The Generation Game.

patrickolee

Yes, tonights show was very good. In stark contrast to the first program. Much more positive and not the usual garbage. I do hope there are people in charge listening. Although I can see one reason our gubberment might hesitate. Free third level education. They will have to introduce a real fee structure for education or all the American (in particular, but not only) diaspora will flood in :-) and then flood out again once graduated. And who can blame them with their college fees leaving them with debts of 10s of thousands on graduation. Maybe we could have a more compeditive college structure, like those of the UK, with college's competing for students and being funded by them. We would need far more colleges of course.

dochasach

patrickolee wrote:

Yes, tonights show was very good. In stark contrast to the first program. Much more positive and not the usual garbage. I do hope there are people in charge listening. Although I can see one reason our gubberment might hesitate. Free third level education. They will have to introduce a real fee structure for education or all the American (in particular, but not only) diaspora will flood in :-) and then flood out again once graduated. And who can blame them with their college fees leaving them with debts of 10s of thousands on graduation. Maybe we could have a more compeditive college structure, like those of the UK, with college's competing for students and being funded by them. We would need far more colleges of course.

I actually thought the first show was harsh but had more honest content and less fluff. I did get a laugh out of his choice of Argentina and Uruguay as examples of diaspora economies that have gone wrong rather than Finland, Germany and the U.K. If your publisher (or tax funded RTE?) gave you a "research" travel budget, where would you go?

The last show was less pessimistic but also less realistic. The 'answers' highlighted only the most obvious strategies that Ireland successfully followed for at least a decade before being distracted with property madness. Follow the management chain of many multinationals in Ireland and you'll probably find Irish diaspora influenced the insourcing decision.

The strategy of giving visas to Irish diaspora won't fix the problem. Assuming that Irish-American or Irish-Argentinian whose family emigrated 100 years ago is better able to fix Irish economy than someone who was born here but has Chinese, American or Argentinian roots (therefore no longer has a citizenship birthright) is pure racism.

I was disappointed and surprised McWilliams didn't spend more time clarifying the new need for mobility. 10-150 years ago Irish followed the wealth and money wherever it was. Labor was more mobile than jobs. Now money, goods and jobs freely flow around the world but labor is stuck. Immigration control is part of the reason why labor doesn't flow as fast as jobs into and out of an economy, but home ownership is also an anchor which is just as effective at preventing labor from finding work elsewhere. What happens if the construction industry shuts down here? (We've already seen approximately 50% drop in new homes planned) Most Polish and other immigrant workers who rent here will quickly move to where the jobs are, but many Irish dependent on the domestic construction industry also have money locked up in their Irish home. Houses aren't selling very easily recently. This may be the first time in Irish history that the average punter doesn't have the option of emigrating to solve an economic problem caused by a government that was asleep at the wheel.