I think all this talk of corporate tax avoidance is diverting us from the real agenda. If anyone seriously thinks our economic problems are going to be solved if the Treasury rakes in more money for the government to spend, they should seriously consider studying some economics.
Governments spend less effectively because they care less. It’s someone else’s money being spent on someone else, and never as good as when people spend it themselves.
As I say on the Adam Smith Institute site, the real agenda should not be to take more money out of the private sector for profligate governments to spend wastefully. It should be to having more resources directed towards growth. Lower taxes and lighter regulations can achieve that. If something becomes easier and more worthwhile to do, people will do more of it. Corporate tax clampdowns are the wrong way forward; unleashing enterprise to boost economic growth is the right way.
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Madsen Pirie 