High Irish GDP is an illusion, Ireland is not that rich

Dohnjoe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121472046#Comment_121472046

Aren't you the poster who's predicted the collapse of Western civilization every year since 2015?

Edit: Yep, that's you

duck.duck.go

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121473476#Comment_121473476

Have you tried living in Russia? I hear they have low debt to gdp (because no one is stupid enough to lend to them) and a great retirement package for males

duck.duck.go

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121474375#Comment_121474375

We had zero interest rates in US and negative interest rates in EU didn’t we?

Yet here we are living in a “farce” where each one is 10x richer than an average Russian (millions of whom ran to the west and zero went to China) with opportunity to freely work and live in most successful and civilised countries in world and can wake up each morning not having to worry about being drafted to die in a mud hole in another country for the glory of Dear Leader and his merry band of oligarchs

Brussels Sprout

RealityKeeper, after reading your responses in the last page of this thread it is clear to me that you are main-lining quite a lot of Russian propaganda. Nearly all of posts include typical talking points from that realm:

Your typical post uses the term "The West" numerous times. That in itself is a clear indicator since no media or normal people who actually live in "the west" would refer to it in that way. Instead they will say "western countries" or even "OECD countries".

Every single one of your posts seems to be catastrophizing about the future of life in these countries. That as well is typical Russia Today (and it's contemporaries) fare. Every single piece of news they have about EU or NATO countries paints them out to be some hellhole whilst brief mentions of Russia itself tend to be intentionally boring by comparison. They don't try and tell their viewers that their country is amazing but the clear message is that at least it is sensible and stable unlike the decadent and chaotic west.

In reality Russia has committed a disastrous own goal with their needless attack on Ukraine. They had demographic problems before the war so could ill afford to tens of thousands of young men on the battlefield as well has hundreds of thousands of their best and brightest to emigration. At the same time the country has plunged further down the road to outright Fascism. Umberto Eco made a 14 point checklist for identifying a Fascist country. Russia now ticks all 14 boxes. Not only is it locking up political opponents like Alexey Navaney but even "turbo partriots" like Igor Girkhin Strlkov are seen as a threat in the mind of its paranoid leader and have also been either incarcerated or assassinated.

I agree that countries like Ireland have their problems: a teetering health system, a chronic and everlasting housing crisis and a growing law & order problem. In comparison to Russia though it's paradise on earth.

Dohnjoe

Indeed, it's linked to a simplistic world view which reduces countries (not leaders) down into personalities who are good or bad. Where the US, Europe, (and Israel of course) are the "good guys who are bad", all part of a convenient nefarious empire pulling all the strings that is doomed to collapse.

It sounds ridiculous but many key figures subscribe to variants of it: Corbyn, Galloway, Chomsky, etc.

Putin has invested significant effort into pushing it heavily as a narrative over the years. Authoritarians, dictators, fascists, nationalists have also relied on the narrative since at least WW2.

You'll see the same tropes and words like "hegemony", "petro-dollar", "Neocon". Mick Wallace and Clare Daly are neck-deep in it.

Attached to it can be the same reductionist economic views, whereby the "dollar is about to fail", "sovereign debt crisis" etc. Fueled by fringe takes on real-world events (2008 crisis, pandemic, high inflation) and an unhealthy diet of doomsday economic news. Yadda, yadda.

Global crashes, recessions, crises do happen and will happen. Countries have highly complex histories, politics, social factors, leaderships, relationships and on top of that the economics of it all are fiendishly complex. We are not in control. For some, that's too uncomfortable a thought, so they prefer the simple narratives.

Anyway, back to complaining about our relatively prosperous country.

Sam Russell

We must be wealthy.

There is some crowd I've never heard of advertising on the radio to look after my wealth. I did not realise before that I had any wealth, but I must have if this crowd are willing to look after it.

Must think we have bit coin.

Geuze

Yes, there is plenty of wealth in Ireland.

https://www.cso.ie/en/statistics/housingandhouseholds/householdfinanceandconsumptionsurvey/

10% of the households, in the top decile, have net wealth greater than 788k.

BlueSkyDreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121475699#Comment_121475699

Thanks.

Is this calculated by subtracting all liabilities from all assets?

Pensions, home value (equity or full home value?) savings, shares, material assets minus debt (mortgage, loans, credit cards etc)

Geuze

Gross wealth = before debts.

Net wealth = after debts

Geuze

Assets = gross wealth = financial assets + real assets

orangerhyme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121475699#Comment_121475699

I know lots of people who graduated during the Celtic Tiger, worked continuously during the recession, bought their house at a low price around 2011 to 2015.

So those people would be very wealthy now as their house would nearly have doubled in value and they've a good chunk of the mortgage paid off.

Geuze

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121618079#Comment_121618079

Pensions is a tricky one.

I will check what values are included.

Voluntary Pensions and Life Assurance

These are personal (voluntary) plans, access to which is not linked to an employment relationship. Individuals independently purchase and select material aspects of the arrangements without intervention of their employers. Some personal plans may have restricted membership (i.e.to the self-employed, to members of a particular craft or trade association, to individuals who do not already belong to an occupational plan, etc).

Holders of life insurance policies, both with profit and without profit, make regular payments to an insurer (there may be just a single payment), in return for which the insurer guarantees to pay the policy holder an agreed minimum sum or an annuity, at a given date or at the death of the policy holder, if this occurs earlier. Term life insurance, where benefits are provided in the case of death but in no other circumstances, is excluded here

Gross Wealth

This is defined as the sum of real and financial assets.

Only certain assets and liabilities are included. In particular, the present value of all future, expected defined benefit pensions is excluded, which can be a sizable portion of the wealth of many households. The present value of future, voluntary, expected defined contribution pensions is included. 

Okay, all DB and work DC pensions are excluded. It looks like just third-pillar personal DC pensions (not work pensions) are included.