Will the good times ever return?

Interesting thread. Some look at "good times" as not necessarily connected with material wealth or social mobility and more to do with notions of 1980's/1990's Ireland, when we got out from under the church, became a more open society, did well in the soccer, the North got sorted out etc etc

Others look at it purely from the point of view of material wealth. We were piss poor 40 years ago. Now, the children of people who were scrapping by in the 70's and 80's are today earning big moolah, driving SUV's and enjoying several foreign trips a year.

I'd zoom out and look at the big picture. Will we see increased political instability in the world in the decades ahead due to misinformation, a collapse of trust in institutions, corporate influence in politics and the rise of non western superpowers who have their own ideas on how the world should be run? Yes

Is social media and tech in general going to continue to atomize society? Will more countries around the globe fall prey to populism and easy solutions to difficult questions.... Yes, probably

Will climate change bite us hard on the arse in the coming decades, completely changing the relatively abundant lifestyle we enjoy today? Will climate migration into Europe become a huge problem in the short to medium term? Yes

Will all of the above lead to changes in EU policy which will tighten up on de facto tax havens like Ireland which may result in the golden goose of FDI taking flight from Ireland?........... stranger things have happened

If the question is will be return to that late 80's to mid 2000's period which combined Fukuyama's end of history arguement, with the increased peace, prosperity and openness we experienced at home, then I think the answer is no. That was a time and a place borne of particular circumstance and we are far far removed from that time and place now.

It wasn't "people" it was Govts, and many of these problems didn't start in the 90s. They started selling off council houses in the 1970s for example.

Back then was a pattern of FF govt giving tax breaks and creating debt to get into and stay in power. FG used to get in and balance the books, but it wasn't popular. After the crash and FF were out, FG started doing what FF did in the past. So now these no difference between them. The opposition parties should have been the counter for this but they were all useless.

You could blame people for the "govt" of the day. But then we could blame todays "people" for keeping FG in power.

lifes what you make it and its for living now. no point look back to a past that wasnt as rosey as its remembered as.

There's nothing immoral in buying houses to rent, that's a crazy way of looking at the housing market.

The more people invest in property the more houses will get built. If the only people who bought houses were owner occupiers there'd be far fewer houses in Ireland. Money being invested in property means more property being built, this is as basic as saying water is wet.

The good times are different for different people. For some the 80's were good (e.g. PS workers in stable employment), for others there were no jobs. The OP mentioned the tech bubble in the 90's-2001 or so. I came out of college at the end of this, it wasn't easy to find a job at that time, especially without experience.

The housing bubble period here benefited those in areas related to housing and the state economy, e.g. builders, PS workers were getting large raises etc. It was a rubbish time for software developers/tech workers in my opinion (salaries were actually quite low at that time). Then with the collapse everything changed again. Suddenly IT became one of the areas to be in. Personally, this was the best period for me. My rent dropped about 40% in 2009 as there were so many places for rent in the same building. I bought a house early 2013, there wasn't much on the market but there weren't too many people looking either. For a lot of people this would have been the worst time, but like the 80's, if you were in stable well paying employment there were a lot of opportunities.

Overall the "good times" are relative and occur at different times for different sectors. It basically boils down to when you are doing better than others.

I think that horse has already bolted, the housing mismatches are already in place. We knew that when the government joined with investment funds in outbidding homebuyers in that Newbridge sale.

In promoting successive property speculation tax incentives (section 23 of the Bertie era comes to mind) the government now has to step in to house working people who don't have the spending power of pension funds.

All this of course could go into quick reverse if a few major international pension start collapsing. The demographics of the western economies would suggest that they're already underfunded, but those losses haven't been matched to market yet, or at least like a vampire they're been let suck exorbinate rent of younger generations.

It is intergenerational theft, but the pyramid sales people have probably already moved onto other markets, I mean younger victims.

Bertie was deflecting blame (he's not called the Teflon Taoiseach for nothing) when it was his and his party that created an overheating economy then poured fuel on it until it imploded.

TBH you are the "people" keeping it going today. It's not someone else. Its you.

Maybe councils should do something with their own vacant properties.

Another example of the overall absence of management. I won't be surprised if a lot of those empties are so because they're the dumping grounds.

I saw it first hand how developers were able to parcel out to distant sites their social housing commitments. The creations of poverty sumps were a direct consequence of such government acquiescence.

Prioritizing developer profits leaves us paying for the iniquities. It's easiest to blame the poor, but they didn't design their environment.

Why do you think people leave properties empty?

I move somewhere to work for 6 months. Should I buy and sell a property every time I move?

If renting is exploitation, then all goods and services are exploitation.

Which taxes on housing funding which services would be underfunded?

How does a property benefit from public works?

Surely it's the people in the property who benefit?

So you can't identify any specific services or taxes.

The politicians/govt have sold you the idea of vacant private housing to deflect from the vacant public housing and lack of social housing. You've taken that bait, hook line and sinker.