>From the perspective of taxpayers, having nations compete for the lowest taxes and most friendly regulatory environment is beneficial.
If the gains in lower taxes are done by playing states off each other (see Google in Ireland) or the regulatory gains are done by allowing dirtier production of the same goods elsewhere (usual China vs the West discussion) then for the vast majority of tax payers it is a loss. The taxes and regulations that apply to them individually don't change while their states have less tax revenue to provide services and the environment they live in is worse off.
>If there were a global territorial monopoly on the production of security and rule of law, you would likely find yourself with a lower quality of life.
I'd bet the opposite would be true. All those lawyers and accountants that Google employs to shift their tax burden between countries could be reallocated to doing something productive. The pressure to lower taxes is already high enough within a single state that the loss in pressure from lack of competition between states would probably be irrelevant.
Oh for sure, all those lawyers would probably instead be lobbyists meeting with officials from the one world government for beneficial policies -- a clearly uncorruptible and very noble situation which would be highly sensitive to my one vote as a global citizen.
If the gains in lower taxes are done by playing states off each other (see Google in Ireland) or the regulatory gains are done by allowing dirtier production of the same goods elsewhere (usual China vs the West discussion) then for the vast majority of tax payers it is a loss. The taxes and regulations that apply to them individually don't change while their states have less tax revenue to provide services and the environment they live in is worse off.
>If there were a global territorial monopoly on the production of security and rule of law, you would likely find yourself with a lower quality of life.
I'd bet the opposite would be true. All those lawyers and accountants that Google employs to shift their tax burden between countries could be reallocated to doing something productive. The pressure to lower taxes is already high enough within a single state that the loss in pressure from lack of competition between states would probably be irrelevant.