Page:On Irish absenteeism (Hancock).pdf/10

10 Thus, when a wealthy proprietor suddenly leaves a country district, some labourers are thrown out of employment, some capitalists make less profits. But in the place where he goes to reside his expenditure raises wages and profits slightly. But as soon as the labourers have migrated from one country to the other, wages are restored so their former level,; as soon as capital is exported, profits are restored to their level; and so the labourers and capitalists who remain earn as much as before. It may be said that if we have fewer labourers and fewer capitalists in Ireland, the country is injured. But there cannot be a greater error than that of viewing the nation as something distinct from the individuals that comprise it.

If we want to trace the effect of any cause on national wealth, the simple way is to observe its effect on wages, on profits, and on rent. These are matters of every day observation, which those most interested can find out for themselves. If a man's wages are the same, it is a matter of no importance to him whether there are eight or ten millions of people earning the same wages. If the profits of his capital are the same, the capitalist need not care whether there is £10,000,000 or £50,000,000 of capital producing the same profit. In short, what the community is interested in, is not the aggregate amount of wages or of profits, but the rate of wages and the rate of profit. So that the expenditure of wealthy absentees in England is not injurious to Ireland.

But it is alleged that the wealthy absentees escape taxation. This, however, depends on whether they reside in England or on the continent. Those who reside in England pay more taxes than they would do if they lived at home. And as the majority of the wealthy Irish absentees reside in England, the great bulk of the absentee expenditure does not escape taxation. The portion that does escape is in a great measure, if not entirely, compensated for by the sums received under our system of indirect taxation from foreigners resident in England. The indirectness of the tax which enables the absentee to escape, brings all foreign residents under taxation. The remedy for this trifling evil is to substitute direct for our present complicated system of indirect taxation.

I now come to the third class of absentees, those who spend a portion of every year in the metropolis, in consequence of the demands of political life.

As to the moral effects of this kind of absenteeism, I have already noticed that those of this class generally reside at home for a considerable portion of the year, and so discharge the greater part of the important duties which devolve upon them. And the loss of their presence for the remainder of the year is compensated for by the enlightenment and knowledge which they bring from the metropolis on their return. The new ideas and information which they are the medium of introducing, prevent the provinces from getting into a stationary state, and falling so far behind the metropolis, as to prevent the machinery of government being