History; Are we learning anything? Banking and Government Today

RomanticIreland

Do we as a nation under value the lessons to be learnt from mistakes already made in the history of our nation?

Do you think the below analogy has any value?

Do you have your own analogy which compares lessons that we should have learnt from history but are still taking place in Ireland today?

An Gorta Mor

The ‘Great Hunger’ or ‘Bad Life’ took place in Ireland between 1845 and 1852. In this time of great sorrow for our Republic, the population of the country dropped by 20 to 25 percent, one million due to emigration and one million due to death.

The definitive cause can be attributed to the ‘potato blight’, while the potato blight affected all of Europe at this time it is safe to say that our Irish brothers and sisters suffered by far the greatest lose due to our reliance on the potato.

What added to this ‘Bad Life’, in the opinion of many, which to this day is still under debate, was a host of political, economical and social issues.

One such political, economical and social issue was ‘Absentee Landlords’, who owned most of the land in Ireland. These landlords employed ‘Agents’ based on their ability to extract rent from the ‘Impoverished Irish tenants’, while they spent the revenues outside Ireland. According to Woodham-Smith, ‘the landlords regarded the land as a source of income from which to extract as much money as possible’. A ‘middleman system’ was put into place to relive the burden of the ‘Absentee Landlords’, however the ‘Land Commission’ described this as “the most oppressive species of tyrant that ever lent assistance to the destruction of a country," they became know as land sharks and bloodsuckers.

The ‘middlemen’ operated by renting large tracks of land on long leases at fixed rates which they then sublet at their own discretion. The ‘Impoverished Irish Tenants’ were forced to live on smaller holdings, as they were split and divided, in order to increase the rents paid to the middlemen, a system known as conacre. The ‘Impoverished Irish Tenants’ had no rights, no access to education and were held to ransom by these unscrupulous men.

Now if I replace the quoted terms i.e. ‘potato blight’ with ‘easy credit’, ‘Absentee Landlords’ with ‘Board of Directors of the Banks’ or ‘Irish Government’, ‘Agents’ with ‘death collection agents’ and ‘middleman’ with ‘Developers’ or indeed the ‘Irish Government’ again, ‘Land Commission’ with ‘IMF’ or OECD’. How would this account of history fit with today’s political, economical and social issue?

‘Impoverished Irish Tenants’; this indeed is a role reversal. The Impoverished Irish Tenants of the past were denied education; they did not have access to reports from bodies like the IMF or OECD. They lived in fear of death, either from starvation or the agents. They did not even have internet price comparison web-sites or access to international news coverage of the impending ‘Bad Life’ of Ireland.

The ‘Impoverished Irish Tenants’ of today were not always impoverished Irish tenants they were in fact living off a parasite known as easy credit. They entered into risky contracts with banks. The Bank we all know is a business, akin to the ‘feared’ money lenders, while they do not have the legal right to break your legs or arms they do own your soul till the debt is repaid in full with interest. Like all businesses they market their product to play on your desires, hopes and dreams to make a profit, it’s a business after all.
Government is also a business, one where we indorse roguish, egocentric charlatans with cheeky grins who have character threats more akin to ‘Agents’ or ‘Absentee Landlords’ with no foresight or consideration beyond their term in office. Once said term is completed or not, they retire, washing their hands of the whole sorry business. Safe in the knowledge every financial worry that life throws at them will be covered by their State pension.

We all choose these people contra to the evidence put before us by various tribunals that we ourselves paid for and disregarded.

Today’s ‘Impoverished Irish Tenants’ made unsound investment decisions. Today’s Beautiful Republic made unsound investment decisions, by the use of our free vote; we invested in persona rather then talent, one of the lads down the local, indeed one of our own. One with our best interests at heart? I think not; endorsed by the Great Charley himself!

Mitchell wrote in ‘The Last Conquest of Ireland’:

“The Almighty, indeed, sent the potato blight, but the English created the Famine”

It’s a pity we can’t blame the English this time, it would rid us of the burden of blame for the ‘Bad Life’ we all played a part in creating.

Scofflaw

That's nice, but what you're looking for is a blogging service. This is a discussion forum.

[EDIT]Reopened on the basis that OP will provide something that will actually start discussion.[/EDIT]

moderately,
Scofflaw

jimmycrackcorm

Fortunately we can now import potatoes from Cyprus...

Dannyboy83

I guess I can relate to this.

I graduated in 2005, so we were locked out of the property market.
Now, it looks like we are going to be taxed out of it, credit constriction et al. The future looks quite dim in Ireland for us, at the moment at least.

Its a topic which is cropping up more and more among my friends.
Even today, several mentioned to me that they are thinking seriously about emigrating, even tho they have secure employment here, as a professional's salary still cannot buy them a home by a long shot.

To quote one of them
"Better to be poor in a nice country, than to be poor here".

No, we cannot blame the English for this situation.
The blame lies squarely on the shoulders of Fianna Fail.

RomanticIreland

Dannyboy83 wrote: »

I guess I can relate to this.

I graduated in 2005, so we were locked out of the property market.
Now, it looks like we are going to be taxed out of it, credit constriction et al. The future looks quite dim in Ireland for us, at the moment at least.

Its a topic which is cropping up more and more among my friends.
Even today, several mentioned to me that they are thinking seriously about emigrating, even tho they have secure employment here, as a professional's salary still cannot buy them a home by a long shot.

To quote one of them
"Better to be poor in a nice country, than to be poor here".

No, we cannot blame the English for this situation.
The blame lies squarely on the shoulders of Fianna Fail.

yes indeed I agree to a point but why should Bert Ahern run free with a care in the world living it up on his state pension when he can be directly linked to all these issues, why should he be allowed off the hook so easily?

He got out when he knew the proverbial sh*t was about to hit the fan leaving the mess to be cleaned up by all. It makes me so ANGRY that he is not held accountable for any of this

Dannyboy83

RomanticIreland wrote: »

yes indeed I agree to a point but why should Bert Ahern run free with a care in the world living it up on his state pension when he can be directly linked to all these issues, why should he be allowed off the hook so easily?

He got out when he knew the proverbial sh*t was about to hit the fan leaving the mess to be cleaned up by all. It makes me so ANGRY that he is not held accountable for any of this

I'm sure many people feel the same, I know I do.
Short of some kind of revolution, there is not much we can do about it.
Besides emigrate, or vote if you're still around at the next GE.

The elite cannot be touched in this kleptocracy.
Welcome to the Republic of Ireland.

howdy2009

This implies that people were inflicted with some disease. And to compare it to the famine in any way is ridiculous. You are mixing up needs and wants. No one was forced to buy a 3 bedroom house for 500k, get a new car every year, have a 10k credit card bill etc..... The Bankers were only making commission on stupid people who lived beyond their means, not people who had to feed themselves.

Therein lays the problem with Irish people, refusing to take responsibility for their own actions and just blame everyone else. They give out endlessly about inept leaders (which they are) but wont do anything about it(12 years of Fianna Fail). People only get screwed if they allow themselves to.

howdy2009

howdy2009 wrote: »

This implies that people were inflicted with some disease. And to compare it to the famine in any way is ridiculous. You are mixing up needs and wants. No one was forced to buy a 3 bedroom house for 500k, get a new car every year, have a 10k credit card bill etc..... The Bankers were only making commission on stupid people who lived beyond their means, not people who had to feed themselves.

Therein lays the problem with Irish people, refusing to take responsibility for their own actions and just blame everyone else. They give out endlessly about inept leaders (which they are) but wont do anything about it(12 years of Fianna Fail). People only get screwed if they allow themselves to.

Oh and im Irish by the way!

Scofflaw

Closed at OP request.

moderately,
Scofflaw