Of Indians and Irishmen

So I was in Thunder Bay Canada a while ago and had an epiphany. And this epiphany was at "Bannon's Gas Bar."

"Bannon's Gas Bar?" you might ask.

Yes, Bannon's Gas Bar.

For you see on the first night of our arrival in Thunder Bay my buddy Tony and I were looking for two simple things wrapped up in one convenient place

1. A place to eat
2. A place to smoke a cigar

Knowing this wasn't Quebec we thought we might have stood a pretty good shot, but little did we know that;

1. Thunder Bay is a pithole so there were no good restuarants
2. It's just as hyper-Nazi on the smoking ban as Quebec, Minnesota and 1930's Berlin.

That's when our hotel hostess recommended Bannon's.

"You can smoke and eat at Bannon's."

"So where's Bannon's?" we asked?

"It's on the reservation."

And then I was reminded, Indian reservations, presumably the same as in the US, are technically sovereign nations that set up their own rules and laws and needn't necessarily goose-step in line with the rest of their anti-smoking-Nazi Canadian and American brothers.

So it was off to Bannon's Gas Bar we went.

Now we had made it up to Duluth from the Twin Cities on one tank of gas and we surmised that gas was a lot more expensive in Canada, so the strategy of timing our fills required us to fill up near the border, but not in Canada, hopefully get by on one tank of gas while in Canada with enough to spare to get us to the closest American gas station on the return trip.

And we were right. Canada, when you adjust for the litre (note I put the "e" after the "r" to make it truly Canadian) has gas costing about $3.70 per gallon, a full dollar more than what we were paying in the land of the free.

But I noticed something odd about Bannon's Gas Bar. Gas was a full 20% cheaper on the reservation than just 1.6 km (note the metric conversion) north across the river in Thunder Bay. Again, I was reminded that Indian reservations are their own sovereign nations able to set their own tax rates on gas and tobacco and so forth and therefore have cheaper gas.

So Tony and I sat down at Bannon's, ordered a pizza, lit up some cigars and enjoyed our dinner, and then BAAM! It hit me.

INDIAN RESERVATIONS ARE THEIR OWN SOVEREIGN NATIONS!

NOT ONLY CAN THEY SET THEIR OWN RULES AND LAWS!

NOT THEY CAN ALSO SET THEIR OWN GAS AND TOBACCO TAXES!

BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY AND PRESUMABLY THEY CAN SET THEIR OWN INCOME TAXES AND CORPORATE TAXES!

And then my economic spidey senses started tingling. I had a cunning plan. And it was sheer brilliance.

Here you have the US' (and Canada's I presume) poorest ethnic group, native Indians. They suffer from lower standards of living;

The highest unemployment rates

And the highest poverty rates

But the key, is they sit within an much larger and higher income economy. And if we were to be astute students of economic history, that economic history would tell us this is eerily similar to another group of people who suffered from those same lower standards of living, higher unemployment, higher poverty rates, etc., that was also embedded in a larger economic region;

Ireland.

Ireland at the time was the armpit of Europe. They had nothing. They had standards of living equal to about 60% that of mainland Europe (whatever that's worth!).

They were poorer. Had higher unemployment etc. etc. similar to today's American and Canadian Indians. But then somebody over there (I don't know who, but I'd like to think it was one person, a revolutionary that said)

"Hey, this socialism schtick ain't working and it sucks on top of it. Instead of banging our heads against the wall and fleecing and punishing any sort of profit, work ethic and innovation, let's steal all of mainland Europe's investment, talented labor and jobs by lowering our taxes and making this a business friendly, pro-capitalism place."

And so they did.

They lowered corporate taxes to the lowest in all of the OECD;

They lowered overall taxes to make it an attractive place to anybody that DARED insist on keeping the majority of what they earned;

An the results were PHENOMENAL, HISTORICAL!

Unemployment went from zero to herom literally the worst to the best;

GDP growth HUMILIATED every other developed nations and summarily TROUNCED mainland old Europe;

But most jaw-dropping is the near QUADRUPLING in standards of living in a SHORT 25 years!

Never, bar Hong Kong and modern day China has such a rapid improvement in a people's standard of living occured. And (just like China and Hong Kong) it was due to implementing free market, capitalist ideas.

This behooves the questions; if the Irish could do it, then why not the Indians?

If the Indians were to steal a play from the Irish play book, they could pull off the exact same thing Ireland did and go from arguably the poorest ethnic group in America to potentially the richest.

Cut taxes to levels below the surrounding economic region and in essence make it more attractive to set up shop there for companies, workers, enterpreneuers etc. than the surrounding area.

Capitalize on the ensuing investment and economic growth.

And then watch their standards of living sky rocket.

Already this is happening on a microeconomic scale as evidenced by my trip to Bannon's. People in Thunder Bay no doubt drive the 1.6 km south to Bannon's Gas Bar to get cheaper gas. No doubt people drive there because they wish to "sin" and have a cigarette after dinner or with a whiskey. And if while there really isn't anything to do in Thunder Bay, the most attractive spot is none other than the Casino. If various tribes and Indian nations were to expand these freedoms to include not just low taxes on cigarettes and gas, the freedom of smoking in a bar, and the freedom to gamble, etc., but;

The freedom for corporations to keep 90% of their profits.

The freedom for workers to keep 90% of their earnings

The freedom for entrepreneuers to set up shop without overburdensome regulation and red tape

They could poach 1/3rd of all the investment in America just like Ireland has from Europe and perhaps enjoy a 4 fold increase in standards of living. The theory is not only perfectly feasible, but its time tested on a bevy of other nations;

Bermuda

The Cayman Islands

Ireland

The Falklands

Hong Kong

Chile

China

It could happen starting today and in 20 years, Indian poverty would be a thing of the past. The Pine Ridge reservation wouldn't be the dump that it is, but a business center. And Indians wouldn't just have success with casinos, but if they were to take some lessons from their Irish, Swiss, and Bermudian (sp?) counterparts, they could diversify into banking, insurance and financial advising (which there must be some financially savvy masterminds in the Indian casinos for which this would be a natural professional progression).

Of course there is just one small hurdle to achieving this. And it is the same hurdle that has always stopped economic progress and advancement. And that is the ignorance bred by leftist brainwashing that plays the fears, greed and envy of human nature and villifies capitalism and free markets and small government.

So sad so many have been kept so poor, by so few.