4 ms·

It is so sad to watch a nation slow walk down such a well worn and tragic path. Bad government policies, and over spending creating inflation and high prices f

It is so sad to watch a nation slow walk down such a well worn and tragic path. Bad government policies, and over spending creating inflation and high prices for goods, with a response of price controls to control the prices, which results in even fewer goods available, then government rationing because the goods aren't available, further reducing ability to produce anything of value... And it doesn't have to be this way! At each stage, you could just not do the next step in the spiral. Thing would be bad for a bit, but you wouldn't bring the nation to poverty.

RC_ITR 4y ago
- jdasdf 4y ago
  - 88840-8855 4y ago
    And before that it was the declining fishing exports. This county basically has nothing else than fishing and tourism. And on top: terrible policies, populism and too many government positions that had to be paid by printed money. The IMF bailed them out over 15 times already. At some point we much realize that reforms failed.
  - antonvs 4y ago
    Here's an article about the tax cuts, which happened in 2019: https://www.outlookindia.com/business/sri-lanka-lost-around-10-lakh-taxpayers-since-2019-tax-cuts-finance-minister-sabry-news-195205 https://www.outlookindia.com/business/sri-lanka-lost-around-... Excerpts: > [Finance Minister] Sabry told Parliament on Thursday that Sri Lanka lost about 500,000 taxpayers each in 2020 and 2021 after the ill-timed tax cuts were delivered. > However, even before these tax cuts, Sri Lanka was a country with one of the lowest revenue-to-GDP ratios in the world, and the 2019 tax cuts drove Sri Lanka closer to the bottom of this list, the report said. > Sabry on Wednesday had called the 2019 tax cuts a “historic mistake.” It seems you would at least need to take this into account in any analysis of the causes of the current situation.
    - jdasdf 4y ago
      Sri Lankan taxes are collected in Sri Lankan ruppees, not in USD dollars. The Sri Lankan state does not have a lack of Sri Lankan rupees, and indeed it can print as many as it wants. Sri Lankan ruppees are not used in international trade, which is core to the current crisis. I understand that statists like you like to pretend like the cause of every problem is lack of government, but I can assure you, that is not the case, not here, not in almost every other situation.
      - lsaferite 4y ago
        Maybe try being a little less confrontational with people if you want to have actual dialog. Otherwise many people just write you off and, worse, flag your posts.
      - antonvs 4y ago
        Lack of government is not the issue being raised. Bad government is. I take it by your attempt to pigeonhole me that you're some variety of libertarian. In that case, your hostility is misplaced. What you're actually angry at is the fact that the world is not compatible with your political fantasy.
  - RC_ITR 4y ago
    > The roots of the crisis lie in tax cuts enacted by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in late 2019, which came months before the COVID-19 pandemic that battered the country's lucrative tourism industry and led to a drop in foreign workers remittances. The tax cuts caused annual public revenue losses of about 800 billion rupees, the prime minister's office said in its statement. The new tax regime and COVID-19's impact, together with the pandemic relief measures, widened the budget deficit significantly to 12.2% of GDP in 2021 from 9.6% of GDP two years earlier. [0] https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/crisis-hit-sri-lanka-hikes-tax-rates-maximise-govt-revenues-2022-05-31/ https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/crisis-hit-sri-l...
    - DuskStar 4y ago
      I'm sorry, but a budget deficit of 9.6% of GDP isn't exactly a healthy level either.
Natsu 4y ago
Sad thing is I didn't know what country we were talking about until I clicked into the article after reading your comment, because it can describe a few others than just Sri Lanka.
- Symbiote 4y ago
  I'm surprised how few people know all the ISO-3166-alpha-2 codes. LK is obviously Sri Lanka :-) (Although this has been headline news for a few days in the mainstream press[1], which helps.) [1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/srilanka https://www.theguardian.com/world/srilanka
  - Natsu 4y ago
    I know of the codes, but I couldn't have told you .lk was Sri Lanka off the top of my head, nor would I necessarily assume that because the site linked to is a Sri Lankan site, it's talking about Sri Lanka.

RC_ITR 4y ago

jdasdf 4y ago
- 88840-8855 4y ago
  And before that it was the declining fishing exports. This county basically has nothing else than fishing and tourism. And on top: terrible policies, populism and too many government positions that had to be paid by printed money. The IMF bailed them out over 15 times already. At some point we much realize that reforms failed.
- antonvs 4y ago
  Here's an article about the tax cuts, which happened in 2019: https://www.outlookindia.com/business/sri-lanka-lost-around-10-lakh-taxpayers-since-2019-tax-cuts-finance-minister-sabry-news-195205 https://www.outlookindia.com/business/sri-lanka-lost-around-... Excerpts: > [Finance Minister] Sabry told Parliament on Thursday that Sri Lanka lost about 500,000 taxpayers each in 2020 and 2021 after the ill-timed tax cuts were delivered. > However, even before these tax cuts, Sri Lanka was a country with one of the lowest revenue-to-GDP ratios in the world, and the 2019 tax cuts drove Sri Lanka closer to the bottom of this list, the report said. > Sabry on Wednesday had called the 2019 tax cuts a “historic mistake.” It seems you would at least need to take this into account in any analysis of the causes of the current situation.
  - jdasdf 4y ago
    Sri Lankan taxes are collected in Sri Lankan ruppees, not in USD dollars. The Sri Lankan state does not have a lack of Sri Lankan rupees, and indeed it can print as many as it wants. Sri Lankan ruppees are not used in international trade, which is core to the current crisis. I understand that statists like you like to pretend like the cause of every problem is lack of government, but I can assure you, that is not the case, not here, not in almost every other situation.
    - lsaferite 4y ago
      Maybe try being a little less confrontational with people if you want to have actual dialog. Otherwise many people just write you off and, worse, flag your posts.
    - antonvs 4y ago
      Lack of government is not the issue being raised. Bad government is. I take it by your attempt to pigeonhole me that you're some variety of libertarian. In that case, your hostility is misplaced. What you're actually angry at is the fact that the world is not compatible with your political fantasy.
- RC_ITR 4y ago
  > The roots of the crisis lie in tax cuts enacted by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in late 2019, which came months before the COVID-19 pandemic that battered the country's lucrative tourism industry and led to a drop in foreign workers remittances. The tax cuts caused annual public revenue losses of about 800 billion rupees, the prime minister's office said in its statement. The new tax regime and COVID-19's impact, together with the pandemic relief measures, widened the budget deficit significantly to 12.2% of GDP in 2021 from 9.6% of GDP two years earlier. [0] https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/crisis-hit-sri-lanka-hikes-tax-rates-maximise-govt-revenues-2022-05-31/ https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/crisis-hit-sri-l...
  - DuskStar 4y ago
    I'm sorry, but a budget deficit of 9.6% of GDP isn't exactly a healthy level either.

Natsu 4y ago

Sad thing is I didn't know what country we were talking about until I clicked into the article after reading your comment, because it can describe a few others than just Sri Lanka.

Symbiote 4y ago
I'm surprised how few people know all the ISO-3166-alpha-2 codes. LK is obviously Sri Lanka :-) (Although this has been headline news for a few days in the mainstream press[1], which helps.) [1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/srilanka https://www.theguardian.com/world/srilanka
- Natsu 4y ago
  I know of the codes, but I couldn't have told you .lk was Sri Lanka off the top of my head, nor would I necessarily assume that because the site linked to is a Sri Lankan site, it's talking about Sri Lanka.