In a crisis, pretence at balance in the media diminishes and the population become subject to more repeated propaganda. However because there is such a surfeit of information, some of the lies can easily be exposed – provided you dig around.
This week some of propositions which the government repeats constantly were exposed.
A) There is no scope for further taxation. This is how Brian Lenihan continually justifies his strategy of cutting public spending. Here, however, is an excerpt from an article in the Sunday Business Post
‘ Some of the country’s highest earners paid as little as 4 per cent income tax in 2008, by using tax reliefs to reduce their bills to exceptionally low levels.

While the tax take from high earners is increasing, new figures from the Revenue Commissioners found that some people were still using legal tax allowances to slash their tax payments.

The Revenue examined the cases of people who earned between €250,000 and €500,000 in 2008, and who availed of tax reliefs.

It found that almost a quarter had paid less than 5 per cent of their incomes in tax as a result of the reliefs.

The tax authority’s report shows that 56 individuals who earned between €250,000 and €300,000 in 2008, and who availed of tax reliefs, paid an average tax rate of just over 4 per cent.

This means that the exchequer got an income tax take of just €724,000 on gross income of over €16.5 million.

A further 49 individuals who earned between €300,000 and €350,000 in 2008, and used tax reliefs, paid an average effective tax rate of 11 per cent.’
B) The recovery is on the way. Here a little statistical trick is played. The government uses the GDP measurement in its propaganda and so claims there is marginal growth. But GDP includes a huge level of repatriated profits and so. So inflated is this figure that during the Celtic Tiger years, one fairly honest economist noted that the use of this measurement gave Irish economic figures ‘about as much empirical status as moving statues, flying saucers and the status of Elvis-found-on-Mar stories’
The more accurate measure of the Irish economy is GNP –which excludes these inflated figures. The recent quarterly bulletin from the Central Bank actually predicted that GNP would DECLINE next year by another 1 percent. So once again the government was lying.
More importantly, hidden away in the report was the real picture about unemployment. On top of the huge rise in emigration, the Central Bank noted that
‘Available indicators suggest that the pace of job losses accelerated somewhat in the second quarter of 2010. The number of persons on the Live Register rose by an average of 4,000 persons per month in the second quarter in seasonally adjusted terms. This represented a considerable acceleration relative to the 1,400 average monthly rise of the first quarter. A further indicator of the second quarter deterioration has been the rise in redundancies— redundancies in June amounted to 6,600 – the largest monthly total since January 2010.’
Wage cuts and public spending cuts are making the recession worse. That is the simple, unvarnished truth.