Rip off Ireland...no rip off Greece

MorningStar

For all those who claim Ireland is rip off and life is so much cheaper else where note this

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20050727/D8BK1I103.html

Not always good deals abroad

Gordon

That's 'vomva', liquid bomb, it's been a bad idea to drink anything that doesn't come in a beer bottle for many years in Athens and the islands. That and the twitching taxi drivers that are actually regularly flicking hidden switches to ticker the meter up a notch every mile or so.

It is said that Athens is one of, if not the, most expensive cities in Europe. Considering our minimum wage is under 600 euro per month and a pint of beer can cost 6 euro easily it's getting quite bad here.

Kiera

I'm not long back from Greece and didnt find it expensive at all plus i found the drink to be the same as ours!!

Dave

Gordon wrote:

Considering our minimum wage is under 600 euro per month and a pint of beer can cost 6 euro easily it's getting quite bad here.

Our minimum wage is far more than that. Around 1200 a month at the moment.

seamus

Dave wrote:

Our minimum wage is far more than that. Around 1200 a month at the moment.

"Here" for Gordon is Greece

Dave

Aaaaaaaaah

Apologies.

MorningStar

Dave wrote:

Our minimum wage is far more than that. Around 1200 a month at the moment.

Exactly the media hype on rip of Ireland makes people think things are worse than they are. People say everything has gone up but it's not true. Beer in a off licence is now cheaper than 5 years ago for example. Things have gone up but not everything and peoples' wages went up.

Civilian_Target

Books being cooked in the Balkans, who would have suspected?

Corruption down here is crazy, for example I live with a Greek guy who says that unless you know the right people, paying the tester €300 is about the only way to pass your driving test. Here in Macedonia, if you want to receive a package in the post that may be of value, you have to bribe the correct people in the post office (or just use DHL). Most places I go to are at least straight-up about the alchohol - certainly the Jameson tastes correct! But depending on how many times they flick the meter a journey from my regular to my house by taxi can cost between 50 and 150 MKD (€1 - €3) - needless to say, they never get more than 70 MKD

PullMyFinger!

Dave wrote:

Our minimum wage is far more than that. Around 1200 a month at the moment.

What is the average wage per week in Dublin and Ireland does anyone know?

seamus

Average wage is 29k/year IIRC. Work that back, it becomes €2,400/month, around €560/week.

Before tax afaik.

Mac daddy

PullMyFinger! wrote:

What is the average wage per week in Dublin and Ireland does anyone know?

I think its around 250Euro's per week, whats the minimum wage per hour 7euro's?

Kiera

Mac daddy wrote:

whats the minimum wage per hour 7euro's?

€7.65

seamus

Mac daddy wrote:

I think its around 250Euro's per week, whats the minimum wage per hour 7euro's?

That's minimum, not average

Kiera

Average would be about €400- €450???

I'm probably waaaaay off the mark!!

Hobbes

There are numerous scams in Greece, the comment about the bribe sounds right though.

Selik

Last time I was in Greece they were using Drachma (is that how you spell it?) and I remember the prices being a good bit cheaper than home. Of course since the Euro has come in they've probably glanced over our way and thought if we can get away with such outrageous prices for stuff, why the hell shouldn't they?

the_syco

MorningStar wrote:

People say everything has gone up but it's not true.

5 years ago I could get 4 pints, and have change left from a tenner.

Kiera wrote:

€7.65

If your over 20. If your 18, its still €7

[/rant]

Kiera

When I was in Greece in June, pints of bud and strongbow were 4 euro each. All the local stuff was 1.30 or in and around. Its up to you whether you’re going to stay local or drink your own drink really. I don’t see how people can moan about the prices when they have a choice to drink the local stuff while away!

MorningStar

the_syco wrote:

5 years ago I could get 4 pints, and have change left from a tenner.

And what part of everything did you not understand? Some things have gone down in price and certain aspect of quilty of life have gone up. The media focuses on the negative only and people swallow it. I was pointing out that you get ripped off everywhere and people saying drinks in Greece are cheap now know why.

the_syco

MorningStar wrote:

And what part of everything did you not understand?

Things have gone up but not everything

Everything from a can of coke, to the mortgage has gone up. I have yet to see anything that has not gone up.

I know that mainly, the prices have gone up due to increased labour charges, and "external" harges (eg: waste collection, delivery charges, etc), but the prices are starting to go up too fast. For example, drink prices.

MorningStar

the_syco wrote:

Everything from a can of coke, to the mortgage has gone up. I have yet to see anything that has not gone up.

AS I said beer is now cheaper in an off licence than before. You can now get a crate (24) of named brand beer for less than €24. That is less than €1 a bottle. The euro has hidden some things. As relative price to inflation some items have gone down also. DVD players have gone down as has many electronic goods. Intrest rates went down as has credit in genral. It's not true from my experince to say everything has gone up and I have given my examples. The mortagae has actually come down the loan amount has increase but in the 80s it was 17%+. Are you old enough to remeber that?

pickarooney

I can get a 24-bottle crate of beer for less than a fiver, and that's after euro-linked inflation.

Gordon

Incidentally the Greece thing was due to many factors. When we had Drachma it was unbelievably cheap for everything you could imagine bar some imports of foreign food and goods. Then we had a massive stock market crash, the Olympics and the Euro. Now the government is trying to force people to work (I may not be exact) 50-60 hour weeks for the same wage. Of course people actually do work silly hours to maintain crappy jobs to survive anyway but there are strikes going on right now to protest this.

300 euro for a driving licence? I think it's much less than that tbh, maybe 150. Sure, a friends father was murdered some years ago, she saw who did it and the police ended up telling her that the investigation wouldn't be going anywhere unless she helps them. 'Help' was a sum of 5 digits.

As for drinks prices, maybe I go to the wrong bars..

Civilian_Target

Gordon wrote:

300 euro for a driving licence? I think it's much less than that tbh, maybe 150.

Sums it up really though, doesn't it...

I always thought the government in Ireland was lazy and corrupt but this place takes it to a whole new level...

seamus

Gordon wrote:

300 euro for a driving licence? I think it's much less than that tbh, maybe 150. Sure, a friends father was murdered some years ago, she saw who did it and the police ended up telling her that the investigation wouldn't be going anywhere unless she helps them. 'Help' was a sum of 5 digits.

Like Turkey, I always thought that Greece *wanted* to be a civilised country, but in reality is just a little haven of corruption and social inequality.

I've no idea why we let Greece into the EU, and why we're even considering Turkey.

MorningStar

seamus wrote:

Like Turkey, I always thought that Greece *wanted* to be a civilised country, but in reality is just a little haven of corruption and social inequality.

I've no idea why we let Greece into the EU, and why we're even considering Turkey.

The same reason they let us in. They will catch up like us and soon they will have a more complicated form of corruption like us.
25 years later and we are still sorting out some things that happened.
It proves that Ireland could be worse