Spending on infrastructure usually helps to grow the economy. Spending money which is taken in part from the wealth creating sector of the economy on pay rises that are not tied to productivity increases does not have a net positive impact on growth and living standards.Brendan's original article does not give enough room to this essential point.
Indeed if we fail to grow the economy we will leave lower living standards to our children.
Yes.Spending on infrastructure usually helps to grow the economy.
How do you know this. Is there any evidence to support it.Spending money which is taken in part from the wealth creating sector of the economy on pay rises that are not tied to productivity increases does not have a net positive impact on growth and living standards.
Are you sure about this. Is there really such a difference.
Teachers with money to spend will buy cinema tickets, restaurant meals, haircuts, new kitchens etc. all leading to increased economic activity and investment by cinema chains, restauranteurs, hairdressers and kitchen installers.
We would not need the M50, if all those cinema ushers, waiters, hairdressers and carpenters didn't have any work to go to.
Not even Paul Murphy would come out with that as a justification for uncontrolled spending. That banks and insurance companies are clamouring to buy government bonds !!There is also the fact that on the demand side the financial system needs trillions in safe assets. Real interest rates are still negative. It would be a crazy government that would turn away free money to generate better public services in the pursuit of parsimony for its own sake.
Kind of. (Edit: @Protocol 's post above provides a better answer)How do you know this. Is there any evidence to support it.
It's not about access to finance, it's about the overall impact of taxation on economic growth, especially increases in what are already high rates of taxation. In general borrowing to replace the cash you have paid in tax is not ideal.In the Irish context, if there was evidence that the wealth generating sector was struggling to raise finance for investment, you might have a point, but (outside the housebuilding industry, and that for very specific reasons), I see no evidence that there is any shortage of finance for investment.
People are either hard working or not hard working. Systems and processes are either efficient or inefficient. It is very important to make that distinction. A person who works very hard in an inefficient process is working hard but working inefficiently.As for increased productivity, in most public sectors areas, especially health but also education, the problems being experienced are problems of management and governance rather than lack of productivity.
I agree. Paying the teacher more just sucks up more public money. That is not efficient in that there is no return on the investment.Spending twice as long teaching LC maths students Algebra for the same pay, or the same length of time for less pay, does nothing to address the reasons why Matrices were dropped from the LC maths course. There are huge issues of the education system being fit for purpose, or indeed agreeing what the purpose might be.
Exactly, so agree to shorter hours if they agree to an electronic medical records system being introduced and the job losses in admin and the changes in work practices for the Nurses to better utilise the time they have freed up.An electronic medical records system could transform the health service, irrespective wether nurses are rostered for 35.5 hours or 39.
I agree.It is easy to see issues in the public services, but bringing them all back to money either 'give us more' or we don't get value for money' are just lazy responses from people who do not wish to engage in the difficult discussions as to how public services should be reformed.
Don’t apologize, I am not disagreeing with everything you say.Our constitution needs updating and the issues that face us need to be addressed and not just here the entire system is broken. Elections are seeing fewer and fewer people participating which is their democratic right but it also leaves the same people in power or at least same parties with the same tired policies.
As a country we have enough to sort out the mess in most aspects of Health, Housing, education but day after day new "problems " are born and nothing gets done.
I apologise for the posts and some of the silly ideas but something has to change.
'It' being tax from the wealth producing sector. There is an ideal level of tax in any economy, and it certainly is not zero. Personal taxes in Ireland are high, that is possible because wages are high. A French computer programmer would rather €100k in Dublin and pay an effective tax rate of 40%, than earn €50k in Toulouse and pay effective tax rate of 25% [I admit I made up the numbers}, but the point is that high pay and high taxes are connected.Kind of. (Edit: @Protocol 's post above provides a better answer)
It's not about access to finance, it's about the overall impact of taxation on economic growth, especially increases in what are already high rates of taxation. In general borrowing to replace the cash you have paid in tax is not ideal.
The problem is that many of the 'machines' in our Health Service are producing unwanted or dud parts. Many people in hospital beds should be in nursing home care. Whether there are 3 nurses or 5 looking after them is secondary.People are either hard working or not hard working. Systems and processes are either efficient or inefficient. It is very important to make that distinction. A person who works very hard in an inefficient process is working hard but working inefficiently.
Think of a factory where someone had to run between two machines which are 100 metres apart to keep them operating. That is inefficient. Moving the machines together would increase efficiency.
Not the best example in the world - diabetes, heart problems, rheumatoid arthritis ....No one in the system has the courage to say to a complainant with a sore arm, 'you don't need a scan go home and it will get better by itself'.
But the marginal tax rate is what people look at. It's also what makes people work shorter hours.'It' being tax from the wealth producing sector. There is an ideal level of tax in any economy, and it certainly is not zero. Personal taxes in Ireland are high, that is possible because wages are high. A French computer programmer would rather €100k in Dublin and pay an effective tax rate of 40%, than earn €50k in Toulouse and pay effective tax rate of 25% [I admit I made up the numbers}, but the point is that high pay and high taxes are connected.
I agree, but the healthcare Unions resist all meaningful change so nothing meaningful changes.The problem is that many of the 'machines' in our Health Service are producing unwanted or dud parts. Many people in hospital beds should be in nursing home care. Whether there are 3 nurses or 5 looking after them is secondary.
Yes, as should be the case in every publicly funded hospital.My local private hospital does MRI scans until 11pm. That is effective use of valuable machinery.
That's up to the GP that sent them there.However many of the scans are completely redundant. No one in the system has the courage to say to a complainant with a sore arm, 'you don't need a scan go home and it will get better by itself'.
They also order them because they aren't competent enough to make a proper diagnosis, because they are trying to keep their patient happy or because they want them out of the room and the next patient in.Not the best example in the world - diabetes, heart problems, rheumatoid arthritis ....
Doctors order scans after a series of questions and a physical examination of the patient.
Possibly not the best example of what I was trying to illustrate, which ws that the problems in the health system go beyond how hard people work or how efficient the processes are.Not the best example in the world - diabetes, heart problems, rheumatoid arthritis ....
Doctors order scans after a series of questions and a physical examination of the patient.
And the health system management is too weak to change that, mostly because it lacks the political support to do so.I agree, but the healthcare Unions resist all meaningful change so nothing meaningful changes.
A friend of mine just left his relatively well paid job in the HR department of a University. He said that he just couldn't deal with a place where work practices were so bad and so little work was actually done. He reckoned that he was becoming unemployable in any private sector job as he was losing the ability to actually do any work.And the health system management is too weak to change that, mostly because it lacks the political support to do so.
I worked briefly many years ago in one of the Universities. The University employed teams of maintenance staff and grounds keepers. Each group had their own uniforms. The restrictive practices were a joke. Two guys came to paint my small office one day, set up ladders dust covers etc. disappeared for a week, came back and finished the job in 2 hours. I understand they did nixers in the time they were allocated to my office.
The university never challenged this directly, they simply brought in outside contractors and paid them a contract price. They bought off the existing staff with pay rises and generous redundancy packages. Today the University employees very few maintenance staff and those are on revised contracts.
The Health Service management have never been strong enough to launch something like this or indeed any other reform plan.
Public sector workers are not seeking a reduction of hours to under 35 hours , why would they when an independent review body has already stated that the vast majority of public sector workers be returned to a standardised minimum full time 35 hour week ( not under 35 hours ).I think you've a good point there about productivity @Purple. Unfortunately thats exactly how the original Social Partnership was supposed to work in the late 90s, but in reality its never really been established that it worked, because some unions always saw it as a bargain they could later demand to renegotiate. Hence we have a scenario where most public sector office workers are demanding a reduction in hours from 37-39 to under 35 (https://www.rte.ie/news/2022/0414/1292436-public-service-working-times/#:~:text=The additional working hours saw,hours or more were unchanged.) while junior doctors are still on a workload that is simply bananas (https://www.thejournal.ie/junior-doctors-burnout-overtime-working-conditions-5743137-Apr2022/)
It's certainly good news in our house. Herself is currently taking some parental leave, but as she will still work the same hours, it means that she will in effect get a pay rise. Likely many thousands of staff in the same boat. So a big thank you to everyone for this and apologies to anyone affected by reduced resources / increased national debt payments in the future. But sure, we're alright Jack.Public sector workers are not seeking a reduction of hours to under 35 hours , why would they when an independent review body has already stated that the vast majority of public sector workers be returned to a standardised minimum full time 35 hour week ( not under 35 hours ).
The Government has accepted this recommendation and the good news is that it comes into effect today !
And you're never going to be able to out bribe \ out spend the parties of the magical money tree, losing game to get into.FFG are panicking about losing the next election to SF and are throwing around money in an attempt to save their skin. Much of that spending goes to lobby groups, half-baked social initiatives, self-serving quangos or is soaked up by bureaucracy.
I appreciate what you are getting at, but my main point is that we shouldn’t have to guess.Possibly not the best example of what I was trying to illustrate, which ws that the problems in the health system go beyond how hard people work or how efficient the processes are.
Preventative health care, treatment at the lowest appropriate level, giving people the treatment they need rather than the treatment they expect. There are many other more general example of improved approaches that could transform the health service more effectively than staff working longer or faster.
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