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How would you rate the quality of life in Ireland?

steddyeddy

Compared to other countries. Do we get value for our taxes?

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Saipanne

Stonedpilot wrote: »

Utter bollocks. You are simply comparing us to some peasants in Uganda.

About 80% of the world's population lives on less than $10 per day. 50% live on less than $2.50 per day.

Educate yourself. You live in a first world country. There is no excuse for such ignorance.

MPFGLB

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

Everything is relative and is based on ones expectation but the Irish health service is not great from my experience...fine if you can pay but not if you have to wait at A/E or pay a GP ...

I think there is alot of room for improvement

Saipanne

Knex. wrote: »

We are literally some of the most privileged people on the planet. Its amazing how many people fail to comprehend this.

It's unbelievable how people can be so ignorant of the wider world.

ChikiChiki

steddyeddy wrote: »

Compared to other countries. Do we get value for our taxes?

Quality of life is 7/10. Points deducted for the crappy weather and housing problems. Do we get value for our taxes? Most definitely not at all.

Other than that it's grand.

Cina

People on the dole in our country get more money a month than 70% of the planet do in a year.

Seriously, anyone who thinks we don't have it better off than most of the world is ignorant to the extreme.

Saipanne

If anyone still doubts me, type your net annual salary into this.

http://www.globalrichlist.com

Learn.

Cina

ChikiChiki wrote: »

Quality of life is 7/10. Points deducted for the crappy weather and housing problems. Do we get value for our taxes? Most definitely not at all.

Other than that it's grand.

Aw god love ya, bit of rain, sure isn't it horrible altogether?

It's definitely worse than living in countries that suffer from severe drought and don't have access to clean water, or countries that get ravaged by floods and tropical storms on a constant basis. We truly have it terrible here! I mean jaysus, I needed gloves this morning cause my hands were cold.

triple nipple

If you are sick in this country you will generally get appropriate care.[/quote]

Simply not true, I know many people waiting up to 2 years just for scans and appointments with consultants, not to mention people who are on waiting lists years for simple operations.

Then there is the high levels of MRSA in our public hospitals. Private healthcare in Ireland for the most part is great and works as it should but is out of reach for most people.

ChikiChiki

Cina wrote: »

Aw god love ya, bit of rain, sure isn't it horrible altogether?

It's definitely worse than living in countries that suffer from severe drought and don't have access to clean water, or countries that get ravaged by floods and tropical storms on a constant basis. We truly have it terrible here! I mean jaysus, I needed gloves this morning cause my hands were cold.

Christ such a patronizing post.That's from a personal point of view! The cold damp winter weather causes me chest issues which our health system are still trying to figure out 3 years after first admission. Other than that I ****ing love the country.

Saipanne

ChikiChiki wrote: »

That's from a personal point of view! The cold damp winter weather causes me chest issues which our health system are still trying to figure out years after first admission. Other than that I ****ing love the country.

Well, from a personal point of view, I'd rather damp weather affecting my asthma, to say, dying of thirst or drowning in a flood.

Knex*

triple nipple wrote: »

Simply not true, I know many people waiting up to 2 years just for scans and appointments with consultants, not to mention people who are on waiting lists years for simple operations.

Then there is the high levels of MRSA in our public hospitals. Private healthcare in Ireland for the most part is great and works as it should but is out of reach for most people.

This is still vastly superior to 90% of the planet.

What, or where, do people compare Ireland to when they complain? I'll never understand.

Sure, we should always be working to get better and identifying where we can improve, but when people blindly state, "Ireland is crap", it infuriates me.

If you have a job in Ireland, even if its minimum wage, you're in the top 5% in the world. When life rolled the dice and you were born, you came up sixes.

Cina

ChikiChiki wrote: »

Christ such a patronizing post.That's from a personal point of view! The cold damp winter weather causes me chest issues which our health system are still trying to figure out 3 years after first admission. Other than that I ****ing love the country.

It's not a personal view at all, actually. Our climate is pretty much perfect for growing food (hence we don't need to import) and farming. We don't suffer from any natural disasters, major flooding, storms etc. We don't get as hot as many countries and nearly as cold as many others.

I'm sorry for your chest issues but the 'cold damp weather' in our winter is nothing compared to what much of Northern and Eastern Europe experiences during this time.

Sure the rain can be annoying and a pain in the hole but without it Ireland would be a crappier place.

California for all it's lovely weather and beauty is going through a severe drought and actually has to import all their water!

mzungu

Compared to the vast majority of places, Ireland is a paradise.

Sure, we have our problems, but they are problems that most other countries would kill for. By and large we are a stable democracy that affords excellent opportunities to all its citizens.

snotboogie

We get too smug in these threads comparing ourselves to third world countries. We have a high cost of living (Dublin sits at the top of European rental prices in between London and Paris), poor public services, drastically outdated infrastructure and low wages. That gives most people a lack of disposable income and forces them into long commutes. Our climate isn't great, the no natural disasters is a complete farce as we have had numerous serious floods in the last decade, not a high death toll (was there any?) but how many people die from natural disasters in the western world every year? It's hardly much of a brag. At the end of the day we have a climate that at best makes outdoor activity uncomfortable and at worst impossible for most of the year. Compare that to France where a huge portion of the population can spend 3 months on the beach every year.

Saipanne

snotboogie wrote: »

We get too smug in these threads comparing ourselves to third world countries. We have a high cost of living (Dublin sits at the top of European rental prices in between London and Paris), poor public services, drastically outdated infrastructure and low wages. That gives most people a lack of disposable income and forces them into long commutes. Our climate isn't great, the no natural disasters is a complete farce as we have had numerous serious floods in the last decade, not a high death toll (was there any?) but how many people die from natural disasters in the western world every year? It's hardly much of a brag. At the end of the day we have a climate that at best makes outdoor activity uncomfortable and at worst impossible for most of the year. Compare that to France where a huge portion of the population can spend 3 months on the beach every year.

Seriously straw clutching going on here. I truly despair for people like you. Whining about the rain while most of the world lives in poverty.

Type your net salary in to this link. If you don't feel lucky, you don't deserve what you earn.

http://www.globalrichlist.com

snotboogie

Saipanne wrote: »

snotboogie wrote: »

We get too smug in these threads comparing ourselves to third world countries. We have a high cost of living (Dublin sits at the top of European rental prices in between London and Paris), poor public services, drastically outdated infrastructure and low wages. That gives most people a lack of disposable income and forces them into long commutes. Our climate isn't great, the no natural disasters is a complete farce as we have had numerous serious floods in the last decade, not a high death toll (was there any?) but how many people die from natural disasters in the western world every year? It's hardly much of a brag. At the end of the day we have a climate that at best makes outdoor activity uncomfortable and at worst impossible for most of the year. Compare that to France where a huge portion of the population can spend 3 months on the beach every year.

Seriously straw clutching going on here. I truly despair for people like you. Whining about the rain while most of the world lives in poverty.

Type your net salary in to this link. If you don't feel lucky, you don't deserve what you earn.

http://www.globalrichlist.com

I've lived in China for three years. I know very well what a dysfunctional country looks like. At the same time I can see that we are not particularly well off compared to our neighboring Western European democracies. Comparing Ireland to the 3rd world is insane, of course we'll look good, asking if we have a good quality of life compared to them is an asinine question.

Saipanne

Allow me to put a thought exercise to the thread.

Think of the world today. Imagine you die and you are about to be reborn as a human, but before you are, a "god" offers you a choice.

1) You can be born in Ireland.

2) You can be randomly assigned a country.

It will still be the year 2016. Everything remains the same in the world.

Which option do you pick, and why?

Saipanne

snotboogie wrote: »

I've lived in China for three years. I know very well what a dysfunctional country looks like. At the same time I can see that we are not particularly well off compared to our neighboring Western European democracies. Comparing Ireland to the 3rd world is insane, of course we'll look good, asking if we have a good quality of life compared to them is an asinine question.

Put in your salary. Be grateful for what you read.

Jimbob1977

I'd say strong..... to quite strong

snotboogie

Saipanne wrote: »

snotboogie wrote: »

I've lived in China for three years. I know very well what a dysfunctional country looks like. At the same time I can see that we are not particularly well off compared to our neighboring Western European democracies. Comparing Ireland to the 3rd world is insane, of course we'll look good, asking if we have a good quality of life compared to them is an asinine question.

Put in your salary. Be grateful for what you read.

Just for pig iron I put in the minimum wage in Guangdong province, (where the infamous foxconn plant is based) which is 1,895RMB a month or 22,740 RMB a year. This wage would be paid to the most menial of factory workers. This puts the worker in the top 21% of the richest people in the world. I assume you would also turn around to them and tell them "Put in your salary. Be grateful for what you read"
I know I'm being flippant but there is no point at all comparing Ireland to the 3rd world, we live in Western Europe and benefit as such. We should be comparing ourselves to Denmark and The Netherlands, not Uganda and North Korea. Asking for these comparisons is not tantamount to dismissing the suffering in the rest of the world.

Saipanne

snotboogie wrote: »

Just for pig iron I put in the minimum wage in Guangdong province, (where the infamous foxconn plant is based) which is 1,895RMB a month or 22,740 RMB a year. This wage would be paid to the most menial of factory workers. This puts the worker in the top 21% of the richest people in the world. I assume you would also turn around to them and tell them "Put in your salary. Be grateful for what you read"

What an incredibly stupid assumption. You could read this thread and see why I wouldn't say that.

But please don't let me stop you from joining the others in complaining about the rain, and how impossible it is to do outdoors activities, ignoring the tens of thousands of us who do this every weekend in this beautiful country.

vicwatson

No equality across many spectres. So it's a ****hole

sashafierce

This post has been deleted.

Galwayguy35

vicwatson wrote: »

No equality across many spectres. So it's a ****hole

Leave then, if you haven't gone already.

Ireland isn't a sh1thole.

testaccount123

vicwatson wrote: »

No equality across many spectres. So it's a ****hole

Not enough equality for ghosts?

[Deleted User]

I think what Irish people get for their very high taxes is poor value for money. The level of waste in some public bodies is studiously ignored and people pay the price in other ways for that. Property in major urban areas is highly priced, infrastructure is below the average in developed countries. Education, though 'free', needs improvement in many areas. If you work in a particularly specialized area, you have to leave. It's easy to be a big fish in a small pond, so the opportunity to reach the top of many careers is pretty good - because it's much more difficult to be a small fish in a big pond and rise to the top in a larger and more populous country. Irish food is good, Irish cuisine - not so much. The arts scene in Ireland is very small (to an outsider), and entertainment options that don't revolve around drinking are limited. Recreational sports etc suffer from poor facilities, and those that are available exclude all but the better off, as most things are expensive.

On the other hand, Irish people are friendly and likeable, the weather doesn't present much in the way of danger, heathcare is free (if needing much improvement), and it's relatively safe. The size of the country fosters a community feel, and families tend to be close (probably because they can't get too far away from each other!).

On a global scale, it's a great place to live. Relative to other developed countries, I guess it's a question of preferences.

PS: We're calling poor people in developing countries 'peasants' now?

Cee-Jay-Cee

I would rate it: Mehh.

Winterlong

I have visited some right dumps that pass as countries over the years. And some great ones. We have it good compared to most countries.

But there is a lot of tax money wasted and some aspects of our culture that drive me mad.
And we are the best in the world for giving out.

But I still love it here and always come home.

Electric Sheep

Candie wrote: »

the weather doesn't present much in the way of danger
Relative to other developed coun.tries, I guess it's a question of preferences.

As you said, it is a question of preferences. I found that the dreary weather in Ireland severely affected my mental health. A move to a place that has blue skies about 80% of the time made an incredible difference to me.

I honestly think that the Irish weather contributes to the high suicide rate. The sight of the sun for me is worth anything, it does not have to be warm, just bright.

TerrorFirmer

This isn't a thread about Ireland's problems. Every country has their own problems. People often speak about Ireland as if there is some magical utopia in existence somewhere were every aspect of the state and society operates flawlessly that we should be taking example from.

Where is this place? Is it the US? Is it the UK? Is it Germany? Or, as I suspect, it is a fine, blinkered blend of the best aspects of various countries mashed together in a make believe narnia used as a stick to beat Ireland with?

Someone people would have you believe that Ireland is a struggling third world nation, with the world's most corrupt politicians, the most brutal police force, a healthcare system on par with North Korea, terrible infrastructure and the highest taxes in the world.

Those people that always have to take Ireland to the extremes make me laugh really, because they live a sad, blinkered existence where nothing could ever be good enough.

Quality of life in Ireland is very good. It doesn't mean we don't have problems and people are right to raise them, but it doesn't make the statement untrue for most people - arguing otherwise is just a chip on the shoulder to some degree.