Middle Ireland

Voltex

This is a viewpoint Iv found myself with over the last couple of months.
I dont really have any specific evidence to validate my opinions, so if someone can direct me to such information please do.

I feel that for any form of domestic economic growth to occur, we need to spare the the social catogory with the ability to drive growth the most damaging effects of the up coming budgets. The category im refering to is middle Ireland.

Middle Ireland is the group that still has jobs, paying taxes, buying consumer goods (potentially), buying and trading up/down houses, going on holidays, buying broad ranges of food products, keeping the economy ticking over.

Compare that to the typical minimum wage earner, pensioner (state), unemployed, single mother (in terms of wefare clasification)....what do these groups contribute towards the economy?
If im correct Iv heard that the lower paid sections of the economy have been shown to pay for only the essentials, and that the rest of their money is squirreld away or sent back to native countries in regards non-nationals.
In terms of pensioners, broadly speaking they have no mortgages, no dependent kids, low costs of living. In terms of the impact to their quality of living, Im sure they wont be affected nearly as much as some elements of the media would have us believe. I think it was the Evening Hearld last week that had the shock and awe statement that the goverment were thinking of taking a whole €5 p/w off the state pension...god love em!!

I know my attitude towards the above mentioned groups maybe a little sterile, but lets do away with the liberal do-gooder attitudes that has plauged this country for so long and lets get real ( ala Tea Party).

PanchoVilla

I'm no expert on economics but I'm pretty sure anyone who buys goods in Ireland contributes to the economy, that includes the unemployed. Anyone who pays tax also contributes to the economy, which includes the unemployed via VAT.

You might want to actually research the facts and figures before you go blaming the working class for Ireland's problems. It wasn't the working class who bought ridiculously overpriced homes, which only drove the prices up even further. It's not the working class who buy a new car every few years. It's not the working class who save up to take holidays abroad. It's not the working class who bribed politicians to rezone land so they could build housing estates that would never be sold. It wasn't because of the working class that Ireland got the nickname "ripoff republic", you can thank your middle class landlords and shop keepers for that.

There's a very good reason why people in the U.S. laugh at Tea Party supporters.

thebman

PanchoVilla wrote: »

I'm no expert on economics but I'm pretty sure anyone who buys goods in Ireland contributes to the economy, that includes the unemployed. Anyone who pays tax also contributes to the economy, which includes the unemployed via VAT.

You might want to actually research the facts and figures before you go blaming the working class for Ireland's problems. It wasn't the working class who bought ridiculously overpriced homes, which only drove the prices up even further. It's not the working class who buy a new car every few years. It's not the working class who save up to take holidays abroad. It's not the working class who bribed politicians to rezone land so they could build housing estates that would never be sold. It wasn't because of the working class that Ireland got the nickname "ripoff republic", you can thank your middle class landlords and shop keepers for that.

There's a very good reason why people in the U.S. laugh at Tea Party supporters.

The middle class are landlords and shopkeepers ...

PanchoVilla

thebman wrote: »

The middle class are landlords and shopkeepers ...

Well where would you put them? They're certainly not working class as they're not working for anyone else and they're not millionaires with multinational corporations.

murphaph

PanchoVilla wrote: »

Well where would you put them? They're certainly not working class as they're not working for anyone else and they're not millionaires with multinational corporations.

I would define myself as middle class. I work for someone. I dare say 90% of middle class people are PAYE. Genuinely puzzled by your post tbh

Peanut

PanchoVilla wrote: »

Anyone who pays tax also contributes to the economy, which includes the unemployed via VAT.

But with whose money?

It's a bit of an over-simplification to say that anyone consuming goods is contributing to the economy - the money has to come from somewhere and it may lead to the misleading impression that just borrowing to spend more money will fix everything...

Real economic contribution generally involves work - either providing a product or service, cutting a cost for people, or increasing value of exports out of the country.