The unimaginable has often occurred in history. It is unimaginable for those caught up in it. However, hindsight is a different matter.

I often speculate on what seemingly isolated situation might mushroom into an all embracing cataclysmic change. I have been following the travails of Ireland. Ireland is a small nation that over the last decade grew to be a world class business hosting powerhouse. Major companies such as Microsoft and Dell have setup subsidiaries. The reason was the lowest tax rates to be found on businesses [also speculation that the major companies used their subsidiaries to laundry money from elsewhere to avoid taxes]. The taxes were lower than America or anywhere else in The European Common Market. The other countries complained about Ireland siphoning businesses in this manner. The tax rate fueled fantastic growth for Ireland and the name “Celtic Tiger” was coined.

Ireland has financially collapsed. It has requested a bailout from both the IMF and the EU. One stipulation of the bailout keeps coming up. Ireland must raise business taxes to help bridge the financial gap. Ireland has maintained over and over again it will not do so. They only offer up their social program funding. It is not enough.

America is another business welfare state in a similar dilemma. If there is serious movement on the American deficit, both personal and business taxes will have to be raised. It too is outside the purview of action of the country’s leaders.

What if…the people of Ireland just said no to cutting the social programs and disavowed the debt? There is literally nothing the bankers could really do but affect the nation’s credit rate. What if this “no” catches fire in France, Greece and Iceland? What if it catches fire all over the world? What if Capitalism, as it is currently practiced based on the American model, overnight just dies?

Unimaginable.