A note to the Irish public.

Konstantine

We have enjoyed the fruits of our heritage, traded on our traditional nature and profited by conformity. Now we face the hangover from our short prosperity. Looking at the way our liberties and traditional heritage has been diluted and dissolved into selling out parts of our souls, piece by piece.

Traditionally the Irish were known as the 'workers', the jolly Alco’s and the welcoming happy people. As this is still mostly true, our alcoholism has cost us dearly. We as a nation are still under the impression that the people in power are looking after us and the country. In part this is true, but human nature calls into play when advancement and greed are easily obtained by selling out.

We trusted the powers that be, banks and government alike. Now we see that they are too flawed by greed and power. Typical human nature, would you agree. This is all our doing, unfortunately. There have always been people whom have all knowledge and influence to steer banks, governments and countries. These people have influence on the entities that drive each person’s daily life.

We have not learned. Our guidelines, policies, laws and even our morals have been negatively influenced either directly or indirectly by those in charge. The saying corruption breeds corruption is so evidently true. America, sorry Los Angeles introduced a smoking ban way back, not for health reasons initially, but to cut the risk of fires that they experience due to discarded cigarette ends on their roads. What they would have you believe is that it’s for health; this may be partly true as large tobacco companies do contribute to the government by the way of taxes. Taxes on goods is an economy’s staple, the problem comes when an elected official is sponsored by directly or indirectly by one of these large multinational companies. The case of L.A. works there as the weather is generally pleasant. Ireland seems to have adopted the policy of 'Monkey see, Monkey do'. America bans smoking, Ireland does the same. A result of this has cost many, many public houses business and due to our not so pleasant weather for outdoor activities, has made alot of people out of work. Our inability to make up our own minds, conform to the 'greater good' and let the powers that be lie to us over and over again.

Honesty is the best policy, but honestly in my own opinion this country has can't handle honesty. When our Politian’s say something or promise another, I personally would like that in a legally binding contract. Our Politian’s don't know what is happening. When they do get an intellectual question with real insight, watch them sweat. They simply don't know. They will make a comment, but they only seem to answer part of the question.

Right lets solve this. We need a citizens group, a group of ordinary business people that work with integrity, foresight and morality. A kind of think tank. Next we need to move the power away from these external multinational influences. We need more jobs, we need many more businesses coming to this country so we need to make it open to all foreign and domestic businesses. We need to create business. We know this. What can we do?

Assuming that we are all on the same page here, that was just a rehash of everything our politicians have said from the latest governments, yes 2. The previous government saw this happening and tried in vain to down play it. Making a complete mess of it in the process. This was not something our government foresaw as the person whom was supposed to be watching these banks and businesses was having a nice lunch with an influential businessman. Too trusting. A smart individual that has a concept of profit and loss should have noticed that there was too much and out not enough in. A smart person would have noticed property was getting a little out of range of normal person. That factor of being out of touch with reality, local reality, stuff you'd see looking out of your car everyday to and from work. But I suppose you wouldn't see that from a helicopter. This Government now sits on the pile of IOU's the previous one had promised and now sees the enormity of the challenge. Promises have been broken.

The real answer to how to fix this? Lessen taxes on necessities, certain products mainly luxury items. Price Items correctly, not just for increased profit margins. Setup an independent committee to inspect the local market conditions. Such a committee should go to the dairies and the farmers to compare costs of each and come up with fair figures. Not to give them the power to set these prices but to give all parties full disclosure. We also need local businesses to keep trading so we must make sure that running costs of a local shop is relatively comparable to larger stores, with smaller shops paying less income tax that the bigger shops and chain stores. Multiple tax levels, 3 are not good enough. Everybody should pay a fair share, the high earners should get a larger chunk removed from their elevated salaries, who can spend 210,000 euro a month. Our poorest should on pay a bare minimum. Our unemployed should need to do some community service, like cleaning up litter. This will generate jobs like community workers, who will supervise these weekly hours so dole payments will simply not just be given but earned. Our local communities will benefit from these programs. As most people will know that travelling around Dublin and Kildare, you'll notice to odd can or black bin bag in ditches, hedges and back roads. Bring back the clean image. Fuel prices need to be lowered, public transport increased and exiting roads upgraded or just even repaired. More county council workers and less administration staff, we don't need more red tape in keeping our towns and cities in order. Lessen the tax on the PAYE contribution the Employers pay to get more back to work. Setup a system of land values, certain rates depending on amenities. No more with this out of control pricing that any price is feasible.

Right Ireland I'm done for now, so what I would hope at this juncture we would find ourselves back to era where the pubs were full at the weekends, smoking was legal, rich are not as rich, the poor not as poor and we have control over our little island.

Sanity_Saviour

Konstantine wrote: »

Traditionally the Irish were known as the 'workers', the jolly Alco’s and the welcoming happy people.

I think you'll find it's "Alcos"

azzeretti

Why is this here? Do you want the writing critiqued? If so, there are quite a few errors in it but I am not sure that is what you are after.

First post. I may hold back on comments until I figure out if you are trolling or not

Carter P Fly

Its not an open letter, its just a non-sensical rant that has you skim reading after the first line.