Luck of Irish had nothing to do with it (Liberal Takes credit Barf Alert)

Atlantic Journal Constitution (via Boortz) ^ | 6/21/2007 | Jay Bookman

[Michael.SF.]

On the first stop of his 11-day, six-country trade mission to Europe, Gov. Sonny Perdue found something in far-off Dublin that felt familiar to him.

"I'm struck by the similarities of Georgia and Ireland," Perdue wrote in an account of the trip posted at www.

stateofgeorgiamissions.com. "Specifically, we share a parallel transition from a primarily agrarian economy to a high-tech hub for manufacturing and life science industries."

Oh, if only that were true.

Certainly, Ireland has made that transition to high-tech hub. Its economic growth over the past decade or so has been astounding. Once a slumbering backwater of Europe, Ireland now boasts one of the most dynamic economies in the industrialized world, with a growth rate more than twice that of the United States.

As Perdue himself notes in his Web posting, during the '90s "Ireland earned the nickname 'Celtic Tiger,' due to its aggressive economic and population growth."

Georgia's economy is certainly growing, too, particularly in metro Atlanta. However, too many of the jobs we're adding tend to be lower-paying service-related jobs. And while we're seeing bits and pieces of a high-tech industry locating here, it hasn't come close to reaching the critical mass needed to explode into something significant.

In Ireland, by contrast, the influx of good-paying, high-tech jobs has had an enormous impact. Twenty years ago, per capita income in Ireland was 60 percent of the average in the European Union. Today, on a per capita basis, Ireland is the second-richest nation in the EU.

[Michael.SF.]

I saw this at Boortz Column, Here is his more logical look at the events that helped transform Ireland:

What Bookman doesn't tell you, though, is that there was a substantial reduction in the tax load on Irish citizens and businesses coupled with a serious reduction in government regulation of the free market economy. Bookman didn't seem to mention anything about the lower taxes and the deregulation of business and the Irish labor market. That tax level, by the way, is substantially lower than the tax level in the U.S.

[WVNan]

Lower-paying service related jobs=illegals
Lack of high-tech jobs=we exported our high-tech jobs.

[Sig Sauer P220]

I’ve been all over Ireland and Georgia, and I don’t see the comparison. I think Sonny might have been hitting the Jameson Irish Whiskey a wee bit hard when he was writing that piece.

[stylin19a]

neither side mentions the almost 2 billion pounds infused into Ireland’s economy fron 2000-2006 from the EU Structural Fund and the European Social Fund.

[montag813]

To make that work, Irish leaders understood that education would be critically important. They began to invest heavily in their schools, increasing spending on primary grades by more than 50 percent between 1995 and 2002, for example.

Yes, I'm so sure those 8-15 year olds are revolutionizing Ireland.

[GeorgefromGeorgia]

What do you expect from the Atlanta constipation?

You make great points.

[Pete98]

Pouring government money into a system never helps - it’s just like flushing the cash down a toilet.

[L98Fiero]

“Georgia’s economy is certainly growing, too, particularly in metro Atlanta. However, too many of the jobs we’re adding tend to be lower-paying service-related jobs. And while we’re seeing bits and pieces of a high-tech industry locating here, it hasn’t come close to reaching the critical mass needed to explode into something significant.”

You don’t have the employment base to support such endeavors. It was tried in Memphis and it failed miserably for the same reasons. Your employment base is educated to the level where they are barely qualified, if at all, to even fill these “low-paying service industry” jobs.

[Cicero]

It’s fairly simple. The Irish were an agrarian people because the Brits held them back for several hundred years and kept them down on the farm. But the Irish were also an intelligent and civilized people, so when the British leash was gradually removed, it didn’t take them long to take charge of their country.

The money from Europe certainly helped. But how many billions has Europe poured into post-colonial Africa, most of which has been going steadily backward as a result.

[FewsOrange]

2 billions pounds (around 4 billion dollars) over a 7 year period is pretty small in a 200 billion dollar economy.