Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Do you believe that we in Ireland are now richer than those in the UK?

  • 17-12-2024 11:42PM
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,777 ✭✭✭✭
    Ms


    I do not think so yet, but do think it is going that way and the British have only themselves to blame after leaving the EU with Brexit and that sad little Farage fellow who conned them all as well as a former British Prine Minister or 2 who took them that way.

    Live long and Prosper

    Peace and long life.



«13456710

Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,289 ✭✭✭✭Geuze


    Depends what you mean by "richer".

    Our incomes are generally higher than UK incomes.

    But we are less wealthy than the UK, as they have had high incomes for longer, and so have accumulated more capital and public infrastructure.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 72,824 ✭✭✭✭L1011


    UK only has better public infrastructure in London and a few other areas. And in many cases what they have is falling apart.

    Lots of public buildings are of cheap 50s-70s construction and physically falling down (RAAC, modular construction system buildings etc). Roads and bridges are falling apart.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,122 ✭✭✭✭Jim_Hodge


    You can think all you like but look at all the measures available. GDP per Capita, Purchasing Power Parity, etc say otherwise. Maybe have a look at the figures rather than going with a gut feeling.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,022 ✭✭✭✭pgj2015


    The cream always rises to the top. the cream is us. we will have even more of them coming over now for the better dole.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 387 ✭✭L Grey


    Leprechaun Economics.



  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,419 ✭✭✭Charles Babbage


    GDP is not a useful measure. But even after you adjust for its uselessness we are still somewhat ahead.



  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 10,825 Mod ✭✭✭✭Jim2007


    It is actually when used as a consistent base to express the measurement of other criteria over time.



  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 10,825 Mod ✭✭✭✭Jim2007


    And your point is what exactly?

    There is nothing wrong with it, it just means you have to model a couple of things differently when building economic models etc.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 387 ✭✭L Grey


    Ah. Another mod. Great.

    Mod Edit: Warning issued for trolling and uncivil posting

    Post edited by Necro on


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 847 ✭✭✭mikewest


    I don't think so yet but we are no longer visibly poorer.

    To use an analogy, we are like a young couple who have two good jobs, well paid and just moved into our first family home. No mega mortgage as there was some equity in the starter home. Two cars, one new or almost new and the second one step up from a banger. We are no longer renting and using the bus. They however are an older couple of empty nesters, large 4 to 5 bed house, no mortgage, two quality cars, one income and pension coming soon. They have more capital and less living costs but earning potential is now turning negative.

    Edit, as hit submit by accident: we are now in the same ballpark but they have the advantage accumulated capital. This won't last forever and we are constantly gaining ground due to generations of personal investment in education. Education is far more highly valued here than across the pond.



  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 726 ✭✭✭jodaw


    Ireland is not rich in pretty much an sense...

    Our weather is terrible

    Our housing access is probably the worst in the world

    Our health system is broken

    Our housing prices are high but that does not benefit anyone but investors.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,419 ✭✭✭Charles Babbage


    No, in Ireland's case it is not. It goes up by large amounts in normal years like 2015 and appears to decline in relatively good years like 2023. It is of very limited use.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,773 ✭✭✭kowloonkev


    I think our wealth is distributed more evenly than in the UK.

    Both nations rely a lot on the investment and and ingenuity of foreigners. To get that we sell a part of our freedom. Without that we'd be stuck in the 80's.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 873 ✭✭✭creeper1


    I've heard it said the UK is on par with the poorest state in the US if you remove the city of London.

    The city of London has wealth - true.

    The rest is just economically depressed and absolutely horrible place to be.

    Look at the headlines coming out of the UK and Ireland.

    UK - budget deficit and financial black holes. There's a need to allow pensioners freeze to death.

    Ireland - unprecedented surplus with massive windfalls from corporation tax. Billions from apple. Billions from multinationals. There's N a need to set up a sovereign wealth fund.

    In my mind it's not even close. Ireland is way, way richer than the UK and the gap will continue to widen.

    The numbers in numbers in this article give details on the unprecedented amount of wealth Ireland is accumulating. It really is incredible.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67058310

    Post edited by creeper1 on


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 873 ✭✭✭creeper1


    The high house prices benefits home owners in Ireland (mainly the older generations)

    It's absurd to say it only benefits investors.

    The older generation is doing well. That is probably a big reason there was no change in voting patterns in the last election.



  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 10,825 Mod ✭✭✭✭Jim2007


    It is actually when used as a consistent base to express the measurement of other criteria over time.

    And I see it used at least once or twice a week in financial models during presentations.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,270 ✭✭✭SteM


    Housing access the worst in the world, really? Anything to back that up?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,872 ✭✭✭✭8-10


    Always remember in the early 1990's how you'd cross the border up north and instantly you notice the change in quality of the roads. You go from bumpy to smooth after the checkpoints. I think a lot of their roads were redone around that time up there and everything was new and top quality and you could really feel that you were then somewhere that invested in road use way more than what we had

    Move onto now and it's the complete opposite. None of them up there seem to have been redone since and you notice the drop in quality on the roads and signage when you cross over.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,419 ✭✭✭Charles Babbage




  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 10,825 Mod ✭✭✭✭Jim2007


    True as long as you don't let facts interfere with your opinions.

    The healthcare system is not broken, you may not like but that is reality. It ranks at 23 in the "Health and health systems ranking of countries worldwide in 2023" well above Canada, the UK and the USA and second to Australia in the Anglo Sphere.

    We've just had a general election in which according to the media housing was an issue, except it did not turn out that way. The Irish voters are not interested in fixing the housing problem unless it means that they get to own a house and the value of those houses do not fall into negative equity. The access to housing could be improved in many ways, but that is not the problem as seen by Irish voters.

    Rising house prices benefit pretty much every family in the country, hence the way the voting went. In Ireland wealth accumulation for the average citizen is promoted through property investing, so your "investors" is represented by the majority of households in the country.

    Now I happen to believe that a housing policy based on the taxpayer financing it through paying down huge loans and funding the cost of social housing is a dumb idea and that it is compounded by linking individual wealth accumulation to property prices, but it is what it is. But you can't improve access to housing without impacting the average household wealth and the voters are not having any of that.

    So believe what you will, I'm not going to argue with you because it would be pointless.



  • Advertisement
  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 41,716 CMod ✭✭✭✭ancapailldorcha


    It is rich. The problem is that Ireland being rich is extremely recent. Most European countries got fat off the back of colonial empires and used some of the profits to invest in infrastructure. Ireland got rich very recently and Charlie McCreevy made the mistake of spending the boon on tax cuts for people to spend on frivolous nonsense. Then Brexit happened and companies who relocated chose to go somewhere with good infrastructure rather than Dublin.

    While technically true, this is not the whole picture. I would argue that a newly qualified nurse in Ireland would have a much higher quality of living if she moved to somewhere like Glasgow or Leeds. She might get paid a bit less but she'll keep more of what she earns and live in a city with a lower cost of living.

    A lot of the UK is quite grim but a lot of it is wonderful as well, just like anywhere. Durham, Cambridge, Oxford, Cornwall, Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, York, etc are all lovely spots and I'd take them over most of Ireland any day.

    The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

    Leviticus 19:34



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 31,011 ✭✭✭✭Wanderer78


    london maybe wealthy, a lot of it is dirty money from very questionable sources and parts of the world, tis feckin rotten



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,947 ✭✭✭✭Frank Bullitt


    Something tells me you have never left Ireland if you believe any of that. Bloody hell.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 726 ✭✭✭jodaw


    I don't live there anymore and I have seen plenty of other countries and how they operate …

    Net result ... Ireland is run purely for profit now and the services are poor...

    Since you decided to comment on my lack of a awareness of outside Ireland. I will also comment that maybe you are stuck in a bubble and think Ireland is advanced, when in fact it is not...



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,849 ✭✭✭Brussels Sprout


    Also depends on what is meant by the UK. There is massive regional variations, not only between the 4 countries of the UK but within those as well. Prior to Brexit several places within the UK were receiving funding aimed at severely deprived places while at the same time London was a playground for the rich and famous.

    I lived in a town in rural Devon pre-Brexit and I was shocked at the levels of poverty that I saw there. It was only then that I appreciated how much re-distribution goes on in the Irish taxation system. Several years later that region went on to overwhelmingly vote for Brexit.

    I think a lot of other places in the UK were hollowed out in the 1980s (the coal and heavy industry regions) and simply never recovered.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 726 ✭✭✭jodaw


    These are all stats based on comparing so called first world countries to other first world countries. Like a dick measuring contest when in fact, unless you pay handsomely you do not have access...

    I struggled to get access to a GP last time I was there. Now my children get a full and complete health check every single year. Full dental care and easy access. Access to therapy services etc.. on very short notice.

    If you think that rising house prices help young people, and the country in general , then you are deluded.

    Rising house prices simply makes young people's lives a misery and old people's lives extremely comfortable. Young people need a stake in a country and access to housing in almost a number one priority.

    I have just been having dinner on the patio of a beautiful house that the local government contributed 10.000 to the cost of construction. The entire property was built for 40.000.

    The house has 3 bedrooms, it has a small beauty salon and the front and the family and children are the most relaxed and accommodating I have seen I a while.

    They have a 2 minute walk to a large new shopping center with food courts, a cinema and a brand new state of the art chain gym.

    I know enough to tell you, you are been hoodwinked by news articles telling you Ireland is rich



  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 41,716 CMod ✭✭✭✭ancapailldorcha


    This is just a batch of meaningless anecdotes you've presented as "stats".

    The fact is that Ireland is a top tier country to live in. Everywhere has its pros and cons but unless you're both desperate to earn huge amounts of cash and driven and capable of doing so, there are few better countries.

    The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

    Leviticus 19:34



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 726 ✭✭✭jodaw


    Ohhgg



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 726 ✭✭✭jodaw


    Of course. Going to view a place to rent in a complex with pools. Deciding there and then you want it.

    Fine, pay and deposit and rent. Thats it. Happy days for landlord. Happy days for me…

    20 minutes walk from beach and 20mins from two large shopping centers…

    Compare and contrast... Queuing with 50 people for the lastest Daft rental. Handing over the papers of your life story and knowing there and then the landlord doesn't like the look of you so you will not win the rental lottery



  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,270 ✭✭✭SteM


    That's not backing up your statement with fact, that's just going on a rant. There are housing problems in major cities all over the world.



Advertisement