The Flat Tax - Global Revolution Dr. Daniel Mitchell's visit to Poland
Cato’s tax expert Dr. Daniel J. Mitchell paid a visit from April 1-3, 2008, to Warsaw at the invitation of the PAFERE Foundation. During his three-day visit, our guest participated in more than ten meetings, delivered five presentations, and gave several interviews to the media. More than 300 people, including students and entrepreneurs, participated in the lectures given by Dr. Mitchell.
Upon his arrival in Poland, Dr. Mitchell visited The Lazarski School of Commerce and Law in Warsaw. He was greeted by Professor Wojciech Bieńkowski, Dean of the Management Faculty. After a short introduction to the issues of taxation, the American economist delivered a lecture entitled: “The Flat Tax – Global Revolution”. Almost a hundred students and teachers of the Lazarski School of Commerce and Law listened with interest to his presentation which was delivered in English.
The last stop of the day ended with a meeting at the office of the ARKONIA Students’ Corporation. Students and members listened to a short introduction to the discussion about tax competition and the idea of the flat tax as an efficient tool to achieve a high rate of economic growth.
On April 2, the second day of Dr. Mithell’s visit, he delivered a lecture to an elite group of representatives of Lewiatan who were members of the Polish Confederation of Private Employers. This lecture, which lasted over an hour, was a model one. Numerous examples were presented as charts and tables with data. This was projected overhead from a laptop. The participants had an opportunity to see the consequences of adopting the flat tax system by various countries. Hongkong, Estonia, and Slovakia, are only some of the states which owe their dynamic development to taxation reforms, especially the introduction of the flat tax regime – argued Dr. Mitchell. However, he was far from advancing a thesis that the flat tax is a cure that will bring health to every economy. – Russia is an example of a country where the flat tax plays its role only to a certain extent. The lack of respect for private property and, most of all, no rule of law and omnipresent corruption in the largest state in the world, prevent Russia’s flat tax system, with a quite low rate, from bringing such results as the system adopted by Estonia. In this Baltic country the tax reform was accompanied by a thorough reform of the whole economic system. Today Estonia is among the top ten countries in all possible rankings and indexes of economic freedom. Russia is far behind – said Dr. Mitchell during his lecture at Lewiatan’s premises.
Dr. Mitchell had lunch with members of the Adam Smith Center and the Project Łódź Foundation. He then had a meeting with students at Collegium Civitas. The students posed numerous questions related to the lecture, among them: “What is more important: a flat tax or a low tax?”; “What will an average citizen gain from the introduction of the flat tax regime?”. Daniel Mitchell answered all the questions in an exhaustive and witty manner. Asked whether American Democrats would accept the flat tax, he answered “yes, but only if the rate is 100 percent”.
On April 3 in the morning our guest had a meeting with journalists and in the early afternoon he visited Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University.
In summary, it was another successful visit prepared by the PAFERE Foundation. It improved economic education of students who received exhaustive information about the flat tax regime, it helped convince entrepreneurs that simple taxation is the right idea, and it promoted the Foundation through the media. During the meetings, over 200 bulletins were handed out and almost 100 persons added their addresses to the e-mail addresses list. Soon multimedia recordings of Dr. Mitchell’s lectures will appear on our Internet site. Those who are not satisfied by the multimedia recordings or could not participate in any of Dr. Mitchell’s lectures, are invited to buy his book entitled “The Flat Tax – Global Revolution” which has been translated into Polish and published as a PAFERE initiative.
See the coverage from Daniel Mitchell’s visit in Poland.
Download an mp3 file with Daniel Mitchell’s lecture at Nowogrodzka 44 Club in Warsaw, entitled “Is the United States in danger of an economic crisis?”, 04-01-2008 (lecture in English)
The press about Daniel Mitchell’s visit in Poland.
The PAFERE Foundation would like to thank the following persons for their help to organize Dr. Mitchell’s visit: Mr. Andrzej Pietrzyk and the whole Lazarski School of Commerce and Law, Mr. Krzysztof Bosak and the Club he manages, the “Arkonia” corporation, Polish Confederation of Private Employers “Lewiatan”, especially Ms. Grażyna Mazurek who was responsible for the efficient and professional preparation for the visit to Lewiatan, the Project Łódź Foundation, Political Science Student Circle “Collegium Civitas”, W. Wasiutyński Politics and Law Circle of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University, and Anna Solecka, the interpreter of Dr. Mitchell’s lectures.
The Foundation would like to thank the participants of the meetings for their attention and interesting questions and the participants of the dinner for their financial support for our educational activity.
The press patronage over Dr. Mitchell’s visit was taken by the “Polska The Times” daily.
You can find information about the visit also at:
http://www.polskatimes.pl/17,29540.htm?listpage=2
http://www.korespondent.pl/index.php?x=artykul_r1&id=4694
http://www.pkpplewiatan.pl/?ID=91238&article_id=201209
http://konserwatyzm.pl/content/view/3061
http://www.blog.gwiazdowski.pl/index.php?subcontent=1&id=376
http://www.projektlodz.pl/aktualnosci/1/347?PHPSESSID=770985dfe84ed8aebb4cd54140225d67
Account prepared by Karol Wyszyński
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