How can capitalism be great if people live paycheck-to-paycheck?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/114461704#Comment_114461704

It is very true that some people are much better at managing their resources than others. I have had relatives, who by choice in materialistic and managed their small income extremely well and make 100% out of every meagre resource they had. Enjoyed 2 annual bargain holidays, had a great long lives. One of them died only recently aged nearly 100. Other relatives on modest incomes led very good quality stable lives by managing finances well. By the same token I have known people on higher incomes (and with less outgoings, eg no children etc) than average who seemed perpetually semi-broke. There can be health factors at play, or simply poor life and financial management which is often born out of never having made a habit of looking any way forward to “where will I be in 10 / 20 years time? Will I hope to qualify for a mortgage?”

Both short term & long term savings is a very good habit which can be taught to children, and more so nowadays with Revolut. As a young child I was regularly brought to the post office (where I had an account) and the bank, where my father showed me through all banking transactions, (I had to fill out parts of the forms) which quite frankly scared me at the time but made me conscious of the way things worked.

This is real Home Economics, which was so lacking at school (sewing and baking were the sum of it) but depended on my parents passing in good habits to me. People of almost any income range can fail or succeed in maintaining a relatively stable financial life. Eg, a wealthy relative who had a serious gambling addiction lost several houses and all assets, having been handed them in a plate as an inheritance from his grandfather in his early 20s.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118250535#Comment_118250535

...but it is regularly used in such contexts, we regularly use it, and it is implied that as gdp is rising, all is well in society, this is not necessarily true for all, theres clearly something going catastrophically wrong in regards the value of assets, their distribution, and other metrics such as wage inflation etc etc etc

we actually dont have metrics in place yet, that represents such outcomes, we dont know how to do that yet, we may never, due to the complexities involved

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118250559#Comment_118250559

again, more disconnection, to a growing number of citizens, i.e. no they dont!

this is just pure ignorance now!

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118250588#Comment_118250588

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118250573#Comment_118250573

......

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118250606#Comment_118250606

...and you re clearly ignorant of reality, it is clearly obvious that many younger generations are unable to fulfill some of their most critical of needs, primarily related to their property and health care needs, and you wonder why our primary government parties are in a serious downward trend!

where have i said, that 'everything is wrong', this is clearly untrue!

reason and data! do some humans live under a rock!

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118250675#Comment_118250675

ah yea the ould, our healthcare systems faults are largely due to state 'inefficiencies', this is only a part of the truth, the bigger picture being, the implementation of the private sector into the system has introduced its own inefficiencies, in particular the rent seeking activities of the insurance sector, which simply extracts wealth from the sector, in order to 'maximise shareholder value'! our health care needs are also far more complex than the past, for many reasons, including longer age expectancies etc etc, but both our physical and psychological, particularly our psychological needs are now far more complex, therefore simply costs more to treat.

its clearly obvious our healthcare systems are in rapid decline, and are not fit for purpose, and we dont know how to achieve this, another sign, something is going catastrophically wrong

again, a vast amount of our wealth is saved in the value of assets such as property and land, but not everybody owns such assets, and in fact, cannot gain access to the ownership of such assets

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118250697#Comment_118250697

Rehabilitative healthcare... Brain injuries / hemorrhage, nerve disorder, stroke....ALL conditions prevalent in young people....you need to have access to months of inpatient help, possibly years of outpatient to compliment it as the brain has good capacity to heal but does so slowly...very slowly..

try getting a young person funding for the NRH or Doolaghs Park specialist rehabilitation unit... try finding a free bed ffs.

Strumms

We don’t need to learn....

Not when...We know, each of those patients when they have a consultation each year, sits in front of a consultant... who outlines what services will be required to help them... but more often then not, tells them it won’t be available because the spaces / funding isn’t there... but if they have tens of thousands good luck...ring the NRH / Doolaghs Park....

is it worse now ? Yes... because there are longer waiting lists courtesy of the bigger population and less beds / spaces available to cater for them....

as of 15th of December there are over 900,000 people on hospital waiting lists. Population increases are a significant driver as well as a lack of doctors.

Recent figures from the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) estimate that of the approximately 4,700 GPs currently working in the State, 700 will retire over the next five years, while just 350 GP training places are planned for 2026....

The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), representing almost 7,000 medical professionals across all specialties, has called on the Government to urgently address Ireland’s crisis in medical workforce resourcing, saying that our health system will collapse leading to devastating implication for patients if more doctors are not recruited on a properly sustained basis.

a sustained basis, not a few coming from X countries, getting experience and pay and fûcking off again with that pay and experience back to xx.

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/114461654#Comment_114461654

Pure capitalism essentially throws aside the weak in society, you will literally be left to die.

I'd argue there's two definitions of pure capitalism.

One is idealistic where the best product or service wins on it's own merits and new entrants have a chance.

The other realistic one is where the dominant products or services only maintain their position through corruption, patents, lawyers, quasi-legal tax avoidance, state subsidies, and deliberately breaking laws because fines can be paid out of petty cash after the competition goes bankrupt etc. It's where new entrants get stomped on.