Flat-tax demagoguery

ČSSD launched a clever anti-ODS campaign lottery to send a lucky winner to one of the Central and Eastern European countries with a flat tax. "Find out what living conditions are like in flat-tax countries," it says. It mentions Romania, Georgia, Serbia, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine and can't hide its scorn for these Eastern neighbors. Jiří Paroubek said on TV Nova yesterday that the CR is looking West toward countries with developed social systems, not toward Russia etc. Paroubek neglected to mention, of course, that some of the current flat-tax countries, esp. the Baltic threesome, are already competitive with the CR and that another flat-tax innovator, Hong Kong, is one of the best places in the world to live and do business. But few Czechs know this, so Pied Piper Paroubek will win plenty of followers for his claim that a flat tax will lead to social catastrophe. [Czech Republic European Union Latvia Estonia Lithuania]