Maastricht Treaty revisions needed?

[kandrathe]

"Marginal" is exactly right. The question is the marginal effect - when do all the factors attracting people to the region attract one more person to live there, and when do all the detracting factors cause one more person to move out?

The owners can stay as long as they can continue to own their property. If taxes are low enough, or zero for low income people, then a person can live on very low income, relatively.

Obviously not everyone in the region lives there exclusively for one reason. But government cash makes life more liveable, it injects money into the economy, it creates jobs. So more people live there, even if you can't pin down precisely who.

I know you believe this. But, I believe it is a myth. The government only creates jobs for itself, while siphoning money from the economy to do so (e.g. a variation on Bastiat's broken window fallacy). If the government is so good at creating jobs, and focusing our wealth on entrepreneurship, then we should definitely keep tax rates as high as is possible. Even my friends working in government recognize and joke about "another hog feeding at the public trough".

I think most people would agree that entrepreneurs create jobs, not governments. More decidedly, I believe the size of government is a better indication of the size of debt, rather than being an engine of economic growth. Were it so, Greece would be thriving, rather than bankrupt. Politicians are not wise stewards of our money, which is verified by the increasing amounts spent on foreign wars, pork projects, and other unproductive purposes. The wealth of individuals, and nations is governed by two fundamentals; 1) expend as little as is possible while maintaining a frugal lifestyle, and 2) be as productive as is possible. At least recent US fiscal policy for the past few decades has been one of greater, and greater control by a central federal government on dictating how money is to be spent by states, local governments, corporations, and by individuals. Not only for those of us living now, but also for the next 30 or 40 years. The question on the table, for Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, possibly the UK and the US; Do you think we are in this jam because of government fiscal policies, or is it a catastrophe of the free market? I would answer the former. Promises are made by people who base their spending on unrealistic fake scenarios, and now we have riots because those promises are broken. We are the grasshoppers who did not set aside stores for the winter, and who are now starving, begging the industrious little ants to toss us morsels. But, we are running out of ants to go begging to, and morsels.

Also, if you are looking at recent statistics remember that governments have been extending out unemployment benefits for about 24 months now.