very interesting point.
mdbsn said,
August 17, 2006 @ 5:50 pm
Ive been to Shannon, Ireland and they say Aer Lingus and I do belive its Eireland in Irish and Irland in German.
p8ru2 said,
August 18, 2006 @ 9:06 am
Great article & thx for posting! All the Scandinavian countries rock the house and set a standard for the rest!
Interesting to me that some of the big G8 countires did so poorly in comparison: Canada ranks 10th, UK 12th, and USA & Ireland follow, ranking 13th. Our politicians have work to do!