Sinn Féin's tax proposals?

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You’re comparing policy weakness with the Corleones of Irish politics…
The policy isn't weak at all. It has succeeded in what it set out to, namely to drive property prices back up to boom levels at the expense of everything else. What is "weak" is the moral compass guiding the policy.
 
The policy isn't weak at all. It has succeeded in what it set out to, namely to drive property prices back up to boom levels at the expense of everything else. What is "weak" is the moral compass guiding the policy.
That doesn’t really matter when the choice is between FF/FG, who have their faults admittedly, and a crime syndicate/terror group.
 
The policy isn't weak at all. It has succeeded in what it set out to, namely to drive property prices back up to boom levels at the expense of everything else. What is "weak" is the moral compass guiding the policy.
Increasing property prices are a problem in the Western world.

Political parties on the left make promises but expect someone else to pay for these promises.

What about the "moral compass" of those who don't pay mortgages or rent? What about the "moral compass" of those who play the system?
 
It's precisely the lower middle classes that work, contribute to society and don't play the system that are suffering most from FG's policy of driving up rents and property prices. They are driven into SF's dodgy arms (no pun intended) by the despair it is causing them.
 
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It's precisely the lower middle classes that work, contribute to society and don't play the system that are suffering most from FG's policy of driving up rents and property prices. They are driven into SF's dodgy arms (no pun intended) by the despair it is causing them.
I hope people don't fall for the empty promises being made.
 
The policy isn't weak at all. It has succeeded in what it set out to, namely to drive property prices back up to boom levels at the expense of everything else. What is "weak" is the moral compass guiding the policy.
When the Financial System collapsed in 2008 governments around the world (through their Central Banks) printed money in order to put cash back into peoples bank accounts. That's what recapitalising the banks meant; making up new money and putting it back into the current and savings accounts of ordinary people. They then printed far more money in order to continue to pay teachers and nurses and all State employees. They then kept that going in order to stimulate the economy. The net result was roughly a doubling of global money supply since 2008. In 2020 alone the US increased money supply by 26%. The net result is that those who owned capital before 2008 have seen a massive increase in the value of that capital (mainly houses and pensions) and those who do not own capital (young people) have seen a corresponding decrease in the real value of their income relative to capital values.
Ireland is a small open economy so anyone who thinks that our housing boom is the result of Irish government policy is an idiot.
Given that political decisions have more than doubled the wealth of older people (property and pension owners) in the last 13 years a Wealth tax that excludes property and pensions isn't a wealth tax at all.
To all the comfortable middle aged (like me) and elderly people out there with hundreds of thousands or millions in property and pension assets; you didn't earn your wealth, you lost more than half of it and political decisions gave it back to you at the expense of the young. While you are at it remember when you are whinging about the increase in the wealth of billionaires the exact same factors have made you rich.

SF's policies are populist and short sighted. They know what's true and choose to ignore it. They are no different to the Tories who pick on immigrants and dark skinned people in that they single out a minority that the chattering classes dislike and tell us that we aren't part of the problem, that minority is. The reality is or course, much more unpalatable.

Their pension policy would require a significant reduction in DB pension payments for ESB employees, Bank staff, Civil and Public Servants, Doctors, Gardaí and many others. If they were included I'd be all for it.
 
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Fair enough but none of this explains why the government didn't build the tens of thousands of apartments needed to preempt the housing crisis. It was aware of the democraphic trends fuelling demand, it had the money and the land, it could have used the planning system to ease height restrictions and the tax system to tackle vacant properties, dereliction and land hoarding but it did none of these. Gobal macroeconomics doesn't explain this - lack of empathy and wanting to enrich cronies and elderly middle class voters does.
 
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Fair enough but none of this explains why the government didn't build the tens of thousands of apartments needed to preempt the housing crisis. It was aware of the democraphic trends fuelling demand, it had the money and the land, it could have used the planning system to ease height restrictions and the tax system to tackle vacant properties, dereliction and land hoarding but it did none of these. Gobal macroeconomics doesn't explain this - lack of empathy and wanting to enrich cronies and elderly middle class voters does.
50,000 apartments would cost north of €15 billion.
We don't have the sites to build them on.
We don't have the people to build them.

High rise apartments cost more to build. It takes 5-8 years to build a substantial development, longer if there are lots of objections. Given the financial and Covid crises we haven't done too badly but the Government is constrained by the structural incompetence of the Construction sector and the structural incompetence of local authorities and the very limited resources of the Department of the Environment. We need more Civil Servants, that would be a good start.
There's no conspiracy to enrich any cronies, that's just more divisive SF claptrap akin to the blaming the Jews for Germanys woes after the First World War (I often hear the faint echo of jackboots when SF people are talking).
 
it could have used the planning system to ease height restrictions and the tax system to tackle vacant properties, dereliction and land hoarding but it did none of these.

None of these? What about the Vacant site levy introduced in 2018, and increased in 2019? The €70M grant to the Housing Agency to purchase and refurb vacant housing? Public opinion is very much against increasing the height restrictions, so you need to blame the public for that one.

Gobal macroeconomics doesn't explain this - lack of empathy and wanting to enrich cronies and elderly middle class voters does.

If they wanted to enrich cronies, doing much of what you said would have been a perfect way to achieve that. They'd have made billions in development related income.

Don't get fooled that we have some abnormal issue with vacant or derelict properties. In 2014 it was reported we had over 400,000 vacant properties, many in unfinished ghost estates where no one wanted to buy. The 2016 census reported the number of vacant properties was down to 180k. The 2020 GeoView Report found ~90k vacant properties, and how many of those are second homes or owned by people in long-term care? That's progress in anyone's book.
 
There's no conspiracy to enrich any cronies, that's just more divisive SF claptrap akin to the blaming the Jews for Germanys woes after the First World War
That comparison is a bit inappropriate. There is huge lobbying of the government by developers and some policies (such as the shared equity scheme whose unstated aim is to fuel property prices sill further) are entirely the result of such lobbying.
 
That comparison is a bit inappropriate.
I think it's accurate and appropriate. When a minority is singled out as the source of a systemic problem it is very dangerous.
SF are cold, calculating and manipulative. It's not so long ago that they shot their enemies, more recently they beat them and they still intimidate them. Subjecting them to unfair characterisations is nothing by comparison.

There is huge lobbying of the government by developers and some policies (such as the shared equity scheme whose unstated aim is to fuel property prices sill further) are entirely the result of such lobbying.
There is huge lobbying of the government by all sorts of vested interest groups including unions, industry bodies, banks, financiers, farmer and developers. They all cause bad things to happen.
 
I would have thought developers make more money building houses than not, so I would question the effectiveness of this huge lobbying given the dearth of building activity..
They prefer to do less work for more as opposed to doing more work for less.
 
They prefer to do less work for more as opposed to doing more work for less.
Sorry, but I don't buy that at all. Developers during the CT were building like there was no tomorrow and enjoying themselves to no end
 
Here is the developers' preference schedule ranked in descending order:
1) More for more
2) Less for more
3) More for less
4) Less for less
 
I have to admit, I would agree with a few of the SF proposals and it will be interesting to see how many come to pass over the next 2 or 3 budgets, the corporation tax break for banks being a case in point. I would not be surprised to see the current Govt implement some of these.

Having said that, some of what they are proposing is rather naive. For example, the taxation on things like patents held by multinationals onshore. Multinationals well paid tax experts and lawyers will have those moved elsewhere in the blink of an eye and that is 20% of the potential tax increases being proposed.

I wouldn't be surprised also if their €100k "high salary" taxes also get an increased threshold. In 2016, the CSO reported that 14% of households had an income in excess of that, I would expect post Covid and hopefully a return to normality, that that figure will be significantly higher, especially with the CSO also reporting that average wage inflation is hitting 5%. That proposed tax increase will hit SF in the commuter belt constituencies and hence, I expect it will be watered down.
 
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