commonsense
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Commonsense,
The costs are enormous and the costs are being borne by everybody. But not by everybody equally.
The OP here and Singmom on another current thread, lost the deposit on their houses and are losing their homes as well.
I think that making mortgage payments while the wait to be repossessed is uncalled for. You can be sure that many more cynical people are not doing so.
On the other point as to who pays, I do think that it is just the taxpayer and future taxpayers.
Total govt spending in 2013 excluding interest costs is budgeted at €54.6m in 2003 it was €38.4 m. No one is loosing out through reduced Govt spending.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cremeegg
I fully recognise the implication that we will all have to pay for the losses arising from that, well actually its not all, its just taxpayers, but that is another story. I don't see it as some form of revenge on nasty banks, as you rightly point out it is not the banks who will suffer, it is the taxpayer.
Originally Posted by Commonsense
And the depositors, education, health and the vulnerable in society.
My point here is that education, health, and social welfare continue to be funded at Celtic Tiger levels.
The economic crisis has not lead to reduced public spending, the cost is being borne by taxpayers not those dependant on public spending
I'm not sure I fully get your point, but I will say this, we still have celtic tiger expenditure, agree, but's it's being funded on borrowed money.
Exactly.
My point is that "education, health and the vulnerable in society" are not losing out, because we are borrowing to pay for these things.
It is the tax payer and future tax payers who will pay
It's quite arrogant to assume you know everyone's circumstances - how can you?here is how I lost the run of myself on cheap credit during the boom, without ever stepping inside a bank.
I worked for a private company in the construction industry, not a builder and not on house building.
Many of the projects we worked on were public buildings, financed entirely by the government on the taxes it levied from the construction industry, i.e. borrowed money cheap credit. ...
If it wasn't for the government spending the fruits of the boom, half of the company's staff would not have had jobs in Ireland, and the other half would have been working for a lot lower wages.
The new car I bought in 2006 was entirely financed by cheap credit. I didn't borrow the money I saved up for it, but my wages were financed by cheap credit.
So were every one else's.
Of course they are losing out. There have been cuts to the disabled, carers etc, education budgets have been cut, SNA'a have been cut. There have been major cuts in health.
If you borrow then you have to repay it. Your figure excluded the "interest payments". Why?
Edit to clarify - if the Government borrows then it has to repay it.
Just to be a complete nerd about it
The dept of Agriculture in 2003 spent €1.23bn and in 2013 spent €1.23bn. No increase there.
The point being that education health and social protection have not suffered. They are still being funded at Celtic Tiger levels.
Here is the link. http://per.gov.ie/expenditure-trends/
There is a further link at the bottom that gives details by dept.
It's quite arrogant to assume you know everyone's circumstances - how can you?
Well, here’s how I didn’t (IMHO) lose the run of myself on cheap credit during the boom, without ever stepping inside a bank:
I work in Ireland for a non-EU company. My colleagues are scattered around the world, living wherever they want to live. I could live and work from Outer Mongolia for all my employer would care. The work is 100% unconnected with Ireland and almost entirely unconnected with the EU. I just happen to live here, get paid here and pay my taxes here. The business is a quirky one which has never required loans – cheap or otherwise.
My standard of living has been fairly stable from before the boom, through the boom and now post-boom – although things are definitely a bit tighter now with higher taxes (and having older children now doesn't help either). My most recent (and only current) borrowing was for my family home in the late 1990s. [Slight digression: It’s not that long ago but when we bought our house, all we had were a few bits of hand-me-down furniture and we lived with the hideous 1960s/70s decor for quite a long time until we could afford to do things up a bit – quite a different approach to many of the boom buyers who would get a bit extra because, horrors, who would want to live in anything but a beautifully done up house – and sure, weren’t they worth it?]
I had plenty of credit and investment opportunities during the boom years but didn’t avail of any because the numbers just didn’t stack up. My income (and the equity in my existing house) would have justified a trade-up to a bigger/better house (and sure, wasn’t I worth it?), but I wouldn’t have been able to sleep at night with a big mortgage relative to income even though repayments looked totally manageable. My car is over 10 years old – I’m not a car person so I don’t really care – it’s well maintained and it gets me from A to B.
So, do tell – where did I lose the run of myself on cheap credit during the boom?
Not on this issue he doesn't. Cremeegg's point that I am refuting here is that EVERYONE (not just most/many/some people) lost the run of themselves on cheap credit. I know I didn't.I think cremeegg makes a valid point tbh.
And I agree 100% with this as I mentioned in previous posts - it was hard to avoid the benefits doled out by Bertie - but there is a distinction between passive beneficiaries, active participants and 'those to blame'. Not everyone took part in what cremeegg calls the pyramid scheme, not everyone was happy with what was being done politically and fiscally but majority rules in a democracy, and, once more with feeling, not everyone lost the run of themselves on cheap credit!While you (or I) may not have availed of cheap credit and incentives to buy property, we did pay lower taxes for example. Children's allowance was significantly increased, dole payments increased, huge incentives to invest in pensions for example.
Not on this issue he doesn't. Cremeegg's point that I am refuting here is that EVERYONE (not just most/many/some people) lost the run of themselves on cheap credit. I know I didn't.
And I agree 100% with this as I mentioned in previous posts - it was hard to avoid the benefits doled out by Bertie - but there is a distinction between passive beneficiaries, active participants and 'those to blame'. Not everyone took part in what cremeegg calls the pyramid scheme, not everyone was happy with what was being done politically and fiscally but majority rules in a democracy, and, once more with feeling, not everyone lost the run of themselves on cheap credit!
Maybe if you’d let cremeegg reply himself, we would know and not have to speculate. In my opinion, cremeegg is confusing participation, benefit and blame and saying that everyone is ‘to blame’.That's not my reading orka.
My opinion is that we ALL did take part in it. ...
My reply at post 30 disagreeing that EVERYONE was to blame:We ALL enjoyed the benefits of this, higher social welfare, higher public sector salaries, extra jobs in construction, more money in peoples pockets to spend in private businesses. ...We took the loot, we reelected the government that oversaw the whole thing, opposition parties were encouraging MORE public spending not less.
We are ALL to blame
You seem to be rolling up participation, benefit and blame into one big mass and saying 'we all took part in IT'. It was difficult to avoid the short-term benefits of eg tax reductions, increases in social welfare etc. - but that doesn't mean that the recipient of the benefit was an active cheerleader for anything - and certainly not everyone shares the blame.
Cremeegg disagreed – saying that we ALL lost the run of ourselves on cheap credit (post 34):Not everyone lost the run of themselves on cheap credit. Re-elections are not by 100% of voters - there were certainly people opposed to the largesse but they were outvoted by a short-sighted majority - so how can you say EVERYONE is to blame (actually to blame, not just that they benefitted)?
To which I replied (post 37)It was cheap credit that propped the whole thing up. Money borrowed by the banks to finance the property industry, taxed by the government to fund public spending. Even if you never stepped inside a bank, we all lost the run of ourselves on cheap credit.
Cremeegg then attempted to educate me about how an everyman such as himself lost the run of himself on cheap credit without ever stepping inside a bank (post 39)Nope. I'm really pretty sure I didn't.(lose the run of myself on cheap credit)
Rather than pointing at other people, here is how I lost the run of myself on cheap credit during the boom, without ever stepping inside a bank.
To which I replied, taking exception to him assuming he knows how everyone’s wages were financed and how everyone lost the run of themselves with cheap credit (we were long past other benefits of the boom at this stage) – post 46:.
.
... my wages were financed by cheap credit.
So were every one else's.
It's quite arrogant to assume you know everyone's circumstances - how can you?
At which point you stepped in to say that cremeegg just meant that everybody benefitted. If cremeegg would like to confirm that he meant everybody benefitted but not everybody is to blame and not everybody lost the run of themselves with cheap credit, that would be most excellent as we can all agree and I can desist from mortal combat which is enjoyable but time-consuming...Well, here’s how I didn’t (IMHO) lose the run of myself on cheap credit during the boom, without ever stepping inside a bank:
...
So, do tell – where did I lose the run of myself on cheap credit during the boom?
My opinion is that we ALL did take part in it. Here are some some arguments to support that opinion.
We ALL enjoyed the benefits of this, higher social welfare, higher public sector salaries, extra jobs in construction, more money in peoples pockets to spend in private businesses.
The huge increases were entirely funded by taxes on the building boom.
We took the loot, we reelected the government that oversaw the whole thing, opposition parties were encouraging MORE public spending not less.
We are ALL to blame
The only way to bring public spending down is to reduce benefits, reduce social welfare and increase taxes. Is that a fair assessment?
... it was hard to avoid the benefits doled out by Bertie - but there is a distinction between passive beneficiaries, active participants and 'those to blame'....
Benefiting from some decision taken by others does not mean you are to blame when the whole thing goes bang because of those decisions!
In a democracy if those "Others" are elected political leaders then we as members of that democracy are responsible.
If they are civil servants appointed to responsible positions by those politicians, (I am thinking about the financial regulator and the central bank in 2003 to 2007), them we are responsible.
We cannot be members of a democratic society and then disown the decisions produced by that democracy when we don't like them.
Don't get me started on extending that thought to the Catholic church!
Going way off topic of OP here-suggest letting off steam is the place for this debate!
My two cent:
That is total nonsense. Benefiting from some decision taken by others does not mean you are to blame when the whole thing goes bang because of those decisions!
There are loads of examples that many people did not benefit at all. Wages went up, taxes went down, but the cost of living kept rising, even for essential food items. Are the people that bought these items to be blamed for the price inflation?
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