Will the good times ever return?

For the third time, I never said anything about wait times, yet you still parrot on about them, dodging the original post.

Here you go. Ireland 8th in the EU for lowest mortality in preventable and treatable conditions.

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Preventable_and_treatable_mortality_statistics&oldid=571291#:~:text=For%20preventable%20deaths%2C%20the%20three,diseases%20presented%20in%20Figure%206.

I don't care I did...it's a good indicator of how a hospital system is functioning and it is clearly not "world class"...as you keep parroting on I presented facts as well as my own experience. Not to mention the huge payouts for negligence. Other posters seem to think I called Irelands healthcare "third world" I 100 percent did not. It is ok/average I would guess in EU standards but given the money pumped in it should be better.

Investment going up year on year but beds and staff not at the level they should or need to be (plenty of data provided on that already) that is the reality imo. The staff do there best but we could be doing so much better if money was better employed.

And I think you are correct though I think the traditional stereotype is of the older person saying the youth of today have it easy. This is understandable. Everyone wants to think they came up from nothing. In that regard, the OP is going against that stereotype in his post.

What is also true, and I'm also agreeing with you here, is that older people tend to compare now with when they were young (both positively and negatively) whereas the young must deal with how things are now. It is of little or no interest to them whether things were worse or better off in the past.

Personally, I think the country has gone through phases. Whether these were good or bad depends on your circumstances at the time.

For example, the 80s were bad for those leaving school with conventional ambitions of getting a career. Jobs were hard to find and you could do a lot better through leaving the country. On the other hand if, for example, you were musically inclined and wanted to get a band together, you could live reasonably well on the dole renting your own place in the cities. I don't think you could do that now as a young person. Even with a job it is hard to find a place to rent.

Now is much better for progressing in a career. Educational opportunities are also much greater and varied. I think life is probably not to bad for a young person still living at home with their folks but with a job in finance or tech or some such. They have a reasonable amount of money to play around with and still save for a future house purchase. Losers at the moment are younger people renting in cities who may not have enough spare cash to save significantly.

Also losing out, I think are those that might not fit into the higher paid corporate world. These are people that might have done relatively low paid jobs but could, in the past, nevertheless have lived independent lives and pursued artistic endeavours. I don't think this is possible now to the same extent.

I'd say that Me-Too-I-am-always-offended-LGBT-Rights-Genderisms-Him/His Her/Hers pronouns hasn't realy made the world better, it polarized society more and more.

That even worse, in light of the 2008 financial crisis, less properties being built created the housing shortage, stringent lending, etc, and politicians totally unable to respond to the climate crisis other than new ideas about taxes....

This all does indeed leave a mark on society.

Also the job market is very hard. Everyone is speaking about the lack of talent but hiring is made worse and worse by idiotic HR practices. More and more background checks, presentations for the interview to prepare, interviews with different managers dragging the process into longevity. HR was a friend at some point, now they are a burdon....

Sexuality was also more private and intimate, no constant gay parades or even rainbow flags in the office.

Back in the Celtic Tiger years they really hired everyone, gave everyone a choice if they wanted to, now there is talk about workers and labour shortage, but that's largely an artificially created issue.

I honestly don't miss the smoking in pubs or airplanes, but I'd gladly go back to that, if all the other positives are back as well.

I honestly could also easily live without smartphones or facebook media. The basic cell phones would also do me fine. I could also easily live without e-commerce, things like aviation and booking airline tickets actually didn't get any cheaper, now you pay a fortune for a checked suitcase or a seat reservation. All included back then.

All the above said, isn't just in Ireland, it's in many other western countries. What also scares me these days is the short attention span in society these days as well as the political polarization everywhere. 20 to 25 years, one could have easily had a longer conversation, and a more interested audience towards any sort of opinon.

I recall all health care related was worse back in the 80ies and 90ies. Hospitals were in a rather poor state back then. Also car insurance was very high back then, even worse if you were a male driver.

So do you think everyone back then could buy "anything they wanted"?

I think its selective memory. It's like picking a good week out a bad summer.

You didn't get those boom years without deep lows before and after it.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2057661286/dublin-in-the-early-80s/p1

Just on the abundance of jobs in the 2000s, 15% of the workforce was employed in construction, another 7-8% worked in ancillary services to the construction sector.

From about 2002 it was being funded by mortgage debt. I took a hefty paycut around 2006 to get out of construction as I could see the pipeline was drying up.

Ended emigrating anyway as wife couldn't get work for a few years.

What people consider good times is sometimes just borrowed time.

Sometime in the late 80s half the population was under 25, youthful optimism creates a positivity loop too despite the doom mood narrative. We tuned it out with music, dance, a massive youth culture. Italia 90 became a mood uplight event, it was good to be Irish.

The 90s were the expansion, our babyboom, the 2000s were overkill.

That youth wave of the 80s is becoming a tsunami of aging negativity, the same kind that they tuned out in the 1980s.

I'd encourage any young Irish person to simple go where they find joy, because the doom loop that is the Irish public narrative still has me tuning out.

I've a couple of relatives and friends living elsewhere in the EU for years and they'll happily stay there, home is only ever a short flight away.

I emigrated in the 80s and in the internet age and they are completely different experiences, you never really detach now.

Having lived in so called advanced economies that Irish people looked up to in the past, especially the US I know how good we have it so am content.

Sorry for ramblng, but that's also part of aging. Overall I reckon what's often called a golden age is just the joyful arrogant innocence of youth.

I remember when I'd distinguish my knees as left or right, whereas now it's good or bad.

Today's society has Pros and Cons compared to "back in the day"

Pros:

• Ability to work remotely/ hybrid
• More health conscious society
• Global connectivity

Cons

• Extortionate house prices
• Cost of Living
• Fast Fashion
• Peoples addiction to Smartphones at the expense of face to face conversation

Social media for the most part is toxic.

Not to mention how much international investment it has probably cost us to date. Why would you open new offices in a place where your employees can't afford a house? I'd say lots of companies have gone elsewhere because of this

absolutely, im starting to hear this more and more from people working for mnc's, theyve no problem finding the right people to fill positions, just nobody can find a place to live, which in turn is holding back expansion plans! this is a serious fcuking problem!

It probably is costing us foreign investment but it's not a problem that is unique to Ireland — it's a challenge facing the traditional developed nations generally. Australia is having a housing crisis — as is the UK, US and others. While housing is absolutely the number one socioeconomic issue Ireland is facing, we should not overlook the fact that it remains attractive on the basis of its other strong metrics — such as social / political stability and workforce skills.

While Covid lockdowns seem like a distant bad dream now, we cannot ignore the fact that the measures taken (regardless of one's view of their necessity) were always going to create shoockwaves that would reverberate into the future. We are living through a period that will likely be written about in history books as the start of a new economic era and for a small country like ours it can feel like we are very much in a dinghy on a stormy sea.