Yeah, and if the East is so bright, how is it that people moved to the West in droves, and GDP growth in the last year was less than in the West?...

Second Easter Utopia entry: Slovakia. I dissed the supposed flat tax wonderland spin already, but here is some new input: the extremely high Q4/2005 GDP growth of 7.5%, upon analysis by financial institute SLSP, proved to be a 6% 'natural' growth, with another 1.5% added by speculative filling-up of inventories (for example cigarette sellers) - and this is expected to result in a reduction of early 2006 growth.

For comparison, in the Czech Republic, which does not have flat tax, Q4/2005 growth was found to have been 6.9%. However, there too, capitalism is on the march: the inflation-corrected growth of earnings was lowest since independence.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}