Ireland 51st state of America

johnnysmack

ah guys give it a rest on the education thing. every country have their own share of bright sparks and dumb sh!ts. its unfair to tar an entire nation with one brush.

back to topic and id prefer to stick with Europe.

Dob74

thomasj wrote: »

Well there are 52 states in america so you can rule that out! :P

I think that's 50 states. Does "Hawaii 50" ring a bell?

Dob74

Sean Templar wrote: »

IS IT TOO LATE TO CHANGE OUR MINDS?.


I know we’ve made our decision to go with Europe , but do you not get the feeling that we are more appreciated by the Americans (40 million plus of Irish descent) and would have closer links and a better future if we joined the good old U.S.A.
After Lisbon most Europeans are fed up with us. After our Recession(world recession ,i know) problems the most powerful(richest) europeans ,the Germans are saying look after yourselves lads!.
As the EU expands we become more insignificant in Europe and for job creation we seem to rely more on the Americans than the Europeans.
Yes we got plenty of EU money for infrastructure, agriculture etc, But it seems to be at a cost as more and more irish people seem to complaint of eu regulations and restrictions (eg fisheries) .

Also the fact that another American president of Irish descent is in office, could be a sign that it’s a good time to jump ship and say “God bless America”

It’s seems Barack himself is one of our top fans and talked at length about the contributions of the Irish to the American story.
"Irish signatures are on our founding documents, Irish blood has been spilled on our battlefields, Irish sweat went into building our greatest cities, we're better for their contributions to democracy and we're richer for their art and their literature, their poetry and their songs," he said.
"Rarely in world history has a nation so small had so large an impact."
http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/st-patricks-day/upbeat-obama-tells-cowen-yes-we-can-1676043.html


We seem to have built a better country over there than we did here.Maybe if we all got american citizenship we could all evacuate over to the states and leave ireland for the wee folk?.


Which would your rather have Senator Cowan or Taoiseach Cowan

What do you say lads Yea or Nay?

It would be great to be part of the US.
We would see corrupt politians go to jail.
Even white collar crimials going to jail.
Instead of the cock&bull tribunals.

Permabear

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MC_G

donegalfella wrote: »

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Actually, wouldn't most US corporate investment leave Ireland in that case? There would be no corporate tax incentive to stay because they would be charged at the same (Federal) rate as all companies operating in the US and there would be no benefits as a bridge to Europe because if Ireland were a US state it wouldn't have the free access to the European market that it does now. I don't really see any benefit for the US or Ireland in this situation.

GuanYin

MC_G wrote: »

Actually, wouldn't most US corporate investment leave Ireland in that case? There would be no corporate tax incentive to stay because they would be charged at the same (Federal) rate as all companies operating in the US and there would be no benefits as a bridge to Europe because if Ireland were a US state it wouldn't have the free access to the European market that it does now. I don't really see any benefit for the US or Ireland in this situation.

Well that is it, I think the situation seems to be in place already. As Companies lose tax incentives they flee Ireland like rats off a sinking ship. As far as I can tell, most companies are merely running operations in Ireland, few seem to have invested any real infrastructure there that would suggest they intend to make Ireland a legitimate base.

Ireland is a bit muddled in this sense, it doesn't have the same level of educational prowess as the major east coast states (it has 7-8 colleges and some seem to be small or average in quality) and it doesn't have the level of permanent operations as the industrial states.

It seems to have invested all of its economic growth in bad areas and it has no resources nor a climate to survive on tourism alone.

At best, it would fare much like MI or any of those states that are over reliant manufacturing resources for money. At worst it would end up like Hawaii, with areas rich in tourism, fluctuating manufacturing operations that make and break cities and areas of desolate poverty.

Permabear

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anonymous_joe

Dob74 wrote: »

It would be great to be part of the US.
We would see corrupt politians go to jail.
Even white collar crimials going to jail.
Instead of the cock&bull tribunals.

Yeah, we certainly wouldn't see people selling the Illinois senate seat. No sir.

Permabear

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GuanYin

donegalfella wrote: »

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You can't improve unless you are realistic, I'm not sure why!

But it is true. Ireland has only two universities ranked among the world's top 200—Trinity College at #53 and University College Dublin at #177. From a U.S. perspective, Trinity is ranked slightly lower than the University of Texas at Austin, while UCD is on a par with Rutgers in New Jersey. These would be considered decent, but not top-flight, state schools in the USA.

Yay! All three of mine are in the top 50 One top 10!

Permabear

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jimmmy

Dob74 wrote: »

Anyway I dont think irish people would stomach joining NATO and all the other military commitments.

Ah shure we will just continue sheltering behind the umbrella of the US and UK so, just as we did during WW2, the cold war, the war on terror etc.

Dob74 wrote: »

We didnt even join the US in WW2.

But for the US ( and UK ) we would ( whats left of us after Hitlers plan to use us for building his autobahn to the far east after his victory in Europe i.e. useful extermination ) - be speaking German.

Soldie

donegalfella wrote: »

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I'd be wary as to the accuracy of such university rankings. Not only do rankings generally tend to focus on the research undertaken at universities as opposed to the quality of the (undergraduate) courses, but the THE - QS ranking in particular has received criticism for its over-emphasis on peer-review. Having completed courses at both UCD and IADT (a small media college with no more than 1000 or so students), for example, I can say that from my experience the quality of the lecturing was certainly superior at the latter - and the graduates seemed a bit sharper, too. IADT, however, wouldn't get within a sniff of any university ranking, given its size. Incidentally, the college generally tends to be well-respected in Ireland (for media studies), in spite of its lack of international notoriety.

Dannyboy83

I can definitely vouch for Canadians, they seem like a clever bunch.

The odd thing about Americans is that they seem oblivious to the world around them.
Then again, they probably don't need to care, plenty of space in America.

GuanYin

Dannyboy83 wrote: »

The odd thing about Americans is that they seem oblivious to the world around them.
Then again, they probably don't need to care, plenty of space in America.

Read my post above. America is over twice the size of Europe and a mix of different cultures. Most Europeans are preoccupied with European stuff.

Permabear

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ardmacha

from the Info
Stanford has 18,000 students, half undergraduate and half postgraduate, and 10,000 staff. Its annual budget is around $4bn – almost twice what the taxpayer pays for whole higher education sector in this country with its 140,000 students

The Irish government is running a cheap education system, concentrating on volume. Irish business gives feck all back to education, unlike US businesses who endow chairs, provide buildings, funding etc.

Permabear

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diverdriver

I'm all for it but no need to become a state. We could be a 'territory' like Puerto Rico and enjoy the benefits of being American without changing much. It would never happen anyway. It's just idle talk. I can't see the American taxpayer wanting to subsidise us by that much.

We are pretty much Americanised in many ways. Just look around. I easily say that the second commonest flag you would see been flown around this country is the stars and stripes. The commonest being the Munster flag . Wer'e unlike the rest of Europe in many ways and like the British never really took to the idea of being European in sense the rest of Europe does. In fact isn't it fair to say to that we all think Europe is 'over there' somewhere. We readily adopt American behaviours and customs. When I was growing up Halloween was an Irish thing. Now it's all 'trick or treat' and pumpkins. It was apples and nuts in my day!

To be honest, I believe we should become more Americanised. Take the good things and copy them. It works for them and it worked for us in recent years.

As for 'dumb' Americans, people who think that haven't met many Americans or been there much. Americans are no more stupid than any other country. Their downfall is that because Americans are more open and friendly than many people they are more apt to reveal their ignorance than most.

Besides how can anyone who lives in a country where Fianna Fail is constantly re-elected to screw things up again and again, have the cheek to criticise the most successful country on Earth?

Permabear

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ardmacha

Their downfall is that because Americans are more open and friendly than many people they are more apt to reveal their ignorance than most.

Being proud of ignorance is in itself a form a ignorance.

But the reality is the America has a huge diversity of education, people who go to Stanford, MIT etc are extremely erudite, while the lower end of the scale are incredibly ignorant. European countries tend towards a more average performance.

The mentality of most people and businesses in Ireland is that the universities are funded by the State, and so they are already paying for them anyway out of their tax money. Therefore they don't feel any compulsion to make donations for buildings, faculty, and the like.

Even State universities in the US have significant private donations from alumni etc. Irish business pays a low corporation tax, even by US standards, so we have lowish taxes without much private philanthropy, so education never gets well funded by either the taxpayer or private sources.

Permabear

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ionix5891

being another state would be so dumb its not funny

our low tax would go out of window and so will these "american" companies

will end up the poorest of the lot in no time

Permabear

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ionix5891

donegalfella wrote: »

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EU have no say in our taxation policy, which was made clear with Lisbon assurances yet again

in US the federal government has quite alot more power than the EU can even dream of

the only people who want to raise our corpo tax are lunatics (see parallel thread) and Sinn Fein

funny how people a year ago where moaning about EU having more power and no some of these are calling to join the US :eek: its such a hypocritically crazy notion

acontadino

diverdriver wrote: »

I'm all for it but no need to become a state. We could be a 'territory' like Puerto Rico and enjoy the benefits of being American without changing much. It would never happen anyway. It's just idle talk. I can't see the American taxpayer wanting to subsidise us by that much.

We are pretty much Americanised in many ways. Just look around. I easily say that the second commonest flag you would see been flown around this country is the stars and stripes. The commonest being the Munster flag . Wer'e unlike the rest of Europe in many ways and like the British never really took to the idea of being European in sense the rest of Europe does. In fact isn't it fair to say to that we all think Europe is 'over there' somewhere. We readily adopt American behaviours and customs. When I was growing up Halloween was an Irish thing. Now it's all 'trick or treat' and pumpkins. It was apples and nuts in my day!

To be honest, I believe we should become more Americanised. Take the good things and copy them. It works for them and it worked for us in recent years.

As for 'dumb' Americans, people who think that haven't met many Americans or been there much. Americans are no more stupid than any other country. Their downfall is that because Americans are more open and friendly than many people they are more apt to reveal their ignorance than most.

Besides how can anyone who lives in a country where Fianna Fail is constantly re-elected to screw things up again and again, have the cheek to criticise the most successful country on Earth?

in a europa study, ireland came somewhere in the middle when it came to people identifying themselves as 'european'

and by the way the swedish are also very 'americanised' and a bit like ireland in that they are obsessed with british media.

most europeans don't see themselves as 'european' either.

and there is way more eu flags in the country than american ones. look at the the 2 sides of o'connell st(dublin), the eu flag stands proudly on both sides.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7CUJDC_-ng

check out the spanish guy halfway through.:rolleyes: