We were certainly encouraged by the government and media to do various things in the above list.It was our own fault that we got into this financial mess and I mean the massive Budget deficit. We are all to blame some more than others.
The government did not help matters and some of the bankers should be jailed but it is our own fault at the end of the day.
most of us were honest in our jobs and do not now deserve to be footing the bill for hundreds of millions of euros arising from very suspect banking deals
Most ordinary working people feel that they will now be left to foot the bill of others
I agree completely with that.I think this is where the denial is creeping in. It is true that very few people are red-handedly 'to blame' for the current crisis. But pretty much everybody has benefited in some way from the things that caused the crisis. More than they should have been - salaries were increased, taxes were reduced and social welfare payments were increased. What now needs to be done (amongst many other things...) is an unwinding of these benefits that none of us should have had in the first place. And while it is unpalatable because nobody wants a reduction in income/standard of living, people need to ask themselves honestly 'where would I be/what would my income/standard of living be if some of the 'bad stuff, nothing to do with me, bankers/developers run amok' things had NOT happened. If the government had kept a firm hand on things, if banks didn't lend to developers etc etc - what would your net income be today? If it would be lower, you are part of the problem if you refuse to be flexible in sharing the pain.
I find the stubborn 'nothing to do with me but I'm not handing back what I gained' attitude really troubling - because if we can't get past that, it is difficult to see a way out of this without either a very prolonged recession or external management of our economy.
I think this is where the denial is creeping in. It is true that very few people are red-handedly 'to blame' for the current crisis. But pretty much everybody has benefited in some way from the things that caused the crisis. More than they should have been - salaries were increased, taxes were reduced and social welfare payments were increased. What now needs to be done (amongst many other things...) is an unwinding of these benefits that none of us should have had in the first place. And while it is unpalatable because nobody wants a reduction in income/standard of living, people need to ask themselves honestly 'where would I be/what would my income/standard of living be if some of the 'bad stuff, nothing to do with me, bankers/developers run amok' things had NOT happened. If the government had kept a firm hand on things, if banks didn't lend to developers etc etc - what would your net income be today? If it would be lower, you are part of the problem if you refuse to be flexible in sharing the pain.
I find the stubborn 'nothing to do with me but I'm not handing back what I gained' attitude really troubling - because if we can't get past that, it is difficult to see a way out of this without either a very prolonged recession or external management of our economy.
what scares me most is this agenda to put as much blame on the bankers & the property developers, and i am neither.
yes some bankers broke the law, yes huge loans were given out, yes property developers made millions, but lets stop for a second and think who is responsible for monitoring the financial industry in this country....
The financial regulator. thats where the buck should stop...but what happens he gets a payoff.
If we had proper corporate governance & proper regulation of the financial industry the bankers would never have been in a position to create any of the mess they did.
I think this is where the denial is creeping in. It is true that very few people are red-handedly 'to blame' for the current crisis
But pretty much everybody has benefited in some way from the things that caused the crisis.
Agreed, there was no long term sustainability of high wages and lowincome taxes. In fact the short term wage and tax levels have contributed to a squandering of money we needed to ride out the recessionsalaries were increased, taxes were reduced and social welfare payments were increased. What now needs to be done (amongst many other things...) is an unwinding of these benefits that none of us should have had in the first place. And while it is unpalatable because nobody wants a reduction in income/standard of living, people need to ask themselves honestly 'where would I be/what would my income/standard of living be if some of the 'bad stuff, nothing to do with me, bankers/developers run amok' things had NOT happened. If the government had kept a firm hand on things, if banks didn't lend to developers etc etc - what would your net income be today? If it would be lower, you are part of the problem if you refuse to be flexible in sharing the pain.
For me this is the heart of the matter and I too think that such attitudes only serve to make the situation worse.I find the stubborn 'nothing to do with me but I'm not handing back what I gained' attitude really troubling - because if we can't get past that, it is difficult to see a way out of this without either a very prolonged recession or external management of our economy.
Oh, so true. And no shame whatsoever!We were too cocky and voted No to Lisbon - next time we will be all over Lisbon like a rash and begging for more EU grants...
I find the stubborn 'nothing to do with me but I'm not handing back what I gained' attitude really troubling - because if we can't get past that, it is difficult to see a way out of this without either a very prolonged recession or external management of our economy.
I just wonder why the goverment ever cut the taxes in the first place...
This is why public spending will utimately be slashed with the most vulnerable suffering (given that the bulk of spending is on health, education and social welfare).
But why not cut back the 113 local authority organisations or the small hospitals or one person garda stations?
It is time we dragged public services into the 21st century.
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