Tell us the top 10 things you'd....

irish_bob

kickoutthejams wrote: »

We also have a higher standard of living than England, cue Irish people shopping over the border. That is why our minimum wage is higher.

That was the first thing that shocked me when I moved here; how expensive everything was.

ireland does not have a higher standard of living than in england and very soon it will have a lower standard of living , the years 2004 - 2007 were an illusion , debt was equal to wealth in those years , we only thought we were a richer country than the likes of the uk , netherlands , belguim , our real economy is much weaker than in those countries , we make almost nothing in this country , a comment like our standard of living is greater than in england is indicitive of the denial that still exists in this country regarding our current state

cooperguy

irish_bob wrote: »

ireland does not have a higher standard of living than in england and very soon it will have a lower standard of living , the years 2004 - 2007 were an illusion , debt was equal to wealth in those years , we only thought we were a richer country than the likes of the uk , netherlands , belguim , our real economy is much weaker than in those countries , we make almost nothing in this country , a comment like our standard of living is greater than in england is indicitive of the denial that still exists in this country regarding our current state

I wouldnt be too sure about that. The UK has devalued its currency by 30% in the last while making it 30% more expensive to live there (or at least buy imported products which is a large proportion of purchases). Their standard of living is only dropping aswell

TheInquisitor

cooperguy wrote: »

I wouldnt be too sure about that. The UK has devalued its currency by 30% in the last while making it 30% more expensive to live there (or at least buy imported products which is a large proportion of purchases). Their standard of living is only dropping aswell

WHAT? 30 % more expensive to live in england? Well its 0% more expensive for anything built/ manufactured in england. It only affects imports and if imports get dearer then people switch to home sold items. Inflation is what makes things "more expensive" and right now it is 2.2%.

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/

In fact the falling pound has made it cheaper for other countries to but englands goods which increases exports and creates jobs and investment in england

cooperguy

An example though, fuel has to be imported the drop in value between the GBP and the USD has put the price of this up. Most things are effected by fuel prices.

Ya I was wrong on the 30% more expensive to live there bit of my last post, I must have had a slight bit of brain freeze when I wrote it:) but still prices going up and wages going down is not a way to keep a good standard of living!

Lockstep

TheInquisitor wrote: »

I wouldn't say standard of living id say a higher cost of living! Wages in england are way lower than in ireland.

True, poor choice of words on my part.
Cost of living is what I meant.

conchubhar1

TheInquisitor wrote: »

7) Cut the minimum wage to E6

can you rename that to - worsen the homeless problem

re introduce fees - can that also be renamed to further widen the rift of poor and middle to upper class divide

TheInquisitor

conchubhar1 wrote: »

can you rename that to - worsen the homeless problem

re introduce fees - can that also be renamed to further widen the rift of poor and middle to upper class divide

So do you think that the high minimum wage of 8.65 should be kept??
Do you think the ridiculously high social benefits should not be cut at all? Over 200 euro here compared to £60 odd in england? It should be based on a sliding scale , full benfits for first 3 months droping by 10% over next 2 months until down to maybe 80-100 euro after a year. Stop encouraging people not to work

thebman

TheInquisitor wrote: »

So do you think that the high minimum wage of 8.65 should be kept??
Do you think the ridiculously high social benefits should not be cut at all? Over 200 euro here compared to £60 odd in england? It should be based on a sliding scale , full benfits for first 3 months droping by 10% over next 2 months until down to maybe 80-100 euro after a year. Stop encouraging people not to work

Ireland = England apparently in every way. We should just merge. :pac:

TheInquisitor

England is our main exporter and competitor should we not try to be competitive?

thebman

TheInquisitor wrote: »

England is our main exporter and competitor should we not try to be competitive?

Not saying we shouldn't compete with them.

I'm saying your comparison isn't accurate as the cost of living is substantially different between the two countries so you can't at all say that their social welfare is this so we should reduce ours.

It is a false analogy used too often on this forum. They don't have our Vat rates either.

You can just make sharp cuts and hope everything works out okay as your fooking around with peoples lives here.

TheInquisitor

thebman wrote: »

Not saying we shouldn't compete with them.

I'm saying your comparison isn't accurate as the cost of living is substantially different between the two countries so you can't at all say that their social welfare is this so we should reduce ours.

It is a false analogy used too often on this forum. They don't have our Vat rates either.

You can just make sharp cuts and hope everything works out okay as your fooking around with peoples lives here.

No they don't have our vat rates thats why i also proposed lowering ours to 15%. Still though E70 vs E204 is a bit ridiculous for unemployment benefit. You can't just say we can't make hard choices because someone might get hurt. Someone will always get hurt but for the sake of the country and our burgeoning national debt our MASSIVE social welfare bill has to drop significantly. Civil service pay also has to be cut.

thebman

TheInquisitor wrote: »

No they don't have our vat rates thats why i also proposed lowering ours to 15%. Still though E70 vs E204 is a bit ridiculous for unemployment benefit. You can't just say we can't make hard choices because someone might get hurt. Someone will always get hurt but for the sake of the country and our burgeoning national debt our MASSIVE social welfare bill has to drop significantly. Civil service pay also has to be cut.

Yes someone will always feel the pain but you have to make some attempt to minimise how many people you adversely effect.

Just sharply reducing social welfare payments will cause major problems for many people who will simply not get by.

I'm all for reducing it but in line with the cost of living reductions and maybe a little more if there is room in some places like Child Benefit or for single people with no mortgages and no real financial commitments as they can move to cheaper accomodation.

I think the next budget would be a good time to lower the rate of dole for single people (as in not married) as it'll have been a year since the problem was first known about and since rents starting dropping so people will be able to negotiate better rent rates with their landlords.

Darragh29

(1) Mary Coughlan fired as Minster for Enterprise Trade & Employment and tried for treason. Michael O' Leary issued with a compulsory order compelling him to take up the position within 24 hours.

(2) FAS immediatey disbanded in its entirety and the 1 Billion Euro budget lodged into a fund for the body outlined below.

(3) County Enterprise Boards immediately disbanded and FAS and the CEB's replaced with a National Organisation for Enterpreneurs (NOE). You can buy shares in the NOE and if you have 10K of shares, you can borrow three times your shareholding to launch a start up repayable over 5 years. The NOE also provides unused/idle state resources such as office space and enterprise outlets for start up businesses along with mentoring and admin resources.

(4) All TD's expenses must be applied for and signed off upon LIKE THE REST OF US!!

(5) All TD's pensions cannot be drawn upon until RETIREMENT AGE AT 65!!! NO MORE GETTING PENSIONS WHEN YOU ARE MORE THAN TEN YEARS AWAY FROM YOUR RETIREMENT AGE!!!

conchubhar1

TheInquisitor wrote: »

Stop encouraging people not to work

that is the problem - people are not unemployed because they dont have to work

there are few like this - and they will be like that if minimium wage was extremely high or low or if benefits were high or low

turgon

conchubhar1 wrote: »

there are few like this - and they will be like that if minimium wage was extremely high or low or if benefits were high or low

Maybe not a lot of people intentionally outright unemployed, but I imagine the amount of people technically unemployed but still working for cash is quite high.

TheInquisitor

conchubhar1 wrote: »

that is the problem - people are not unemployed because they dont have to work

there are few like this - and they will be like that if minimium wage was extremely high or low or if benefits were high or low

Well people would make a lot more effort and be willing to accept lower paid jobs etc if the unemployment benefits were not so high

If we average unemployment benefit over 40 hours in the week it comes out at 5.10 euro. But then when you include the medical card, the fuel allowance and rent / mortgage supplements suddenly its coming close if not even to the minimum wage so i think its important social welfare benefits be descreased

conchubhar1

lowering the benefits will not make or force the people who ar unemployed soley because they dont have to work

they will not work for any reason - they are inherently lazy


anyway - they are in the minority

conchubhar1

turgon wrote: »

Maybe not a lot of people intentionally outright unemployed, but I imagine the amount of people technically unemployed but still working for cash is quite high.

as is the people double jobbing and not paying tax

lowering benefits will not stop or help to stop this

Scrambled egg

1) Were an island off the Atlantic, great potential for wind and tidal power Then we export surplus ammounts.

2) Keep important industries under government control, e.g. eircom but allow other competition in the sector.

3) In these recessionary times the unemployed need something to do, I would set up an organisation for upgrading our infrastructure and use them as unskilled labourers, but offer to pay them double their normal dole pay.

4) Increase the size of the Defense forces and give them new equipment, they deserve it and need it and encourage youths with social problems to join so they have a purpose in life.

5) Ban all cars from major city centre areas, its public transport or cycling lads .

6) Bring in an act in which the national and EU flag must be flown from all public buildings.

7) Harsher prison sentences for the the scum who commit crimes.

8) Encourage immigration.

So thats basicaly it, so if you dont't like it you can just Fooook off!

conchubhar1

5 and 6 are ludicrous and i highly dont like them otherwise - ye! ^

Scrambled egg

It wouldn't be politics without a bizzare twist, right? lol

Black Swan

Here's one for the list...
Close Shannon to the US Military if the Obama administration does not keep its timetable (within reason) to get out of Iraq. The last thing we need is to be dragged into this conflict started by Bush, and take the chance that someone will visit us someday just like they did New York, or the air base in Saudi Arabia awhile back (and suddenly remodel several of our buildings just to make a point).

TheInquisitor

Blue_Lagoon wrote: »

Here's one for the list...
Close Shannon to the US Military if the Obama administration does not keep its timetable (within reason) to get out of Iraq. The last thing we need is to be dragged into this conflict started by Bush, and take the chance that someone will visit us someday just like they did New York, or the air base in Saudi Arabia awhile back (and suddenly remodel several of our buildings just to make a point).

If is wasn't for the War in Iraq shannon airport might be bankrupt by now. They make millions a year from the planes stopping over. Definitely worth the absolutely minute risk. The only people that are making outsiders aware of shannon are the protesters and criminals that attack the planes .

TheInquisitor

Scrambled egg wrote: »

1) Were an island off the Atlantic, great potential for wind and tidal power Then we export surplus ammounts.

5) Ban all cars from major city centre areas, its public transport or cycling lads .

1) Wind power is crap and unreliable! Nuclear power is the way to go.

2) I was originally going to disagree with this point but if there was decent parking just outside the main centres with reliable transportation into the city id probably agree with this.

Scrambled egg

TheInquisitor wrote: »

1)Nuclear power is the way to go.

OK Lets not play around with the nuclear stuff. Your forgeting one major point. This is Ireland! We honsetly couldn't trust ourselfs with a nuclear plant. Wind and tidal energy are are at this stage still infant technologies. But with some funding etc I think we could do very well out of it. Besides nuclear power is like oil, it won't last forever, the uranium needs to be sourced. But on the other point of public transport, Id get us a 1st class transport system by bringing in ze Germans to make it for us

thebman

Scrambled egg wrote: »

OK Lets not play around with the nuclear stuff. Your forgeting one major point. This is Ireland! We honsetly couldn't trust ourselfs with a nuclear plant.

That's nonsense. We aren't that different to other countries.

Wind and tidal energy are are at this stage still infant technologies. But with some funding etc I think we could do very well out of it. Besides nuclear power is like oil, it won't last forever, the uranium needs to be sourced. But on the other point of public transport, Id get us a 1st class transport system by bringing in ze Germans to make it for us

That's great and we should work on tidal. I'm very much in favor of tidal and wind power where possible but we need a guaranteed solution and a guaranteed reduction on dependence on oil and at the moment, nuclear is the only thing that provides it.

I don't think we'll get it but I think we'll pay the price for the this is Ireland nonsense in the long run.

Scrambled egg

thebman wrote: »

That's great and we should work on tidal. I'm very much in favor of tidal and wind power where possible but we need a guaranteed solution and a guaranteed reduction on dependence on oil and at the moment, nuclear is the only thing that provides it.

I don't think we'll get it but I think we'll pay the price for the this is Ireland nonsense in the long run.

Nuclear power isnt nescessary here, what im trying to get at is that if we really go overboard with the windfarms off the west coast they more than likely would be able to power the country. Its just nuclear power is dirty, and the price we would pay if their was an accident far outweighs the benefits.You may say that its an incredibly tiny risk, but its a risk none the less.

thebman

I think its more likely a wind turbine would fall over on someone TBH.

I'm not sure we'll be able to get our power from wind and tidal solely before oil prices sky rocket which is why I think we should consider nuclear power and not dismiss it because of some small probability that something could go wrong.

When was the last major nuclear power facility incident in the western world? I'd be more concerned with the initial cost of building one giving current budget problems.

Black Swan

TheInquisitor wrote: »

If is wasn't for the War in Iraq shannon airport might be bankrupt by now. They make millions a year from the planes stopping over. Definitely worth the absolutely minute risk. The only people that are making outsiders aware of shannon are the protesters and criminals that attack the planes .

We should keep it a secret? Someone might accuse us of supporting a war for profit?

Scrambled egg

thebman wrote: »

I think its more likely a wind turbine would fall over on someone TBH.

I'm not sure we'll be able to get our power from wind and tidal solely before oil prices sky rocket which is why I think we should consider nuclear power and not dismiss it because of some small probability that something could go wrong.

Thats why we really need to get moving on this now. Also I don't think most Irish people would be too happy with a nuclear power station being built.