Ideas to improve the Irish economy

anorange

Ireland is obviously in a bad state at the moment and I don't think there is any quick fix for it. However, perhaps now might be the time to bring about smaller reforms that in the past might not have had much chance of going through, but now we may have the motivation to try.
What ideas do you have that might turn things around for our country?

anorange

cos I guess I should start the ball rolling...


I think we need to change our laws so that a greater level personal responsibility is enshrined in them. What I mean by this is that we should alter our laws so that we can prevent/reduce frivolous lawsuits being taken and increase individual accountability. If we could move away from being such a litigious society, and shaped our laws so as to ensure people would be held responsible for their own actions then there would be huge benefits for our entire nation.
Of course, I don't think the changes needed would be easy, they would undoubtedly require major legal (perhaps even constitutional) reforms. Beyond that, they would probably require a change in our whole attitude towards personal responsibility.
A few of the obvious benefits that spring to mind are:
Preventing frivolous lawsuits would certainly reduce local government expenditure (no more getting sued every time someone trips over on the pavement).
It would reduce the cost of insurance, which as well as helping lower individual expenditure, it would also reduce business costs, making it cheaper to start and run a business (possibly creating new jobs and stimulating the economy).
It would make it easier for companies or groups organising adventure/outdoor activities (reduced insurance rates, greater access to hiking/mountaineering site once farmers are no longer afraid of being sued by people going through their land), which in turn would lead to increase tourism.

I'm not saying that this would be easy to do, because it really requires getting some political will behind it. I just think now, given the state of the country, might be the best chance ever to make some important changes like this.







For the tldr crowd I guess it can be summed up like this:
increased personal responsibility + reduced frivolous lawsuits = big benefits for Ireland

Zebra3

Don't let the taxpayer be financially raped because of the problems with a handful of private businesses.

ScumLord

The government and law system need a serious audit, scrap or update anything that's more than 50 years old and digitise everything the government does so that the public can scrutinise everything themselves.

Lumen

Legalise involuntary euthansia for the over-65s.

ScumLord

Lumen wrote: »

Legalise involuntary euthansia for the over-65s.

Economy?

digme

Resurrect Hitler.

Lumen

ScumLord wrote: »

Economy?

If you lined them up really carefully you could save loads of bullets.

Bill2673

What I would suggest:

The EU/ IMF bail-out is basically them lending €85bn to us that in other circumstances we would have borrowed from the markets.

The reason the markets won't lend it to us is because it is such a huge amount and are worried we can't repay it (not because the 'markets' are bad).

The reason we are borrowing this money, more or less, is to allow us time to gradually, readjust state spending back to a level where it balances with tax income.

The key word here is 'gradually'.

Why don't we just readjust immediately, and then we won't need to borrow the €85bn. That is, instead of gradually introducing the various tax hikes, social welfare cuts, public pay cuts over 4 years....why not just do it straight away, and not borrow the €85bn that we need to fund the public sector deficit that allows us to do this over a four year period.

Any thoughts?

(And purlease, I know that part of the borrowing is the inject capital into banks, but the vast majority of the bailout is for public sector deficit, so lets not go down that road).

anorange

ScumLord wrote: »

The government and law system need a serious audit, scrap or update anything that's more than 50 years old and digitise everything the government does so that the public can scrutinise everything themselves.

This makes a lot of sense. I kinda have the feeling if this was done it would become obvious just how much waste there is and just how unnecessary certain parts of our government are.
...I'm looking at you Senate.

bobsoice23

Keep dreaming..there'd be very few politicians around if everything they did was out in the public domain.My suggestion...give me 50 billion and I'll sort things out fairly lively

Bill2673

OP

Please indicate whether you wish for a serious but irrelevant economic discussion or a series of shocking, hilarious, want-to-be funny posts....just noticed this is in AH, possibly should be in Irish economy?

Lumen

Bill2673 wrote: »

The key word here is 'gradually'.

Why don't we just readjust immediately...

...because it takes time for an economy to readjust itself.

Example: if you immediately cut everyone's net pay in half through tax rises, people could not pay their mortgages and there would be massive defaults. If you do it over 20 years, people can absorb the change as their mortgages get paid off.

There are probably exceptions. 100% death taxes might work, although Laffer curve probably says no.

amacca

Lumen wrote: »

If you lined them up really carefully you could save loads of bullets.

Pesky OAPs cramping your lifestyle?

Bill2673

Lumen wrote: »

...because it takes time for an economy to readjust itself.

Example: if you immediately cut everyone's net pay in half through tax rises, people could not pay their mortgages and there would be massive defaults. If you do it over 20 years, people can absorb the change as their mortgages get paid off.

There are probably exceptions. 100% death taxes might work, although Laffer curve probably says no.

Firstly, the adjustments are to take place over four years not twenty years, so i don't see how that makes much difference to the mortgage situation.

Second.....why does the economy need time to adjust? Is it that important that we will borrow €85bn for the privilege?

Run_to_da_hills

Arrest and jail all corrupt developers, bank and government officials with long term prison sentenses and perhaps the country will feel better giving the people an incentive to get back on their feet again, but of course this will never happen in Ireland.

anorange

Bill2673 wrote: »

OP

Please indicate whether you wish for a serious but irrelevant economic discussion or a series of shocking, hilarious, want-to-be funny posts....just noticed this is in AH, possibly should be in Irish economy?

I was thinking AH is the best place for it, because I was hoping it would be about ideas and suggestions for improving Ireland, and I was hoping it would avoid just becoming another economic debate. (is that possible nowadays)

anorange

I may have doomed this thread by including the word economy in the title. That word seems to angry up the blood.

digme

anorange wrote: »

I may have doomed this thread by including the word economy in the title. That word seems to angry up the blood.

credit card is a better word

Sunnyisland

[/HTML]I think we need to change our laws so that a greater level personal responsibility is enshrined in them[/HTML]

And we can start with the people at the top,let our leaders lead by example, from our td,s to our union leaders and all the way down.I live in hope

markesmith

Few suggestions, from my own point of view:

- Force banks to start lending to small businesses again, even if it's just a small loan for working capital. This was initially one of the main purposes of NAMA, no?

- Get Revenue and the Government to foster a co-operational relationship with small business. SMEs are a cornerstone of a functioning economy - I never once received any communication from the State as to how mine was doing, but got lots of documents from Revenue.

- Abolish the Senate. The election process is archaic, and it's widely seen as a cosy retirement home that pays.

Bill2673

realies wrote: »

[/HTML]I think we need to change our laws so that a greater level personal responsibility is enshrined in them[/HTML]

And we can start with the people at the top,let our leaders lead by example, from our td,s to our union leaders and all the way down.I live in hope

I'd actually start with the people at the bottom who voted them in......Fianna Fail got more votes in the last general election than any other party lets not forget. The general public needs to take more of an interest in state policy (is doing so now I acknowledge).

Lumen

Bill2673 wrote: »

Firstly, the adjustments are to take place over four years not twenty years, so i don't see how that makes much difference to the mortgage situation.

Second.....why does the economy need time to adjust? Is it that important that we will borrow €85bn for the privilege?

I picked an obvious example because it's clearer. I was hoping that imagination would fill in the blanks.

A more specific example: welfare and minimum wage. These are interdependent for obvious reasons. People (employed and unemployed) buy stuff. Stuff is sold by people. If people are expensive, stuff is expensive. If you make people cheaper, stuff becomes cheaper, but the adjustment takes a long time because it has to work it's way through a bunch of supply chain and employment cycles. If you change wages much faster than prices can adjust, people can't afford stuff, employment increases, businesses go to the wall and productive capacity is lost.

etc.

anorange

How about legalising cannabis? And I don't just mean de-criminalising it, but fully legalising, regulating and taxing it.
Benefits include:

• increased tourism
• greater tax revenue
• Ireland could lead the world in medical research in this area
• less money wasted policing and prosecuting offenders
• regulation of quality and THC/cannabinoid ratios will lead to less physical + mental health issues
• a new form of revenue for the the ailing Irish farm industry

Lumen

anorange wrote: »

How about legalising cannabis?

For maximum effect, limit the legalisation zone to somewhere no-one would have any reason to go otherwise, like Westmeath.

amacca

Lumen wrote: »

For maximum effect, limit the legalisation zone to somewhere no-one would have any reason to go otherwise, like Westmeath.

Westmeath is already full of Potheads

I suggest somewhere not already full of migrating potheads....answers on a postcard please.

markesmith

Lumen wrote: »

For maximum effect, limit the legalisation zone to somewhere no-one would have any reason to go otherwise, like Westmeath.

Yeah, you need it down there just to cope :pac:

Dr_Phil

anorange wrote: »

How about legalising cannabis?

... and heroin, cocaine, organised prostitution, peadophilia... There is a lot of potential around if we are talking about "monaay"... :rolleyes:

markesmith wrote: »

Force banks to start lending

Yeah, then don't pay them back the money we borrowed, do some black PR and accuse of causing the recession. Genius in it's simplicity! Has worked before.

galwayrush

Borrowed money is far better invested in projects that get people back working,resulting in immediate return on the money, as opposed to tossing most of it into a black hole like zombie banks merely to bail out the friends of our Government who apparently must retain their high life styles.

senordingdong

Make political party contributions illegal.

Dr_Phil

galwayrush wrote: »

Borrowed money is far better invested in projects that get people back working,resulting in immediate return on the money

Do you mean the property market and construction sites? :rolleyes: