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Are you watching Latvia implode?

theeedude

theeedude

Lifer
Looks like they adopted every policy that our conservative "free market" economies want us to adopt, flat taxes, deregulation, privatization, etc.

http://www.balticbusinessnews.com/a..._has_problems_Latvia_is_on_the_way_to_serfdom

The “reforms” consisted in showing them how to shift taxes off business and real estate (the prime bank customers) onto labor, not only as a flat income tax but a flat “social service” tax, so as to pay Social Security and health care as a user fee by labor rather than funded out of the general budget largely by the higher tax brackets.

Unlike the West, there was no significant property tax. This obliged governments to tax labor and industry. But unlike the West, there was no progressive income or wealth tax.
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Sounds like a GOP wet dream, what could go wrong?
Read and find out.
 
Weak government that allowed their wealth to be transferred out of the country by the corrupt business and lenders.
 
EagleKeeper said:
Weak government that allowed their wealth to be transferred out of the country by the corrupt business and lenders.
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Yep... people always leave out the fact that these countries don't have the legal/law enforcement infrastructure of the United States. That is why Russia has gone back to someone like Putin. Corruption was rampant in their free society. Same thing with Latvia.
 
rudder said:
Yep... people always leave out the fact that these countries don't have the legal/law enforcement infrastructure of the United States. That is why Russia has gone back to someone like Putin. Corruption was rampant in their free society. Same thing with Latvia.
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You mean they don't have enough regulation?
 
OP: Comparing apples to oranges, always a good way to make a valid argument.... or not. Something tells me Latvia doesn't even come close to actually having true free markets etc.
 
EagleKeeper said:
Weak government that allowed their wealth to be transferred out of the country by the corrupt business and lenders.
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I think this is somewhat true. It sure is easy to make blanket statements like "see what conservative ideas actually do?!?!" but honestly I think that article, as thought p[rovoking as it is for me, only scrathes the surface.

Good read though.
 
Genx87 said:
Corruption is against the law is it not? What would regulation do to stop corruption that the law doesnt already?
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The law unfortunately doesn't apply to corporations the same way as it does to individuals. If it did, you'd see hundreds if not thousands of Wall St banksters going to prison. Instead, they get slapped with fines, and that's only if a regulation is enforced and they stir up enough trouble.
 
OP, where is your thread about Greece? They are far from a conservative "free market" economy.
 
Munky said:
The law unfortunately doesn't apply to corporations the same way as it does to individuals. If it did, you'd see hundreds if not thousands of Wall St banksters going to prison. Instead, they get slapped with fines, and that's only if a regulation is enforced and they stir up enough trouble.
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Corruption is a jailable offense regardless of who you work for and what you do. It sounds to me like Latvian officials were corrupted into selling out their country for personal gain. No regulation is going to fix that if the people who are in charge of enforcing that regulation are being corrupted.
 
senseamp said:
You mean they don't have enough regulation?
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Or don't have enough enforcement, or some combination of the two. I love capitalism and free markets as much as the next person, but outside of a strong legal/ethical framework, it will destroy itself and most of us. Greed as a motivating factor is like nuclear energy - it needs to be properly harnessed to make it useful to society; otherwise, it is deadly on a massive scale.
 
rudder said:
Yep... people always leave out the fact that these countries don't have the legal/law enforcement infrastructure of the United States. That is why Russia has gone back to someone like Putin. Corruption was rampant in their free society. Same thing with Latvia.
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But... but... but... the market was supposed to take care of itself!
 
Mursilis said:
Or don't have enough enforcement, or some combination of the two. I love capitalism and free markets as much as the next person, but outside of a strong legal/ethical framework, it will destroy itself and most of us. Greed as a motivating factor is like nuclear energy - it needs to be properly harnessed to make it useful to society; otherwise, it is deadly on a massive scale.
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Yeah, look at the housing bubble.
 
Genx87 said:
Corruption is a jailable offense regardless of who you work for and what you do. It sounds to me like Latvian officials were corrupted into selling out their country for personal gain. No regulation is going to fix that if the people who are in charge of enforcing that regulation are being corrupted.
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A lot of it was perfectly legal, a failure of regulation and laws, not just violation of them.
 
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