why is Ireland so expensive?

nbar12

cost me 30c for an animal bar there the other day, I was mortified when I told them I couldn't afford it because I thought they were 25c (which is still a ridiculous price)

Scanlas The 2nd

I'd say it's due to many factors including our high minimum wage and social welfare. It generally leads to inefficiency and reduced economic output.

Chucky the tree

Most Irish people are to lazy to shop around or find an alternative. Plenty of people where just happy to spend whatever they made and once they could do that to a decent level they didn't care how much they were getting charged.

ted1

The minimum wage is far to high which ripples up the salary scale. Until the minimum wage is abolished we will always be a high cost economy.

Fuinseog

dd972 wrote: »

When you think of the infrastructure and jobs situation it rates somewhere about the level of Burnley.

If we were a country on a par with Canada or Australia even that would be understandable.

Look at the sort of nation Germany is as regards infrastructure, jobs, services, health, transport, the list goes on......and it's cheaper over there !!:eek:

greed is a factor.
the compo culture makes insurance more expensive.

EdanHewittt

dd972 wrote: »

Why is Ireland so expensive?

The question of why is not important. The "why" is obvious to everyone (greed, and purely Tax-based governments).

The how is more intriguing. For example:

Spar are charging €3.49 for a four pack of 'Mini Munch Bunch" yogurts, which Supermams willingly fork out to feed their kids.

There is an audacity here, not only on Spar's part, but on the consumer's part too. I've said this before on Boards, but these need to die a slow horrible death. (Preferably with fire):

http://f.cl.ly/items/2w1a1G3B2l34062z251x/doubleup.jpg

Emeraldy Pebbles

Dwellingdweller wrote: »

It takes more than one person 'doing something' to radically change the perspective of the population of Ireland. The Irish perspective on things is what drives so many Irish people away from Ireland.

They (the Irish) are lazy unmotivated feckers who'll plonk themselves down on a bar stool and complain about that 'state of affairs' with their mates over an overpriced pint, go home to sleep in their overpriced Celtic Tiger-era shíthole apartment, then get up the next morning and forget entirely about their gripes.

They never stay pissed off for long. This wouldn't be a problem if Ireland was a massively productive nation or something where everyone is super-ambitious and wants to get somewhere with their lives, but when you couple this laxidaisical philosophy at the bar with even more laxidaisical attitude to life in general, then you have a problem.

That's why people move away - like my uncle, who worked for MS in the mid '90s in Dublin.

He was on an interview panel assessing new applicants for a position in software engineering. The other 2 lads with him on the panel were from Cork and knew the people applying for the job. Obviously the lad who was friendly with the Cork fellas got the job - the same lad who had no qualification in computer science and graduated with a degree in Classics.

Shortly after, my uncle applied for a work transfer to the States, because he knew his career progression would be stunted by the backwards attitude that's prevalent in Ireland. To make a long story short, my uncle's now earning $110k+ a year, writing driver software for Windows 8 and is one of the lead software engineers for MS. Would this have been possible for him in Ireland? He says no. I'm inclined to agree.

This seems like a post to brag about your uncle, TBH. Word of advice, glory reflected off someone else isn't glory. There are lots of people on six figure sums in Ireland and not just because they're corrupt.

Hidalgo

[QUOTE=Father Damo;81119076

The funniest is when Irish people in Australia moan about how expensive Australia is. Give or take, Oz is, generally, just slightly less expensive than Celtic Tiger Ireland. Albeit a country where a manual unskilled worker can, if they play their cards right, earn more than alot of management positions do/ did back home. You get more bang for your buck. For the cost of a CT era terraced house in Dublin with walls so thin you can hear your neighbour farting, in Sydney you would get a detatched four bedder with a swimming pool and a quarter football pitch garden out the back. Australia is by no means cheap but in terms of wage vs what you can buy with your money, it is years ahead.[/QUOTE]

To get the above property in Sydney would mean a long way from the city. Possibly the equal of buying something in a commuter town like Portlaoise.

I thought property prices in Sydney were very expensive, both to rent & buy??

Hidalgo

Eden3 wrote: »

You're missing the point - it is expensive to live in Ireland now as a result of the debt our Country is in. If the debt wasn't there .... it would not be. The Country is not the problem, it is the administration of it that is ....

It's time for a general election - anyone agree?

And a general election will change what?????

Duggys Housemate

Why are we comparing Australia with Celtic Tiger Ireland, anyway?

summerskin

Duggys Housemate wrote: »

Why are we comparing Australia with Celtic Tiger Ireland, anyway?

Because people are moving there in the hope they get the "good times" back?

Duggys Housemate

summerskin wrote: »

Because people are moving there in the hope they get the "good times" back?

Not what I meant. We are we comparing what you can buy in Sydney with what you could buy in Ireland in the celtic Tiger times? My own feeling is that Ireland's prices, except property and rent, are the same as 3-4 years ago, while most countries are more expensive. Property and rent are way down.

Islander13

Scanlas The 2nd wrote: »

I'd say it's due to many factors including our high minimum wage and social welfare. It generally leads to inefficiency and reduced economic output.

Bang on the money

homerjay2005

Eden3 wrote: »

Ireland isn't expensive - the big LOAN Enda borrowed from Europe IS ...!

Enda? the bank guarantee was put in place by Fianna Fail who broke the country. added to that, our budget deficit caused by their mismanagement and the greed of the country is costing more every 4 years, than the bank loan did.

get your facts right please.

RATM

Helix wrote: »

there's no more appetite for greed at the top in ireland than there is anywhere else. ireland is expensive because the wages are high, it's an island, and the people are happy to accept mediocrity because it requires less effort than doing something to demand better

I'd agree with this 110% except to say that all societies have an appetite for greed. What determines how much that appetite is facilitated is the government and public policy.

Over the last 20 years Ireland has become one of the most unequal socieities in the world, at least according to the main measure of income quality, the GINI Index. We are up there with the USA, just like them we have billionaires alongside beggars.

But this didn't all happen by accident, it happened by design because politicians made it so and the populace didn't complain, in fact they rewarded them at the polling stations.

Duggys Housemate

homerjay2005 wrote: »

Enda? the bank guarantee was put in place by Fianna Fail who broke the country. added to that, our budget deficit caused by their mismanagement and the greed of the country is costing more every 4 years, than the bank loan did.

get your facts right please.

not really true. The debt is the problem, not the deficit.

Duggys Housemate

RATM wrote: »

Over the last 20 years Ireland has become one of the most unequal socieities in the world, at least according to the main measure of income quality, the GINI Index. We are up there with the USA, just like them we have billionaires alongside beggars.

That of course is absolutely not true.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/GINIretouchedcolors.png

Icepick

people like socialist policies but don't like socialist taxes

Phat Cat

Duggys Housemate wrote: »

My own feeling is that Ireland's prices, except property and rent, are the same as 3-4 years ago, while most countries are more expensive. Property and rent are way down.

Property prices are definitely down on what they were 3-4 years ago but I haven't seen a drop in rent, particularity in Dublin. For example a decent 1 bedroom apartment in the city centre would have set you back between €800 - €1000 per month back in 2008. If you look on Daft.ie at the same criteria then you'll see that the prices are pretty much exactly the same today as they were back then.

Duggys Housemate

The stats I read were a 25% reduction in rent, however I agree rent is still high.

celticcrash

because Irish people dont question the price of anything.
The price of crude oil has dropped over 30% in recent years but in Ireland it has gone up 30% in the same time frame.
Our goverment wont question this

Dwellingdweller

Emeraldy Pebbles wrote: »

This seems like a post to brag about your uncle, TBH. Word of advice, glory reflected off someone else isn't glory. There are lots of people on six figure sums in Ireland and not just because they're corrupt.

Well, if that's what you choose to zero in on, then obviously my post will seem like that. Maybe you should have read the rest of it too.

I'll brag all I like about my uncle, thanks me and my family are extremely proud of him - and rightly so. The point of telling that story (which you evidently didn't get) was to show that the atmosphere here isn't conducive to people making their way purely through hard work, or merit. You have to know someone, sooner or later. Networking is important in the business world, but we, the Irish, take it too far.

And I don't recall saying that everyone who was on a six-figure salary in Ireland was corrupt. Putting words in my mouth there.

starlit

We have to pay back borrowed money!

Fratton Fred

Duggys Housemate wrote: »

homerjay2005 wrote: »

Enda? the bank guarantee was put in place by Fianna Fail who broke the country. added to that, our budget deficit caused by their mismanagement and the greed of the country is costing more every 4 years, than the bank loan did.
get your facts right please.

not really true. The debt is the problem, not the deficit.

If you're in debt and spending more than you earn, that debt is only going to increase, no?

Duggys Housemate

Fratton Fred wrote: »

If you're in debt and spending more than you earn, that debt is only going to increase, no?

yeah, but keep up. The level of the deficit is reducing. Without the bank debt our debt to gap would be less than the UK, and we have a similar deficit - except ours is declining. They can borrow, we can't Ergo the problem is the banks.