Ireland 2.0

DublinWriter

If the Republic of Ireland were an I.T. software project, it would have been abandoned right about now.

I think that what we need to do is re-write the rules and reboot the project.

By rules, I mean setting out the overall public and political structure of the country setting out a completely re-structured health service, defined and realistic benefits of pay for politicians, a functioning presidency (not an expensive retirement home), less political offices, abolition of the senead, etc etc.

It's a big call, but do we now need to go 'Year Zero' on ourselves?

achtungbarry

See this thread

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055493615

mikemac

Year Zero? :eek:
Isn't that what the Kymher Rouge used? I wouldn't be throwing around a term like that

achtungbarry

mikemac wrote: »

Year Zero? :eek:
Isn't that what the Kymher Rouge used? I wouldn't be throwing around a term like that

So did the French with their revolution.

Hmmmmm......... guillotines.

ionix5891

if Ireland was an IT project it would be canned and outsourced by now

unfortunately no one wants our mess

ART6

achtungbarry wrote: »

So did the French with their revolution.

Hmmmmm......... guillotines.

Thats it! That's the answer!:D

NewDubliner

ionix5891 wrote: »

if Ireland was an IT project it would be canned and outsourced by now

If Ireland was an IT project, it would be called 'Vista'.

thebman

NewDubliner wrote: »

If Ireland was an IT project, it would be called 'Vista'.

Okay but how do we make the project open source to fix its problems?

NewDubliner

thebman wrote: »

Okay but how do we make the project open source to fix its problems?

Well, communism/socialism is quite unfashionable these days. And Open Source is no panacea. But a bit of transparency is a good idea.

The problems with failed software projects can usually be defined two ways:

1: Technology driven rather than based on actual end-user needs.

2: Failure to KISS.

silverharp

everyone should have known it was based on windows, it was always liable to crash. :pac:

Liam Byrne

NewDubliner wrote: »

If Ireland was an IT project, it would be called 'Vista'.

Nope, it'd be the software for PPARS and electronic voting put together...

1) An ego project
2) Pointless
3) Over-budget
4) Unreliable and untrustworthy

NewDubliner

Here's a glimpse of one of the less-worse outcomes that might await us:

When Consumers Cut Back: A Lesson From Japan

Today, years after the recovery, even well-off Japanese households use old bath water to do laundry, a popular way to save on utility bills. Sales of whiskey, the favorite drink among moneyed Tokyoites in the booming ’80s, have fallen to a fifth of their peak. And the nation is losing interest in cars; sales have fallen by half since 1990....

Japan eventually pulled itself out of the Lost Decade of the 1990s, thanks in part to a boom in exports to the United States and China. But even as the economy expanded, shell-shocked consumers refused to spend. Between 2001 and 2007, per-capita consumer spending rose only 0.2 percent.

The Japanese have had some good reasons to scale back spending.

Perhaps most important, the average worker’s paycheck has shrunk in recent years, even after companies rebounded and bolstered their profits.
...
To better compete, companies slashed jobs and wages, replacing much of their work force with temporary workers who had no job security and fewer benefits. Nontraditional workers now make up more than a third of Japan’s labor force.

...They tend to be uninterested in cars; a survey last year by the business daily Nikkei found that only 25 percent of Japanese men in their 20s wanted a car, down from 48 percent in 2000, contributing to the slump in sales.

Young Japanese women even seem to be losing their once- insatiable thirst for foreign fashion. Louis Vuitton, for example, reported a 10 percent drop in its sales in Japan in 2008.

“I’m not interested in big spending,” says Risa Masaki, 20, a college student in Tokyo and a neighbor of the Takigasakis. “I just want a humble life.”

...Japan’s aging population is not helping consumption. Businesses had hoped that baby boomers — the generation that reaped the benefits of Japan’s postwar breakneck economic growth — would splurge their lifetime savings upon retirement, which began en masse in 2007. But that has not happened at the scale that companies had hoped.

Economists blame this slow spending on widespread distrust of Japan’s pension system, which is buckling under the weight of one of the world’s most rapidly aging societies. That could serve as a warning for the United States, where workers’ 401(k)’s have been ravaged by declining stocks, pensions are disappearing, and the long-term solvency of the Social Security system is in question.

“My husband is retiring in five years, and I’m very concerned,” says Ms. Masaki’s mother, Naoko, 52. She says it is no relief that her husband, a public servant, can expect a hefty retirement package; pension payments could fall, and she has two unmarried children to worry about.

“I want him to find another job, and work as long as he’s able,” Mrs. Masaki says. “We must be ready to fend for ourselves.”

Economists say deflation could interfere with the two trillion yen ($21 billion) in cash handouts that the Japanese government is planning, because consumers might save the extra money on the hunch that it will be more valuable in the future than it is now.
...
Hiromi Kobayashi, 38, a Tokyo homemaker, has taken to sewing children’s ballet clothes at home to supplement income from her husband’s job at a movie distribution company. The family has not gone on vacation in two years and still watches a cathode-ray tube TV. Mrs. Kobayashi has her eye on a flat-panel TV but is holding off.

“I’m going to find a bargain, then wait until it gets even cheaper,” she says.
Next Article in Business (3 of 26) » A version of this article appeared in print on February 22, 2009, on page A1 of the New York edition.

brianthebard

NewDubliner wrote: »

Well, communism/socialism is quite unfashionable these days. And Open Source is no panacea. But a bit of transparency is a good idea.

Unfashionable where, Spain, Cyprus, South America, Scandinavia? And for those who feel these are bit players and we shouldn't pay attention to their example-Ireland is a bit player!

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

NewDubliner

donegalfella wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Apple=Switzerland.