New York Times’ Paul Krugman says “Ireland is Romney economics in practice” – VIDEOS

In the 80s Mayor Kock visited Dublin and strongly suggested that the government there should live within int means. At present Romney's economic policies would be more beneficial to the Irish state than the 'tax, borrow,freely spend and kick-the-can-further-down -he-road' philosophy of Obama.

One of the contributing factors to the state's financial woes is the amout it pays to foreihners "on the dole", What a load of rubbish... What about Anglo Irish Bank and its bailout ?

What Ciara says is nonsense. Is she trying to tell us that the men who drafted the 1916 Proclamation had in mind children from Bosnia, Burundi, Borneo etc? The fact is that the Irish working man and woman is paying to educate these children, all at the behest of Ciara's corrupt buddies in Fianna Fail and the Irish ruling class. This class imported vast numbers of foreigners, without having the courtesy to ask the Irish people if they assented, made profits out of them for a while, but then asked the Irish taxpayer to pay for the health care, housing, education etc. of these people. The bosses privatized the profits to be made out of Mass Immigration, and then socialized the costs. It's madness, Ciara, you should have some sense. I've noticed you post a lot on this topic, but you've never given us ONE reason why it was a good idea to import into Ireland vast numbers of foreign migrants, some to work, some to go on welfare. The proportions are as if the USA had imported 80 million migrants within the past decade.

Krugman is quite correct. Ireland is a demonstration of rule by the rich and take the airplane and the boat for the poor. It's every bit the economic basket case he says it is. It has pursued Romney's slash and burn cuts to all public expenditure and it has sold the nation's sovereignty to Germany and the IMF. People might not want to hear that, but it is the truth. As for Colbert, he's a satirist and a damn good one. I don't take offense from someone who celebrates Ireland's great writers as passionately as he does.

cara: Your quote from the 1916 Proclamation: "The Republic guarantees ... equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens..." applied to a different territory. Today's 'republic' encompasses only 5/6 of the Irish nation mentioned in the 1916 Proclmation, a document that also mentions "...the right of the people of Ireland to to the ownership of Ireland..." It doesn't state that Arabs, Indians, African or any other foreigners have a right to any part of Ireland. "Equal rights for all its citizend" did NOT mean that the same rights should also apply to all recent arrivals at the expense of the Irish taxpayer. Today's Irish state is a political entity, not a charitable organization.

Krugman is an over rated blowhard who is a legend in his own mind. The only ones who listen to his drivel are mind-dead numbskulls who can't balance their own checkbooks.

All children are entitled to an education regardless of what Sean and Wounded the 2 yanks feel. Id rather kids were being educated so they have a chance when they are older. if they dont get an education then they wont have a choice other than to go on welfare. Education is a right unlike in the US. ''The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally, and oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien government, which have divided a minority from the majority in the past.''- Proclamation of the Republic.

Seanmor: You make some good points. One aspect that never receives the analysis it deserves is the cost to the Irish state of giving free education to many tens of thousands of foreign children. Why should a kid arrive in Ireland from Borneo or Botswana on a Friday night and demand to be in a school by Monday morning? Make 'em pay! And if they can't pay, make whoever is importing them pay.

Laying off public employees didn't cause the Irish state's current economic plight, for the gov't could no longer afford to pay these civil servants. One of the contributing factors to the state's financial woes is the amout it pays to foreihners "on the dole", who cast the state €400 million in 2009. Another economic burden are asylum seekers that cost Irish taxpayers €100 million a year to investigate. If Romney were in the Whit House (or the Dáil), he would try to put the brakes on hadd-outs to foreigners and reduce the size of government.