Ireland's recession misery amongst worst in Europe

strathspey

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/irelands-recession-misery-amongst-worst-in-europe-1976518.html

Although our family unit has been relatively unscathed by the recession, bar the pension levy at the start of the year. We both work in the private sector and have relatively secure jobs, but we are wondering if we want to raise our family in a country which seems to be full of self-pity and where misery almost seems to be right of passage.

seamus

You were raised here presumably and it didn't do you any harm, right? As Irish people we love to grumble and complain but we don't like to actually do anything about it.

All of these "indexes" are just made-up crap to keep people in jobs anyway. Didn't we rate as the happiest people in the world only a few weeks ago?

What these companies do is come up with "rankings" based on an arbitrary set of criteria, give it a label to make it plausible and then sell it to media outlets who know that the gullible public loves nothing more than a ranked listed saying that someone is the best/worst/highest/lowest.

The social and personal outlook that your children will have is entirely dependent on you. Society doesn't raise your child, you do.

ei.sdraob

misery my arse

we are still richer (in many ways) than most of the world

misery was the collapse of Russia economy in 90s (several times) where people would starve and old people freeze to death

hell US is more "miserable" i dont see tent cities or soup kitchens here

mickoneill30

strathspey wrote: »

but we are wondering if we want to raise our family in a country which seems to be full of self-pity and where misery almost seems to be right of passage.

I've lived abroad from 2001 - 2006. I didn't notice the misery before I left but it's everywhere now and it started before the recession. In my opinion I think a lot of it is to do with our media. Listen to Newstalk or watch RTE for a couple of hours and read a few of the tabloids and you'll pretty depressed. Now do that every day for a year.

We've plenty to be miserable about but a lot of the whining and whinging we're bombarded with won't fix anything.

SkepticOne

From the finfacts website. Surprised to see Iceland comparatively far down the list given that Moody's are a credit rating agency and Iceland have had the biggest banking crisis as a proportion of their economy.

pah

strathspey wrote: »

...our family unit has been relatively unscathed by the recession, bar the pension levy at the start of the year. We both work in the private sector...

Pension Levy in the Private Sector - Since When?

mickoneill30

pah wrote: »

Pension Levy in the Private Sector - Since When?

I'd hazard a guess that he meant the income levy.