Suggestions to better our economic situation

Max Powers

A small thing but im sure it would make us more competitive:
- We should all (tesco workers, nurses, lecturers, builders etc etc) be working 40 hours a week (standard working week)

who what when

How would 40 hours a week make any difference?
If every Tesco employee worked those hours then Tesco would have to lay hundreds off.

golden lane

there is a cost to everything..........the economy works if that cost is competitive.......

if not....then it suffers.........

how many tesco workers....does it take to keep a nurse etc......

if there is not enough,,,,,result, problems....

with regard to overseas business......is, can you compete with their cost.....

Dannyboy83

We don't need suggestions, everyone knows what needs to be done.

We just need a fiscally conservative party with the spine to do it.

martian1980

golden lane wrote: »

there is a cost to everything..........the economy works if that cost is competitive.......

if not....then it suffers.........

how many tesco workers....does it take to keep a nurse etc......

if there is not enough,,,,,result, problems....

with regard to overseas business......is, can you compete with their cost.....

i can't figure out what you're saying

RichardAnd

OP, there's nothing wrong with working less than 40 hours a week. Part time work is very useful to alot of people and besides, I fail to see how making everyone work 40 hours a week would make any difference. Would you care to explain your logic?

andrew

I don't think Tesco need be told exactly how many hours they should to work their staff; they're best placed to know what hours their staff should be working.

fliball123

andrew wrote: »

I don't think Tesco need be told exactly how many hours they should to work their staff; they're best placed to know what hours their staff should be working.

Last I heard Tesco were profitable ..why would you mess with what they are doing..its the non profitable or areas where we are making a loss in as in Ireland Inc

creedp

fliball123 wrote: »

Last I heard Tesco were profitable ..why would you mess with what they are doing..its the non profitable or areas where we are making a loss in as in Ireland Inc

In fact they are so profitable that apparently Ireland is one of the most profitable parts of their empire. In such circimstances it might be better to appeal to Tesco to cut its profit margins and reduce its prices accordingly .. now that would certainly help the Irish economy and its struggling citizens.

fliball123

creedp wrote: »

In fact they are so profitable that apparently Ireland is one of the most profitable parts of their empire. In such circimstances it might be better to appeal to Tesco to cut its profit margins and reduce its prices accordingly .. now that would certainly help the Irish economy and its struggling citizens.

Sorry but this happens naturally, if you look at the irish supermarket sector..Aldi and lidel are way up with regards to the % of customers last I checked there were up past the 20% mark..These guys will not enter into price fixing with Dunnes, Tescos, supervalue and the likes...So all chains have to cut prices to compete..

Kylo Ren

Legalise weed. Would remove a lot of costs in prisons etc. Tax it. Brings in a load more tourism.

golden lane

martian1980 wrote: »

i can't figure out what you're saying

if people are working.....that is ok...so long as there is enough of them working to keep the public sector.......and the compamy's are making profits...

overseas you have to compete with other country's prices....

Sleepy

Like Dannyboy says, it ain't ideas we're short of: it's politicians with backbone and ability.

creedp

fliball123 wrote: »

Sorry but this happens naturally, if you look at the irish supermarket sector..Aldi and lidel are way up with regards to the % of customers last I checked there were up past the 20% mark..These guys will not enter into price fixing with Dunnes, Tescos, supervalue and the likes...So all chains have to cut prices to compete..

Looking forward to it

Idbatterim

cut the billions that are wasted each year, make Ireland a far more competitive place to do business in and to visit. We either go on sheltering the few and throwing the rest to the wolves, or we all take home less and have far more in employment and get the growth cycle in gear!

Laminations

Charge people every time they make one of these damn threads....

Kylo Ren

Charge people for when they complain about a thread.

Laminations

Keno 92 wrote: »

Charge people for when they complain about a thread.

You'll make lots if you charge valid complaints highlighting lazy repetition

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=65115385
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=69287976
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=68701122
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=68016323
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=72419189
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=74659387


So here's an idea - a bit of feicin originality.

Lately the politics forum has become a groundhog day of threads, the place where ideas come to die, the regurgitation of tripe debates that will never get a resolution in which contributors don't even bother to go back and look for a previous thread on the topic. Take your pick:

Israel-Palestine
Negativity (or something related to) Sinn Fein
Libertarianism
A new political Party
How can we recover?
The weekly thread on the RedC poll

Suryavarman

Abolishing employers PRSI which will give a mixture of increased employment/higher wages/extra breathing room for small business. All of which are desperately needed at this point in time.

Changing the current welfare system into a negative income tax system. Under such a system somebody who does zero hours work might get €150 a week. If they were to get offered €100 a week for a job, instead of losing all their benefits (a 150% marginal tax rate!) they would only lose €25/€50 from their benefits giving them a total weekly income of €225/€200 (a 10%/20% marginal tax rate). This will encourage more people to enter the workforce and allow businesses to take on people for only a few hours a week instead of having to pay current employees overtime.

Removing capital gains tax and DIRT which will encourage people to save and invest more of their money and help create strong domestic businesses instead of having to rely on foreign investment forever.

Making the tax code simpler should also be an objective of the government. We currently have 5 different rates of VAT. Instead we should have a flat rate of say 17.5% and a zero rate for essentials such as food, milk, heating, electricity bills and pharmaceuticals. The same with the income tax, have a flat rate of of say 20% on income above the poverty line and get rid of all the deductions and tax credits.

Finally, get rid of the road tax and all the current duties on petrol & diesel and just replace it with a simple tax on petrol & diesel. This money should only go towards road maintenance and not general government revenue. If I remember correctly I worked out before that this would mean a €0.40 tax on every litre of petrol and diesel sold. Combined with VAT this would bring the price of a litre of petrol down to €1.36 and diesel down to €1.43. This would be a big boost to commuters and to business.

Suryavarman

Laminations wrote: »

You'll make lots if you charge valid complaints highlighting lazy repetition

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=65115385
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=69287976
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=68701122
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=68016323
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=72419189
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=74659387


So here's an idea - a bit of feicin originality.

Lately the politics forum has become a groundhog day of threads, the place where ideas come to die, the regurgitation of tripe debates that will never get a resolution in which contributors don't even bother to go back and look for a previous thread on the topic. Take your pick:

Israel-Palestine
Negativity (or something related to) Sinn Fein
Libertarianism
A new political Party
How can we recover?
The weekly thread on the RedC poll

The most recent of those threads was started last September. It's hardly lazy repetition to start a thread 8 months after something similar was last posted.

christmas2012

people will have less money to buy in ireland which keeps ireland afloat thanks to property and water taxes..
there used to be a household charge in the 1970's that amalgamated all rubbish,water etc in one household tax payment,they should do that instead..

another thing would be the quangos we see like FAS,JOBFIT,JOBRIDGE,PATHWAYS TO EMPLOYMENTand SOLAS,hiring free irish workers on the dole,to do jobs(like one i saw recently)to a) have a b license car to drive,no expenses paid to drive around like a skivvy wiping old peoples asses for FREE,old people who have alzheimers,who are confused and LASH OUT.

Millions gets poured into these quangos,where joan burton gives herself and her collegues payrises..

These FAS 'jobs' 'employment schemes' suck up what could be a tax returnable paid job out of the community..further consigning the impoverished and unemployed to even further poverty..While our government spends millions on these schemes subsidising big business who are under no pressure to hire..
We need to remember a lot of companies in ireland are evading tax and are essentially recession proof,and DO NOT HIRE BECAUSE FAS ARE THERE GIVING FREE WORKERS..

Its a stupid system and we could save jobs,and improve peoples lives by getting rid of these schemes..

http://politico.ie/social-issues/8313-pathways-to-work-or-pathways-to-poverty.html

Icepick

Suryavarman wrote: »

Abolishing employers PRSI which will give a mixture of increased employment/higher wages/extra breathing room for small business. All of which are desperately needed at this point in time.

If you want to lower empolyees' wages by 10%, do it on your own.

poppyvally

Start teaching young children in the schools, Science & Technology and a foreign language like French or Mandarin, instead of wasting so much time on Irish & religion

Suryavarman

Icepick wrote: »

If you want to lower empolyees' wages by 10%, do it on your own.

How would I be decreasing employee wages by 10%?

Brussels Sprout

There are so many people out of work who are effectively unemployable in the current climate. I'm talking specifically about middle aged men who have little education and whose work experience is predominantly in the construction industry or with a specific skill-set that was used in a factory that no longer exists.

Is there any way that these people can contribute to society in a dignified manner? I'm not talking about having them out in orange jumpsuits picking up litter or anything like that. It's just that you have them sitting around depressed with no self worth. Not everyone has the confidence and perseverance to retrain nor the necessary skills to set up their own business. If they could focus their energy on some kind of task, that could help society then it would surely be a win-win situation for everyone.

charlemont

Keno 92 wrote: »

Legalise weed. Would remove a lot of costs in prisons etc. Tax it. Brings in a load more tourism.

You can bet this will be the last European country to do that, Its easy work for the Gardaí the way it is now...

christmas2012

free labour is a win win situation lol only not for you

Brussels Sprout

christmas2012 wrote: »

free labour is a win win situation lol only not for you

I'm not suggesting something like the Jobbridge scheme which I believe is an abomination. I'm suggesting something that be done, not for some private company, but for the country. Something that isn't denying a paid job to someone else. I'm not even sure if such a thing exists as that may in fact be a paradox.

christmas2012

sounds like something that should be done if you ask me:eek:,as the system thats in place gets abused by rich multinationals and other employers on the make,once the ce term of one ends they just hire another one for free,no full time job hiring after the ce term finishes,so there is no hope for ce workers who are looking to get their foot in the door,why would a multinational bother hiring when they get ce workers free?....ya it pisses me off when people try to say free work schemes are a good thing,for who exactly,i was on one a few years back,it was hell,the supervisor there was on a power trip of what little title she had,and basically ce work can look bad to have on a cv,some interviewers can look at that and think dole layabout etc..:mad:

Icepick

Suryavarman wrote: »

How would I be decreasing employee wages by 10%?

That PRSI part is part of employee's salary and exists for a reason.

Suryavarman

Icepick wrote: »

That PRSI part is part of employee's salary and exists for a reason.

You're correct in saying that employers PRSI is part of an employees salary. And for that reason the employer doesn't give a damn what the rate of PRSI is. If an employer is spending €500 a week on an employee it makes no difference to the employer whether that is 100% percent money wages or 90% wages and 10% PRSI. For the employee it does make a difference; the higher the rate of PRSI the lower the monetary wages.

This area is one of the few where there is a consensus among economists. Pretty much every economist agrees that the burden of employers PRSI falls almost entirely on the employee. For that reason, if we were to abolish employers PRSI employees would see an equivalent pay rise.

So far as I can tell the only reason the employer's portion of PRSI exists is so that politicians can tell voters that they are being nice by getting employers to shoulder some of the PRSI burden.

Icepick

Suryavarman wrote: »

For that reason, if we were to abolish employers PRSI employees would see an equivalent pay rise.

As you can see in this thread, it would not be passed onto employees in full.
10% is actually quite a low amount compared to other European countries.

Suryavarman

Icepick wrote: »

As you can see in this thread, it would not be passed onto employees in full.
10% is actually quite a low amount compared to other European countries.

It will be passed onto employees in full. It could take a few years to happen but employees will get the full benefit of it.

K-9

Dannyboy83 wrote: »

We don't need suggestions, everyone knows what needs to be done.

We just need a fiscally conservative party with the spine to do it.

Yeah, that is working out great for the UK.

General suggestion, forget left and right politics and beware of agendas. Not much hope then!

golden lane

K-9 wrote: »

Yeah, that is working out great for the UK.

General suggestion, forget left and right politics and beware of agendas. Not much hope then!

not quite great.....but heading in the right direction........

Suryavarman

K-9 wrote: »

Yeah, that is working out great for the UK.

General suggestion, forget left and right politics and beware of agendas. Not much hope then!

While some members of the Conservative Party might be fiscally conservative I think it would be a stretch to call the current UK government fiscally conservative.

K-9

Suryavarman wrote: »

While some members of the Conservative Party might be fiscally conservative I think it would be a stretch to call the current UK government fiscally conservative.

I think the potential is there to get a decent balance, put it this way, there is far more common ground between the Lid Dems and Tories as our lot.

Their problem is they haven't a clue about coalitions!

mistermouse

There is very little out there to encourage small business and Employer PRSI doesn't help start ups or encourage hiring. Even hiring someone a few hours a week is a minefield in paperwork, registration taxes etc
Choosing Self Employment is a no no in this country due to the lack of social welfare terms, which preclude anyone from sick benefits or dole should anything go wrong - you cant even offer to pay a Class A stamp for protection

Yet Multinationals are thrown money, grants etc. Not to mention that they can leave devastating a local economy when they do.

All employment policies are failed policies have been failed policies for years and the current Government are failing badly

Max Powers

RichardAnd wrote: »

OP, there's nothing wrong with working less than 40 hours a week. Part time work is very useful to alot of people and besides, I fail to see how making everyone work 40 hours a week would make any difference. Would you care to explain your logic?

having a slightly longer week would make us more competitive (this is not related to PT workers), more productivity from people on salarys, employers have to pay less OT, probably other benfits too

Duggys Housemate

Max Powers wrote: »

RichardAnd wrote: »

OP, there's nothing wrong with working less than 40 hours a week. Part time work is very useful to alot of people and besides, I fail to see how making everyone work 40 hours a week would make any difference. Would you care to explain your logic?

having a slightly longer week would make us more competitive (this is not related to PT workers), more productivity from people on salarys, employers have to pay less OT, probably other benfits too

Why would it? Productivity per employee is not correlated to working hours. It's just a simplistic solution.

Max Powers

Dannyboy83 wrote: »

We don't need suggestions, everyone knows what needs to be done.

We just need a fiscally conservative party with the spine to do it.

True

kevthegaff

In terms of tourism, I'd give free travail to tourists over the age of 50, this would bring in Germans, Chinese etc and would boost our hotels, pubs, restaurants and airports. For farming I'd lobby for Extra milk quota. I'd lower corporation tax by 1% just to p""s off Europe.