Life and Debt, RTÉ 1, 21.30

Lapin

Some pretty shocking tales here.

68Murph68

Don't have much sympathy for PR women.

Really looks like greed on her part.

Lapin

True, but I do feel for this couple lumbered with their ghost estate house.

68Murph68

Doesn't seem to be any proper explanation of how the various people ended up in debt.

Worth noting all 4 are related to the property bubble.

omahaid

Ya, i feel sympathy for that young family in that unfinished estate. House is probably worth nothing now so can't even sell...

JonathanAnon

They didnt buy shares in you Jillian, they gave you a loan..

bloopy

The Auction Exchange site has just crashed. I wonder if it is because of people checking up to see what they have.

JonathanAnon

Joe and Josephine Patterson.. The anecdotal couple..

Lapin

That referendum ad is a bit over dramatic.

grey_so_what

Just watched the Rich Horrible housewives on TV3.....

We live in a mad country all right.....:(

artful_codger

Stop doing close up shots of famine statues, this is a recession, plenty of fat people in debt....nobody starving.

JonathanAnon

I dont think it's fair to present all these cases as equal. I feel sorry for all of the cases to some extent, but no way should Jillian be in considered on a par with the others.

Jillian was living "way beyond her means" and did not make any provision for a downturn.. She gambled her lot on the big house. And tbh, I find her of there being no way of going bankrupt and/or moving to England quite sickening as she seems to think that the next "fair" step for her would be if she was allowed to take is pass her debt on to the taxpayer....

"I sold the over to pay for JEEP tax... " she doesnt seem to have much perspective on things.

omahaid

It really should be ""I sold the oven to pay for MICRA tax... "

JonathanAnon

omahaid wrote: »

It really should be ""I sold the oven to pay for MICRA tax... "

How about... I didnt have to sell the oven cos I dont have any tax on my bicycle, however it is difficult to pull the horsebox..

leahyl

Reality is there were some very greedy people during the boom who lived way beyond their means and then there are genuine victims. A lot of greedy, not very sensible people though

take everything

artful_codger wrote: »

Stop doing close up shots of famine statues, this is a recession, plenty of fat people in debt....nobody starving.

Can't help feeling this as well.

JonathanAnon

"Give myself a good rummage"

Well it doesnt cost anything I suppose..

Fighting Irish

It's all Berties fault!

leahyl

Jesus Christ just saw where that young couple are living....it's awful

68Murph68

leahyl wrote: »

Reality is there were some very greedy people during the boom who lived way beyond their means and then there are genuine victims. A lot of greedy, not very sensible people though

Seems that there are a lot of people who didn't/don't have a proper understanding of how debt/credit works.

take everything

"The bank is the shark".
So banks are predators, nothing else?
That's a flawed metaphor tbh.

Duckjob

JonathanAnon wrote: »

They didnt buy shares in you Jillian, they gave you a loan..

+1,000,000,000

If her property had shot up in value by another €500, 000 and the bank rang her up looking for their share of the profit, I wonder what would she have said to them.

Her case sounds like "Heads, I win, and pocket a nice profit for myself. Tails, I lose, WAH WAH WAH WAH WAH What do you mean I can't pass the loss over to others to pay ?"

Haruki

Something just didn't add up when it came Jillian's plight, nice lady i'm sure she is.
Has anyone seen here twitter account ?? very odd.

Weylin

omahaid wrote: »

It really should be ""I sold the oven to pay for MICRA tax... "

or..........i sold the oven and bought a micra .:D

Duckjob

Didn't this lady pop up on Frontline before ?

AFAIR she was one of a number of people they interviewed in the audience to show how heartless and evil the banks were, and her story was told in the same tone as much more genuine cases around her. Nobody seemed to pick up on the fact that her circumstances were entirely caused by her own failed attempts at enriching herself through the property bubble.

alie

My mother always said if you need to ask the price, you can't afford it. And I always find the old rich can't cope nor budget when they lose their vast fortunes. And pass the blame onto society.

Donadea Leo

Very sad program - it's interesting how some people associate greed with the celtic tiger, if this program shows anything it shows its alive and well now considering we can't find solutions for these people. That poor man in wexford who looked like the weight of the world was on his shoulders owed 4k. don't get me started on how people are treated differently.

That ghost estate was horrendous - surely there would be some value in using people like that man's skills to help demolish and clean up that estate perhaps in exchange for debt write down - there must be a lot of people in that situation - banks should have some sort of social responsibility foisted upon them - perhaps we could use our property tax to pay for some of these projects, I would be happy to contribute in this way. It would give people a sense that they can do something about their situation.

This is surely a bigger priority than voting on a referendum about something which is completely up in the air across Europe and whose final terms and conditions we don't honestly know yet.