That's a straw man argument Purple.
You're batting back points Bronte didn't raise.
Bronte is quite right in what she posted, and while many of the comments you made appear to be as clever and self-supporting as a good sports bra some of them seem to fall apart under investigation.
Let's look at just one.
You are comparing apples and oranges when you're talking about nurses pay here and elsewhere. You have made no comparative study of the health services, pension and social service entitlements here and abroad, which go some way to take money out of people's pockets and into the state's so it can provide services in ill health and in later life. Here we're supposed to look after these through private means and we haven't or cannot, partly through the situation we're in with mortgages and negative equity.
Details on total healthcare spending here http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showpost.php?p=1122760&postcount=1
We have a choice between spending the money on services for patients or spending it on wages for the staff providing those services. There has never been a shortage of any medical staff for any area in this country so there is no argument that high wages are or were required to attract or retain staff. There is no distinction between what we pay directly or indirectly through our taxes; the net spend and the net cost is still the same nationally.
There are plenty of threads on this site highlighting the difference between what social services we get and what other EU countries get. In general we spend more and get less. The main reason for this is we spend more per hour for staff than other countries.
Greece is the only country in the OECD with a shorter school year (total hours worked) yet we pay far more for staff than most other OECD countries. The net result of this is larger classes and less support services. Given the choice between providing services for children and providing high wages for teachers we chose the latter. If that’s what we want that’s fine but people should stop complaining about outcomes from decisions they have made, i.e. teachers complaining about class sizes and lack of support services because they took a larger slice of the education budget.
I’d sooner see medical staff working a standard 39 hour week and the powers that be charging some or most of the directors of our financial institutions with reckless trading.I have no problem with asking medical staff to work longer hours, but only in the context of everyone being asked to do so, particularly the directors of financial institutions and companies who seem able to rotate around golden circles on the pretext of bringing grey headed wisdom to 12 and more different companies each year but who in fact, through their incompetence and lack of diligent attention to their duties were the authors of our economic deconstruction.
Who are the moneyed élite? Are all people with money part of this group? (are the 5% who pay 50% of income tax part of it?)The perception is that such as these are not suffering at all in the present climate, which has the rest of us on interest only mortgages, suspending our pension payments, cancelling our health insurance and struggling to pay back our loans.
This occurs because of a dearth of profitable work, and where there is work, a plethora of clients who walk away from their debts. Ireland today is rife with real-world sharp practice situations and lies, so please don't bother painting the monied élite as anything other than the self-serving money grubbers that they are.
ONQ.