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

I am not. South Africa has a pretty complex immigration process, although the value for money in gated complexes around Joburg is truly amazing...

I did consider going to Steyn City where the private school is about 5K per year. Check out the school at Steyn City and Steyn City in general...

Amazing complex, I stayed for a week last year

Most NI cars i see down here, either they are speeding, and/or they are premium range cars.

Thers a cohort up north who are feeling no pain.

Castle Archdale campsite this summer.. its wall to wall good cars, big caravans, motorhomes… nobody slumming it in tents.

No southerners were presnt.

WWe Are a tax haven and funded by thwt and Higher income earners, being absolutely robbed, to pay for an obscene welfare state robbing the poor and particularly the "high" incomes earners, to fund the garbage system. But im delusional because after decades of wealth, expect Ireland to be a hell of a lot further than it is on infrastructure etc... I have to say, in a way, id agree with the increased tax from 140k plus , it would effect primarily massively overpaid and useless civil servants, politicians, state agencies and in the private sector, mostly earners working for companies, earning more money than god and not carrying their fair share to the economic potential as a whole...

These threads come up every so often. I think most people agree that GDP is not a great measure of the economic welfare of the people. There is another one called disposable household income per capita adjusted for purchasing power. This measures the amount of money people have after taxes are taken away and whatever government services are added back in. I posted a ranking of Ireland relative to other EU countries a while back. We are still behind countries like Germany, Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Norway (I know not an EU country). We are ahead of Spain, Greece, Romania etc. and about on a par with some of the Baltic states and Czechia and a little ahead, but not much, of Poland. I will try to find the thread where I posted these figures.

Now a lot of people will say that, of course, some people not being able to afford stuff is a small price to pay for being one of the richest countries in the world, but I think these people need to reflect on what being rich is supposed to mean. It is supposed to mean that that things become more affordable, not less.

I think also, while we are about mid-level in EU terms, what this doesn't take into account is the extreme level of housing inequality we have here and the insecurity that large numbers of people have trying to stay housed. I think, overall, the country has not been managed well in this regard.

That said, we are well above world standards for most things. Even the worst EU countries are far above the typical world standard of living.

One of the things I like about the UK is the nice cars you just don't see here.Thats more as a result of our crazy road tax system that a demonstration of their wealth.

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On the shopping we were back and forth across the Irish sea for three years and shopped mostly in Aldi/Lidl and found the major difference being obviously booze is cheaper in the UK but things like smoked salmon was cheaper in the Irish stores, even though some of the Irish supply came from Scotland!

Otherwise while you NHS is free trying to get an appointment for a basic checkup was taking months, so on a trip back to Ireland I rang my old GP practice, got a next day appointment, paid my €50 and had results back in a few days.

The reality is Britain has a much older demographic than here, but we're starting to feel the pressure of an aging society needing more health access, so there's lessons to be learned from across the water. Another myth about the NHS is that not all NHS Trusts are funded the same, you actually get families moving house just to be in a better funded Trust area, which in turn means a kind of hollowing out in some areas which care is needed the most.

Can you list these countries please? The list of whats wrong with this country according to you is very specific, would like to see what other countries you rate so highly on them:

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.

"if I lived here I probably would have voted for Brexit because it felt like nothing positive had happened there in decades"

No if you lived there you would have "emigrated" within the UK like all the smart people do. The English "emigrate" just as much as we do it's just nobody notices because it's within England.

None of my London friends are from there and are all from these "left behind" places. They have no sympathy for the people still in these towns wasting away and blaming everyone else.

Ireland is doing well but hard to discount historical wealth.

Different countries but I was amazed by Copenhagen when I visited in 2023. In terms of buildings and infrastructure it's clear to anyone that the Danish have been a wealthy country for a long-time. Hard to describe, a sort of understated wealth.

We're not fully there yet but we're getting there. I would like to see less waste of public money and most ambition when It comes to infrastructure. It's almost a hundred years now since the government of the time green lit the building of Ardnacrusha, a huge project, and we struggling at the moment to build a good road between Cork and Limerick.

Most of those "left behind" places were rural areas that sprouted a city/town for a single reason like a mill or mine.

The people immigrated in for that single reason and now it's gone so time to emigrate out.

It's a very very recent notion that it's your right to have the jobs come to you.

Ardnacrusha was recently at war because someone built a Windmill on their farm. Could you imagine the NIMBYism, selfishness and scare tactics if someone tried to build Ardnacrusha power station and tributary river today.

True, the NIMBYism culture is a killer for getting things done.

You are not disagreeing at all. That's pretty much what I said about the disparity being greater. I said it is far more possible to live thrifty or on the cheap.

That is not living a middle class lifestyle.