D
daltonr
Guest
I get more disturbed very time I read a thread about Rip-Offs on AAM. The very people who I thought would have been very pro-consumer and possesing enough intelligence to see what's happening in the country are also the People who most strongly defend the current state of affairs.
Brendan, Rainyday and Clubman (all of whom I respect regardless of occasional specific areas where we disagree) invariably ride to the defense of the country and won't tolerate any suggestion by posters that there's something rotten in the State of Ireland.
Surely to goodness it's clear to the preverbial donkey with a glass eye up his ass (thanks for that image Eddie) that what people feel is a rip-off is often not caused by excessive profits for businesses but by a very badly put together set of taxes, tax incentives and other policies. A government so concerned with it's own profits and it's own economic figures that it is all but ignoring the impact of it's policies on society and on peoples day to day lives.
Rather than attack every poster to thinks the cost of living in Ireland has gotten out of sync with the quality of life wouldn't it be better if the learned people on this forum helped explain the causes of Rip-Off Ireland rather than deny that it exists at all?
Rip-Off Ireland is REAL. It is significantly more expensive to live here than in other countries, and that extra cost of living is not fully justified by a greater quality of life. THAT is Rip-Off Ireland. It manifests itself in Restaurants, Pubs, Cinemas, Department Stores, Supermarkets, etc. Which is why they attract the complaints.
I've had the good fortune to visit a lot of countries in 2005. I've also had the good fortune to discuss the state of those countries with the people who live there, and the only country so far that I would place below Ireland in terms of Quality of Life for someone with a reasonable level of income from a reasonably good job would be Malaysia.
Yes if you have no job or any intention of getting one Ireland would suddenly jump up the charts. But I suspect there aren't many such people posting on AAM which is why we get a certain bias from posters in their attitude to the country.
I'm not claiming to be able to fully assess quality of life in a brief visit, but I think the level of contentment and pride that citizens have about their country is a reasonable barometer or Quality of Life when combined with quantitative things like Tax and access to housing, prices in shops, restaurants etc.
I also think you can tell a lot about a country by looking at its houses and cars and cities and so on. I've had the good fortune to have dinner not just in restaurants but in peoples homes, and talk to them about their lives.
Ireland would rank above all of the countries I visited in terms of it's economic performance. If we're not carefull this country will become the equivalent of Hetty Green (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hetty_Green). So concerned with our economic bottom line that we completely lose sight of what actually matters.
If a consumer visits another country or checks out a website and sees that some items are 100% or 500% more expensive in Ireland than in other countries then it's valid to lay a charge of Rip-Off Ireland. For most consumers they will consider the blame lies with the person providing the product or service. That's understandable. They are right that there's a rip-off but wrong about who's to blame.
Let those who think that Rip-Off Ireland is a myth show how life is so much better in Ireland that this higher cost of living is justified. To Evade the charge of Rip-Off it's not sufficient to explain higher prices, you also have to justify them.
I'm also concerned that someone with Brendan's intelligence thinks that we have to choose between Ireland of the 80's and Ireland of the 00's. That's a very shaky bit of reasoning. The choice is between Ireland of the 00's and everywhere else of the 00's.
-Rd
Brendan, Rainyday and Clubman (all of whom I respect regardless of occasional specific areas where we disagree) invariably ride to the defense of the country and won't tolerate any suggestion by posters that there's something rotten in the State of Ireland.
Surely to goodness it's clear to the preverbial donkey with a glass eye up his ass (thanks for that image Eddie) that what people feel is a rip-off is often not caused by excessive profits for businesses but by a very badly put together set of taxes, tax incentives and other policies. A government so concerned with it's own profits and it's own economic figures that it is all but ignoring the impact of it's policies on society and on peoples day to day lives.
Rather than attack every poster to thinks the cost of living in Ireland has gotten out of sync with the quality of life wouldn't it be better if the learned people on this forum helped explain the causes of Rip-Off Ireland rather than deny that it exists at all?
Rip-Off Ireland is REAL. It is significantly more expensive to live here than in other countries, and that extra cost of living is not fully justified by a greater quality of life. THAT is Rip-Off Ireland. It manifests itself in Restaurants, Pubs, Cinemas, Department Stores, Supermarkets, etc. Which is why they attract the complaints.
I've had the good fortune to visit a lot of countries in 2005. I've also had the good fortune to discuss the state of those countries with the people who live there, and the only country so far that I would place below Ireland in terms of Quality of Life for someone with a reasonable level of income from a reasonably good job would be Malaysia.
Yes if you have no job or any intention of getting one Ireland would suddenly jump up the charts. But I suspect there aren't many such people posting on AAM which is why we get a certain bias from posters in their attitude to the country.
I'm not claiming to be able to fully assess quality of life in a brief visit, but I think the level of contentment and pride that citizens have about their country is a reasonable barometer or Quality of Life when combined with quantitative things like Tax and access to housing, prices in shops, restaurants etc.
I also think you can tell a lot about a country by looking at its houses and cars and cities and so on. I've had the good fortune to have dinner not just in restaurants but in peoples homes, and talk to them about their lives.
Ireland would rank above all of the countries I visited in terms of it's economic performance. If we're not carefull this country will become the equivalent of Hetty Green (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hetty_Green). So concerned with our economic bottom line that we completely lose sight of what actually matters.
If a consumer visits another country or checks out a website and sees that some items are 100% or 500% more expensive in Ireland than in other countries then it's valid to lay a charge of Rip-Off Ireland. For most consumers they will consider the blame lies with the person providing the product or service. That's understandable. They are right that there's a rip-off but wrong about who's to blame.
Let those who think that Rip-Off Ireland is a myth show how life is so much better in Ireland that this higher cost of living is justified. To Evade the charge of Rip-Off it's not sufficient to explain higher prices, you also have to justify them.
I'm also concerned that someone with Brendan's intelligence thinks that we have to choose between Ireland of the 80's and Ireland of the 00's. That's a very shaky bit of reasoning. The choice is between Ireland of the 00's and everywhere else of the 00's.
-Rd
