Ireland has the highest consumer prices in the EU

I think a big reason is that the state has become much bigger due to the enormous tax take they are getting from the FDI sector. However the state is unreformed and highly inefficient. Because they have huge buying power they distort markets they buy in like the housing and construction sector.
In the hospitality sector they have basically bought up alot of the capacity for refugees and homeless people. Therefore they have pushed up hotel prices indirectly. Poland also has a huge refugee influx but they managed it without using up alot of their hospitality capacity. There are still plenty of hotel spaces there for tourists.
In Ireland we take a one dimensional approach to everything, we tackle one problem but don't think or ignore the down the line consequences of that decision.
Because the state has alot of money now ,they take the path of least resistance and just throw money at everything. That in alot of cases is causing the rising prices
 
I would love to know where the EUR 2.50 coffee is!
 
Protocol said:
A cup of coffee in a café in the Algarve can be as little as 65c, compared to at least €2.50 here.
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Which makes it very economically attractive for visitors from high income countries. But it is not a valid comparison in regards to Portuguese versus Irish living standards.
The minimum wage in Portugal (as probably earned by the cafe staff and, perhaps, by supermarket workers) is less than half that in Ireland (€10,644 pa v €22,916 pa). That is before deductions for both social security and tax. Employees pay 11% for social security. In 2022 tax was at 15% on the first €7120 and 23% on the next €3,600 (and continuing to rise progressively thereafter to 48% on income over €79,000). Not much left to pay for coffee - even if cheap coffee by Irish standards.
Average adult earnings are less than €20,000.

I assume that in addition to reduced costs for consumer goods in Ireland we also want a corresponding reduction in wages and pensions. Or do we?
 
arbitron said:
Is Ireland really one of the most socialist countries in the world?!
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like the communist party of China embracing world trade but still keeping the communist control, they called it
"One country two systems"
We are socialist as regards giving very high social welfare payments and housing payments however the state is ineffective in acting like other socialist countries as regards delivering state services because state workers are like the nobility in Ireland they have alot of power, they are nearly an aristocracy in their own right
 
joe sod said:
like the communist party of China embracing world trade but still keeping the communist control, they called it
"One country two systems
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The "one country two systems" moniker was used to describe the difference in governance, administration and economic model between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland after the transfer of sovereignty from the UK in 1997 - up until 2020 and the virtual integration of Honk Kong within the mainland model. It had nothing to do with the post-Mao Chinese model to which you refer, and which they described as "socialism with Chinese characteristics".
 
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I knew that yes but I thought it was also a general term to describe China operating two systems capitalism and communism concurrently because it was all happening at around that time in 1997 when Hong Kong was given back to China
 
joe sod said:
however the state is ineffective in acting like other socialist countries as regards delivering state services because state workers are like the nobility in Ireland they have alot of power, they are nearly an aristocracy in their own right
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Ineffective delivery of services tends almost always to be a common denominator in socialist countries. It was the straw that broke the communist camel's back in late 80s Russia and its client states.
 
T McGibney said:
Ineffective delivery of services tends almost always to be a common denominator in socialist countries. It was the straw that broke the communist camel's back in late 80s Russia and its client states.
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So that means that only Scandinavians and Germans can be truly socialist because they push efficiencies out of their state companies, and they don't operate golden circles
 
Yes / No

If you are prescribed paracetamol, its quite cheap. I was prescribed a paracetamol/ibuprofen/codeine tab for a tooth issue that had a waiting time of 3 months. 180 tabs cost €11

The issue with low cost medicines like paracetamol is the the medical council here require specific packaging and licencing for every pack size / style and has a costly process for that.

The UK has similar (not as onerous) - but the costs are spread amongst a far far bigger population

btw, UK price has gone up to 40p-50p
 
joe sod said:
So that means that only Scandinavians and Germans can be truly socialist because they push efficiencies out of their state companies, and they don't operate golden circles
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Have you been keeping track of German public administration scandals and inefficiencies? Because most people have long ago lost count - BaFin, Cum Ex, Berlin Airport, the railway system, political corruption, cronyism, Nordstream cover ups, etc, etc.

It seems nowhere is perfect - even if their faraway hills look greener.
 
Yes but they would still be closest to the ideal of how socialism was supposed to operate after all the whole ideology was thought up by that infamous german Karl Marx
 
peemac said:
The issue with low cost medicines like paracetamol is the the medical council here require specific packaging and licencing for every pack size / style and has a costly process for that.
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Medical Council or Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) ?
 
Purple said:
When it comes to income redistribution yes, by any reasonable economic metric we are on e of the most socialist countries in the world.
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I've read about Gini and income inequality measures that suggest that before govt intervention we are one of the most unequal in the OECD but after redistribution we are among the most equal, but is that enough to say we are socialist?

I've never studied economics but I thought socialism also involved highly centralised economies with input/output controlled by govt. Ireland is consistently ranked as one of the top 10 countries for economic freedom, often higher than UK & USA.

T McGibney said:
Ineffective delivery of services tends almost always to be a common denominator in socialist countries. It was the straw that broke the communist camel's back in late 80s Russia and its client states.
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Are you conflating socialism (Scandinavia and apparently Ireland) and communism (Vietnam, North Korea, USSR, etc), which I thought were different systems?
 
The term Socialism, as used in democratic European societies, is not a stepping stone on the way to Communism and a command economy. It is using taxation to create a more equal society. In my view equality of opportunity is desirable but equality of outcome is evil. Therefore I'm in favour of subsidised education and healthcare as well as supports for working people on low incomes but if you can work and choose not to and instead expect to live on welfare then I would let you starve. I mean that literally; I'd have no problem with people who make that choice dying of starvation.
On that basis I think we are too socialist and way too close to providing equality of outcome.
 
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