Cowen warns of significant fall in living standards

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DublinTexas

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So Mr Cowen (unscripted) warned that Irish people will have to accept a 10% to 12% fall in their living standards over the coming years. See [broken link removed].

First, wow an unscripted Cowen and secondly, Balony!

I don't have to accept a 10-12% in my living standards because he can't get his act together and steers the country into bankruptcy.

I can always migrate to another EU country and only accept a 3-4% fall in my living standard with a better health system and a semi competent government. Sure that means no more cool weather or friendly people in the pub.

When will we finally have the opportunity to send him to where he can do no more damage?
 
A 10% to 12% fall for everyone except government ministes it seems
 
And is has now transpired that he actually recycled that speech and has given it on several occasions already, so no wonder he could recite it from memory.

But as he got a standing ovation from the attendees so he must have been in good form.
 
But what exactly does he think "a 10 -12% fall in living standards" actually means?

In practice, what will happen and what can people expect?

I bet he didn't "articulate" that.
 
Everyone will have to step down one level of Supermarket Chain - i.e. From Dunnes Stores to Tesco's or Tesco's to Lidl/Aldi etc.

I'm currently at Aldi, so I suspect I will have to downgrade to Skips and Rubbish bins.
 
Caveat said:
But what exactly does he think "a 10 -12% fall in living standards" actually means?

In practice, what will happen and what can people expect?

I bet he didn't "articulate" that.
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If John Joe has 10 pints of stout on a friday night he will now only have 9. Biffo maths 101
 
I presume he meant that people would have to make do with 10% - 12% less money to spend. But with the cost of living going down, this should not be as harsh
 
Sylvester3 said:
Everyone will have to step down one level of Supermarket Chain - i.e. From Dunnes Stores to Tesco's or Tesco's to Lidl/Aldi etc.

I'm currently at Aldi, so I suspect I will have to downgrade to Skips and Rubbish bins.
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Sorry Dunnes is one step above Tesco? That is bad news for me, because now I need to shop at Lidl/Aldi than, I thought I could move to Dunnes but if it's above Tesco....

Chocks away said:
..But with the cost of living going down, this should not be as harsh
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For how long will the cost of living go down, the next 6 month?

To pay for the unemployed (and the government jet) VAT will go up, utility prices go up too (so that state companies can give their employees pay rises they don't deserve) and once all the foreign cheap labor has gone and you final see an Irish person working at McDonalds the wage cost is also up.

Cost of living will go up and maybe that is what our great communicator meant to say, but with him you are never sure, he might just do a 360 in 5 minutes and announce that he found the cure and we now can expect 10-12% better standard of living within 1 year.
 
Or he could reduce unemployment at a stroke. Bring down the pension age to 45 and extend the school leaving age to 30
 

Why does he use the phrase living standards?

I was hoping to take just a pay cut and figured if I cut down on booze and take-aways I might actually improve my living standards.

I guess I'll just have to do my civic duty and try to be 10% more miserable.
 
I don't think the problem was that he said the standard of living would drop 10-12%. It was the more the way he was pointing out that we should probably be grateful after having so many good years. Has he not copped on yet that the good years were an illusion for most people? Yes people had jobs, yes people had money but they also had massive personal debt and it was this debt that fueled the boom. Now its pay back time. I don't think he realises that people aren't fearful about tightening their belts. They are fearful about losing everything they have.
 

But doesn't this summarize the situation. Cowen is so removed from reality that he does not know that the good years have just been financed by unrealistic debt piled by people in the hope they could refinance ever so often.

Most of the things purchased during the good years will stay be paid off in the years to come.

We need to learn that living on borrowed money is just wrong just like these fine folks in the US need to learn that.
 
truthseeker said:
Which shouldnt be difficult if you have to listen to Brian Cowen talking tripe for the next 6 months.
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It should be pointed out that his unscripted speeches are alot better than his scripted ones so he should sack his script writer who probably earns about €2 billion a year or something!
 
Sunny said:
It should be pointed out that his unscripted speeches are alot better than his scripted ones so he should sack his script writer who probably earns about €2 billion a year or something!
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Sunny - that post should be in Dealing with the Deficit

From an Economic Relativism point of view - will tightening the belts just mean coming back to planet earth and living 'normally' for all those who lived beyond their means while all those who lived within their means will now be suffering? If thats the case then one could argue it makes sense to live well beyond ones means in the boom times
 

That should be printed on billboards around the country.
 
Sunny said:
It should be pointed out that his unscripted speeches are alot better than his scripted ones so he should sack his script writer who probably earns about €2 billion a year or something!
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As should this - Sunny, will you run the country? Lets face it, you couldnt make a worse fist of it than the current crowd, you have good ideas about how to save money and you dont appear to be living in cloud cuckoo land!
 
DublinTexas said:
Sorry Dunnes is one step above Tesco? That is bad news for me, because now I need to shop at Lidl/Aldi than, I thought I could move to Dunnes but if it's above Tesco....
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Ach never mind me - I think I got them the wrong way round. I used to live in the UK and there they have a very clear hierarchy. Waitrose-> Sainsburies-> Tescos-> Morrisons-> Aldi/Lidl/Netto's

Here.... not so much. Everywhere seems expensive! But you are probably right - I've just never shopped in Dunnes!
 
I'd put Superquinn at the top with Dunnes marginally above Tesco and Lidl/Aldi taking up the rear.
 
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