Are you glad Greece is in a worse state than Ireland?

snow ghost

I've noticed a bit of a slight underlying attitude among people that they are kind of happy that Greece is in a worse economic position than we are at the moment - gives them a bit of solace in a that at least we're not that badly off.

Do you feel the same on an emotional - as oppossed to intellectual - level? Is it wrong to feel that way?

I have to admit I slightly feel that way, even though I sympathise with the Greek people and totally realise that could be us next. :eek:

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

It takes the spot light off us kinda, but wishing any european country to be worse off than us is pretty silly, it effects us too.

Bonito

"Hahahaha you're poor."

Meh. Makes me sound like an asshole to be honest to have that sort of attitude. I think I'll just keep it out of sight and out of mind.

mikom

Greece is the word.

♫ They've got bills... they're multiplying. ♫

orourkeda

Who really cares if Greece is in a worse state than Ireland?

I just hope they will be as quick to give us €1.3 Billion when our economy goes tits up completely.

NothingMan

No. I won an award thingy in work and I get to go to Athens at the start of June for 4 days and stay in the Hilton and get loads of free food & drink. I don't want there to be riots and murders while i'm there living the high life.

If I hadn't have won said award, then yes. Feckin plate smashing, hairy baxtards.

Red Hand

NothingMan wrote: »

No. I won an award thingy in work and I get to go to Athens at the start of June for 4 days and stay in the Hilton and get loads of free food & drink. I don't want there to be riots and murders while i'm there living the high life.

If I hadn't have won said award, then yes. Feckin plate smashing, hairy baxtards.

Make sure to take a gasmask with ya.

Yakult

They are saying it could have a knock on effect to the rest of europe, so no Im not glad.

Dravokivich

just watching 6 1 right now, seems they are in a rather bad spot. If they don't get themselves sorted out within the next 2 weeks, 'they default'.... Don't think iceland were even that bad off... Wouldn't mind seeing what happens after that... Seems to be a black hole money wise... How are anyone due money meant to get it back?

Overheal

Cannon Gigantic Sink wrote: »

It takes the spot light off us kinda, but wishing any european country to be worse off than us is pretty silly, it effects us too.

Theres always gonna be the pissing contests though. Its like saying the US and Ireland are close-knit but one still ribs the other and vice versa.

Personally I think its grand - as long as it doesnt get hateful - that Greece and Ireland are trying to Rival eachother. Its good for Economic and Social Growth honestly and to be fair though controversial, thats what happened with the USSR and USA once upon a time, albeit at a much more detrimental pace and attitude overall.

All we're missing here is posters with a thorough grasp on Greece or even Greek users, to give insight to the story over there.

Browney7

Give it a few months and we will be in a similar state minus the riots.

Indubitable

Hopefully they weaken the euro

Atlantic Dawn

Ireland has more debt per person than any other country in the Eurozone (personal and state debt), we are in a bad position which was mad worse by the pussy footing around budget we had in December which did not go far enough, hopefully this years budget Lenihan has some balls to bring in the cuts needed to control public spending.

starbelgrade

mikom wrote: »

Greece is the word.

♫ They've got bills... they're multiplying. ♫

♫ You better shape up, coz I need a loan ♫

plein de force

i honsetly don't care

landsleaving

Not a bit. They invented gayness, without them we wouldn't have known Oscar Wilde, Andy Warhol, Stephen Fry and em... Graham Norton.

YAY GREECE!

Rabies

For those of you on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=116813091685045

PK2008

♫ E.U!! You saw me defaulting a loan, without a bean in my jar ♫

Mint Sauce

flipping greeks steeling our thunder

:mad:

dlofnep

No, it's cost us 1.3 billion.

El Siglo

I don't like the way things have gone, especially since the Greeks lied about their bad loans. But considering they're nearly on the verge of a civil war, it's not really something to be jovial about.

bonerm

Don't really care tbh. I find it exhausting trying to keep up with the current global economic situation.

It's like trying to follow a sport you're not interested in or learning Irish for the Leaving Cert.

PeterIanStaker

starbelgrade wrote: »

♫ You better shape up, coz I need a loan ♫

And my mind is set on you . . .

Kivaro

In the wealthy northern suburbs of Athens, just 324 residents checked the box on their tax returns admitting that they owned swimming pools.

So tax investigators studied satellite photos of the area -- a sprawling collection of expensive villas tucked behind tall gates -- and came back with a decidedly different number: 16,974 pools.

Various studies, including one by the Federation of Greek Industries last year, have estimated that the government may be losing as much as $30 billion a year to tax evasion -- a figure that would have gone a long way to solving its debt problems.

When tax authorities recently surveyed the returns of 150 doctors with offices in the trendy Athens neighborhood of Kolonaki, where Prada and Chanel stores can be found, more than half had claimed an income of less than $40,000. Thirty-four of them claimed less than $13,300, a figure that exempted them from paying any taxes at all.

More at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/world/europe/02evasion.html

Let them sink, says I.
They should not be rewarded for their systemic corruption, irrespective of the consequences.

Dudess

No, the only economy that causes me to bask in petty gloating smugness when it takes a nosedive is that of Britain...

bonerm

Dudess wrote: »

No, the only economy that cause me to bask in gloating smugness when it takes a nosedive is that of Britain...

Why Britain?

Dudess

I was just messing - I have no feelings either way on the Greece thing.

I do remember some gloating here all right though when it emerged that Britain's economy was in trouble - pretty unpleasant stuff.

efb

Schadenfreude, don't ya just love it!

starbelgrade

I have one piece of good advice for the Greeks in their time of financial uncertainty;

"Don't Fetabout it!"

snow ghost

Dudess wrote: »

pretty unpleasant stuff.

Pretty daft as well - seeing as our economy is so dependent on theirs as we do a lot of business with Britain, e.g. half of all our tourists come from there, then there's the exports, etc.

PK2008

Dudess wrote: »

No, the only economy that causes me to bask in petty gloating smugness when it takes a nosedive is that of Britain...

Wait, Britain is nose diving!!??!!!


Run on the bank!!!!

Overheal

Kivaro wrote: »

In the wealthy northern suburbs of Athens, just 324 residents checked the box on their tax returns admitting that they owned swimming pools.

So tax investigators studied satellite photos of the area -- a sprawling collection of expensive villas tucked behind tall gates -- and came back with a decidedly different number: 16,974 pools.

Various studies, including one by the Federation of Greek Industries last year, have estimated that the government may be losing as much as $30 billion a year to tax evasion -- a figure that would have gone a long way to solving its debt problems.

When tax authorities recently surveyed the returns of 150 doctors with offices in the trendy Athens neighborhood of Kolonaki, where Prada and Chanel stores can be found, more than half had claimed an income of less than $40,000. Thirty-four of them claimed less than $13,300, a figure that exempted them from paying any taxes at all.

More at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/world/europe/02evasion.html

Let them sink, says I.
They should not be rewarded for their systemic corruption, irrespective of the consequences.

A Pool Tax is ridiculous anyway.

Abrasax

Do you mean like this, OP?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIrhVo1WA78

ChocolateSauce

No, for the simple reason that we'd be cheaper to bail out. Plus it might be enough to unseat FF if we were worse off.

bonerm

Overheal wrote: »

A Pool Tax is ridiculous anyway.

Agreed. It even lead to the downfall of the Thatcher government in the late 80's.

Overheal

bonerm wrote: »

Agreed. It even lead to the downfall of the Thatcher government in the late 80's.

?

Anyway my rudimentary understanding is a property taxed based on value is less likely to be frauded, as generally you want your home to have a high equity value, etc.

Wibbs

Overheal wrote: »

A Pool Tax is ridiculous anyway.

Not at all when you consider its in a country with serious water supply issues. How many gallons of water does a swimming pool consume and how much of that evaporates into the air in the 38 degree heat? We're bringing in water charges that will doubtless rise and rise with the years in a country that's essentially a great big sponge. I think pool taxes in Greece are very logical.

Overheal

Wibbs wrote: »

Not at all when you consider its in a country with serious water supply issues. How many gallons of water does a swimming pool consume and how much of that evaporates into the air in the 38 degree heat? We're bringing in water charges that will doubtless rise and rise with the years in a country that's essentially a great big sponge. I think pool taxes in Greece are very logical.

Thats what a water tax is for, in fairness. Its easy to differentiate when one home is using 5000 litres a month, and one is using 25,000 litres a month; that one of them is being a dick, and you can properly introduce a scaling tax on overuse.

thetonynator

There are positives and negatives to this:

Negatives: - We have to loan them a lot of money which we might not get back if they default.
-It might cause the credit agencies to downgrade us as we are a risky eurozone country.
- We are now paying more interest on our borrowing because of Greek instability.
-People have died in the riots because of this.

Positives: -If they do pay back the money we loaned them, we'll make a profit.
- The euro devaluing due to this has made our exports more valuble.
-The focus has come off us slightly
And most importantly . . .

WE HAVE SOMEONE TO BELITTLE BECAUSE THEY'RE WORSE THAN US!!!

Only joking!!!

OPENROAD

I know this is After Hours, but people do realise what is happening in Greece will have a negative impact on ourselves? i.e. Money markets ect...

Run_to_da_hills

orourkeda wrote: »

Who really cares if Greece is in a worse state than Ireland?

I just hope they will be as quick to give us €1.3 Billion when our economy goes tits up completely.

They took that €1.3 Billion from us that was earmarked for the Dublin Metro. :mad:

OPENROAD

PK2008 wrote: »

Wait, Britain is nose diving!!??!!!


Run on the bank!!!!

UK has control over its own Monetary policy and as a large economy will be ok although they do need to tackle there huge deficit over the next few years.

Kaizer Sosa

OPENROAD wrote: »

Seriously, why? is this just an After Hours comment from yourself?

You do realise the importance of the UK to the Irish economy

Read her following post.

wolfpawnat

no, I am not happy.

Why?

Because we have to give them money to bail them out on top of our own ****e here and the value of the euro has plummetted as a result

OPENROAD

Kaizer Sosa wrote: »

Read her following post.

Silly me not reading all the posts

Tks for pointing out.


Sorry Dudess, from reading your posts in general, knew you wouldn't think like that, sorry

Dudess

'Tis not the first irony fail for me.

I'm a card-carrying west Brit though... :pac:

OPENROAD

Dudess wrote: »

'Tis not the first irony fail for me.

I'm a card-carrying west Brit though... :pac:

limklad

Cannon Gigantic Sink wrote: »

It takes the spot light off us kinda, but wishing any european country to be worse off than us is pretty silly, it effects us too.

Yes it does effects us too since we have to help bail out the Greeks in order to help the euro. We have to borrow more money to bail out the Greeks and pay high interest on top of that. We may never get out money back from them since the people are never going to do their bit to get their country back in order.

As bad as we think our banks are, we know we can get something back from the banks eventually with their assets as they are under Irish jurisdiction, and we can screw the politicians in upcoming elections, if they don't get their act together with their dealing with the banks.
Greece is another country and we are far low in the pecking order to get our money back from Greece if they default in their loans, especially with heavy Weighs such as Germany and France in line.

OPENROAD

limklad wrote: »

Yes it does effects us too since we have to help bail out the Greeks in order to help the euro. We have to borrow more money to bail out the Greeks and pay high interest on top of that. We may never get out money back from them since the people are never going to do their bit to get their country back in order.

As bad as we think our banks are, we know we can get something back from the banks eventually with their assets as they are under Irish jurisdiction, and we can screw the politicians in upcoming elections, if they don't get their act together with their dealing with the banks.
Greece is another country and we are far low in the pecking order to get our money back from Greece if they default in their loans, especially with heavy Weighs such as Germany and France in line.

Leave all that out it, the amount we are lending is small and is not really important, it is still bad news for us, we have only started to deal with our deficit, a long way to go in reagards this, people seem to have forgotten that,and think we are over our problems now, far from it, anyway the Greek situation has certainly spooked the money markets, yes we have been able to borrow money at a reasonable rate comaped to Greece, it is still very high though and the Greek situation will certainly put us under closer scrutiny.

Also look at impact on the Equity markets and the Euro, both have a negative impact on us, for the life of me, I really can't see how anyone could be glad at the current situation.

limklad

bonerm wrote: »

Agreed. It even lead to the downfall of the Thatcher government in the late 80's.

It was not a pool TAX that led to Thatcher government downfall. It was Poll TAX (Flat-rate tax per adult without reference to income or property) or also know as "Community Charge" and had be paid in addition to their normal Taxes. It was then replaced with property TAX.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poll_Tax_Riots

limklad

OPENROAD wrote: »

Leave all that out it, the amount we are lending is small and is not really important, it is still bad news for us, we have only started to deal with our deficit, a long way to go in reagards this, people seem to have forgotten that,and think we are over our problems now, far from it, anyway the Greek situation has certainly spooked the money markets, yes we have been able to borrow money at a reasonable rate comaped to Greece, it is still very high though and the Greek situation will certainly put us under closer scrutiny.

Also look at impact on the Equity markets and the Euro, both have a negative impact on us, for the life of me, I really can't see how anyone could be glad at the current situation.

I would not consider €1.3 billion Euros as small. We could use that to repair our roads, more bus services, add more beds in our hospitals etc.

TV3 News wrote:

http://www.tv3.ie/article.php?article_id=36910&locID=1.2.&pagename=news

Muted reaction to Greece bail-out

03.05.10

European share and bond markets have given a muted reaction to the Greek rescue package.

The bailout agreed by the EU and IMF sees €110 billion loaned to Greece over three years.

Ireland's contribution is €1.3bn - three times more what the Government had previously planned.

Greece in return will have to make severe budget cuts.

http://www.examiner.ie/breakingnews/ireland/government-refuses-to-debate-irelands-13bn-bailout-for-greece-456612.html

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/0504/breaking14.html