The A/R Off Topic Thread

BeepBeep67

Get lost ya little bunch of f*****s, I forgot my rain jacket.

Krusty_Clown

Anyone able to recommend some running shoe or sports shop chains in the US? The only one I know of is Foot Locker, and they seem to be aimed more at the 'glamour running shoe' market.

robinph

RoadRunnerSports is one I think some long lost relations of mine frequent.

Krusty_Clown

robinph wrote: »

RoadRunnerSports is one I think some long lost relations of mine frequent.

Thanks, there's one about 12 miles away.

robinph

w00t!!!

Extra bank holiday next year.

robinph

robinph wrote: »

w00t!!!

Extra bank holiday next year.

Even better, from 18th April I get a 4 day week, a 3 day week and another 4 day week. Now whens the other brother getting married, and can I get another day off for that as well.

Pisco Sour

U2 IN AUCKLAND THIS FRIDAY!!!!!! :D:D:D:D

My 5th time seeing them but first time outside of Ireland!

rainbow kirby

Will be buying my Rush tickets tomorrow morning in the presale.

I knew there was some good reason to stay on O2 other than inertia. :pac::D

--amadeus--

I didn't know the legendary Rushie was coming to town



Ahhh so many happy memories...

rainbow kirby

^ Now that was a moustache you could set your watch by.

kennyb3

My god i knew the government were incompetent, but their plans are based on 2.75% growth a year - i've heard more believable fairytales. They need to visit a bookstore and buy a basic economics book. 15b out of the economy over 4 years should definitley see such high growth!FFS

shels4ever

kennyb3 wrote: »

My god i knew the government were incompetent, but their plans are based on 2.75% growth a year - i've heard more believable fairytales. They need to visit a bookstore and buy a basic economics book. 15b out of the economy over 4 years should definitley see such high growth!FFS

Think its an average of 2.75 across 4 years... but even with that we'd need another boom in 3 years time

RoyMcC

There's a protest here in Jersey tonight about GST (equivalent of VAT) going up from 3% to 5%. Also prescription charges to £3 from nil :eek:

Truly many Jersey folk live a blessed life and have no comprehension of the struggles that go on elsewhere.

shels4ever

RoyMcC wrote: »

There's a protest here in Jersey tonight about GST (equivalent of VAT) going up from 3% to 5%. Also prescription charges to £3 from nil :eek:

Truly many Jersey folk live a blessed life and have no comprehension of the struggles that go on elsewhere.

5% VAT is that on booze also ?

RoyMcC

Across the board - excise duty on booze as well of course, we're not that fortunate.

metamorphosis

On top of all this ****ty domestic news, it looks like one of the places i work could be in trouble. Find out friday. ****ing great.

Where's the next plane out of this country please. FML

gerard65

Can anyone explain to me why is the minimum wage been reduced. Is it to stimulate employment? How will that work if the majority of minimum wage work in the retail and hospitality industries which are in the pits because no one is spending, so taking more from the lower paid, who spend all their money in local economy, will make it worse. Why aren't those who sold land for vast sums over the last few years not paying more?
Confused, Dublin.

menoscemo

gerard65 wrote: »

Can anyone explain to me why is the minimum wage been reduced. Is it to stimulate employment? How will that work if the majority of minimum wage work in the retail and hospitality industries which are in the pits because no one is spending, so taking more from the lower paid, who spend all their money in local economy, will make it worse. Why aren't those who sold land for vast sums over the last few years not paying more?
Confused, Dublin.

Can't understand it myself, Ger, supposedly to stimulate jobs. But why would you take a job paying significanlty less than you can get on benefits? Then pay tax on that too?

RacoonQueen

gerard65 wrote: »

Can anyone explain to me why is the minimum wage been reduced. Is it to stimulate employment? How will that work if the majority of minimum wage work in the retail and hospitality industries which are in the pits because no one is spending, so taking more from the lower paid, who spend all their money in local economy, will make it worse. Why aren't those who sold land for vast sums over the last few years not paying more?
Confused, Dublin.

Lower peoples income and raise VAT. THE SOLUTION!!!! :rolleyes:

rainbow kirby

It's FF, screwing the poor to keep the vote of the rich is how they roll. :mad:

gerard65

rainbow kirby wrote: »

It's FF, screwing the poor to keep the vote of the rich is how they roll. :mad:

It may backfire. The rich (developers and top bankers) have taken their money and left the country. I'd say there were suitcases stuffed with money leaving the country over the last three years.

kennyb3

gerard65 wrote: »

Can anyone explain to me why is the minimum wage been reduced. Is it to stimulate employment? How will that work if the majority of minimum wage work in the retail and hospitality industries which are in the pits because no one is spending, so taking more from the lower paid, who spend all their money in local economy, will make it worse. Why aren't those who sold land for vast sums over the last few years not paying more?
Confused, Dublin.

It lowers our cost base and hence makes us more competitive. The reasoning behind it would be 1) it was one of the things that went up constantly during the boom, so they have to take some of it back 2) deflation - it's cheaper to live, so why pay as much (although admittidely a €1 an hour is too much) 3) on your last point not every euro that is paid in wages goes back into the economy.

But again the main reason is competitiveness - to make the country generally cheaper. But i dont see why they ll be raising vat then in 2013 and 2014 - that must of been an EU request i can only imagine

aero2k

kennyb3 wrote: »

It lowers our cost base and hence makes us more competitive. The reasoning behind it would be 1) it was one of the things that went up constantly during the boom, so they have to take some of it back 2) deflation - it's cheaper to live, so why pay as much (although admittidely a €1 an hour is too much) 3) on your last point not every euro that is paid in wages goes back into the economy.

But again the main reason is competitiveness - to make the country generally cheaper. But i dont see why they ll be raising vat then in 2013 and 2014 - that must of been an EU request i can only imagine

I'm not that well up on economics so can someone explain this point - I hear it a lot. My understanding is that only 2% (or 4% depending on who you believe) of the workforce is on the minimum wage. My very simple assumption is that to restore competitiveness we need to reduce all salaries, along with energy costs etc and anything that contributes to the cost of doing business here.

kennyb3

aero2k wrote: »

I'm not that well up on economics so can someone explain this point - I hear it a lot. My understanding is that only 2% (or 4% depending on who you believe) of the workforce is on the minimum wage. My very simple assumption is that to restore competitiveness we need to reduce all salaries, along with energy costs etc and anything that contributes to the cost of doing business here.

Totally correct - all salaries, all costs associated with doing business.

However the minimum wage is seen as putting an artificial bottom on wages.

Here is a list of minimum wages for you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_in_Europe_by_minimum_wage

As you can see at present we are above Germany, one of the most well off countries in the world economically yet we are flat bust. Its unsustainable.

Deflation should wipe out a part of the cut. It's also important to remember that in 2003 before the boom was at its height the minimum wage was €7.00, and 2003 wasnt exactly the 1980's.

The problem here is that its very hard to take what you giveth away. Will people really be so much worse off now? No! have they got use to being comfortable? Yes.(That is in a minimum wage context only.)

Obviously the country is bust, we will never repay the national debt of 100b plus and will be taking 5b+ a year out of it just to service the debt, something we were never saddled with before.

shels4ever

kennyb3 wrote: »

Will people really be so much worse off now? No! have they got use to being comfortable? Yes.(That is in a minimum wage context only.)

Reduce all wages by X% then reduce all our personal debt by the same . If you reduce all wages and increase Tax were going to be worse off..Time to give up the booze and wearing runners for 15000 miles...;)

aero2k

kennyb3 wrote: »

As you can see at present we are above Germany.

Yeah, but only about 3%. I had a lovely holiday there in '08 and everything was at least 20% cheaper.

I reckon though that even on the present minimum wage a social welfare recipient would be taking a hit to go to work particularly if they needed to commute by car. Also, if we're trying to be competitive with other nations to boost exports etc, then the minimum wage isn't much of a factor as manufacturing and financial services etc would all pay well above €8.65 per hour.

Sorry for turning this into the economics forum!

mithril

kennyb3 wrote: »

As you can see at present we are above Germany, one of the most well off countries in the world economically yet we are flat bust. Its unsustainable.

All good points but the problem is the lack of competitiveness is far more obvious at the top of the salary scale than at the bottom.
For example hospital consultants earning twice the wages of their equivalents in Germany, Cowen still earning more than Merkel.

You need to tackle this first before you make changes which have a marginal impact on competiveness (perhaps slightly cheaper restaurant meals) and cause real hardship at low income levels.

kennyb3

mithril wrote: »

All good points but the problem is the lack of competitiveness is far more obvious at the top of the salary scale than at the bottom.
For example hospital consultants earning twice the wages of their equivalents in Germany, Cowen still earning more than Merkel.

You need to tackle this first before you make changes which have a marginal impact on competiveness (perhaps slightly cheaper restaurant meals) and cause real hardship at low income levels.

Completely agree, unfortunately they havent put the croke park agreement in the bin yet. Until this is done we wont be properly competitive.

Edit:

Just to clarify, i was just giving some reasons as to why the minimum wage was being reduced. I am reduction but not to that degree. As Mithril touches on it has to be fair and equitable and for the ministers pay to go untouched makes it totally unplaitable to the ordinary many.

Anyway the 4 year plan will be torn up. It is complete fiction with avergae growth of 2.75%, no account of the interest on the extra bank capital to be drawn down from the ECB/IMF, no sensitivity analysis. It's basically a crock of s'hit which is why the markets just pushed the spreads out further.

BeepBeep67

Not to complicate things:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOzR3UAyXao

Woddle

Just got rid of the sky sports package, a savings of €33 a month