Attached Link: http://mondediplo.com/1998/04/12robert

jwhitham --

Many European countries (including the UK) have interesting methods of calculating unemployment rates.

*On 4 February (1998) the United Kingdom adopted a new system for calculating the number of jobless and "discovered" 500,000 more than expected. This has upped the British unemployment rate from 5% to 7% of the working population. Earlier statistics covered only those on unemployment benefit, rather than the total number of unemployed (1). In fact, the Conservatives changed their method of calculation 32 times between 1979 and 1997, each time omitting certain groups from the statistics, such as young people under the age of 17, the over 55s or the long-term unemployed.

This is a watertight way of producing "good" statistics. Similarly in the Netherlands, the official figures cover only 6% of real unemployment thanks to a very broad interpretation of the concept of disability: it disguises the existence of some 800,000 unemployed workers by describing them as "unfit", although many if not most of them are quite able to work. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), were it not for this manipulation, the real unemployment rate would rise to 20% (2).*

So, you might want to reconsider the statement:

Perhaps it has nothing to do with fuel taxes, which are much lower in Spain, France and Germany?

I don't agree with everything that this article claims, but it does point out some of the statistical "games" that governments play (yes, including the US) in order to make the employment picture look far more rosy than it actually is.

In addition to which, I would never lay the blame for European economic difficulties only at the door of high petrol taxes. The effects of Euro-style socialism go well beyond that one factor alone.

But one must admit that it's true -- Ireland is booming.

Why? Because they are lowering taxes:

*In January The European Commission rapped Ireland's knuckles. The Emerald Isle's sin: planning another round of tax cuts. Ireland has previously incurred Brussels' scorn for its low-tax regime. True, Germany and France are engaged in some of their own tax cutting, thanks to their less-than-stellar economies and their paltry participation in high technology. But they and most other EU countries don't like the idea of it at all, so they vent their spleen by picking on Dublin.

What makes Ireland's tax "sins" truly unforgivable is that the cuts are working. Ireland's unemployment rate is lower than ours. Its budget surplus is proportionately higher, and its growth rate is 10.7%. Indeed, revenues are pouring in at such a rate that Dublin is embarking on a major spending program to improve the country's road system and is paying down its national debt.

The European Commission's periodic anti-Irish eruptions underscore the reason the Bush Administration should seriously consider extending NAFTA to the Emerald Isle and Britain. Such a move would send a loud message to the EU that we fervently support economic liberalizationnot a statist, high-tax, pro-government, anti-entrepreneurial, bureaucratically driven regime.*

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2001/0305/039_print.html

We need to lower taxes over here, too.

Message edited on: 09/05/2004 16:04

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