What’s your most controversial opinion? **Read OP** **Mod Warning in Post #8023**

Yes, but they're good for recreational purposes is more the point , give people the option of a hobby at least, Olympics and sports facilities in general should be as much about encouraging people to take up a healthy activity which they may enjoy but never be elite at .

The majority of drivers on Irish roads are an absolute disgrace. Every single day I see drivers breaking the law in almost every regard, be it; driving while on their phones, speeding, speeding through residential areas, going through red lights, no indicators, parking illegally, on double yellow lines, in designated disabled badge zones, illegal turns, driving under the influence, etc, etc.

Racism in itself is such a strange human construct. And one currently based on a narrow period of history in the Western world. African salve trade, white overlords, and African leaders who found it more profitable to sell prisoners or slaves to Europeans with ships.

But even since that has long gone there is still a cohort in the world who believe the other is subhuman. To me surely such an insult looses its potency only when -: The downtrodden race realise they are not just equal to the so called “superior” race; but in many cases better?

The Irish used to viewed as the inferior race -subhuman both home and abroad by their “overlords”. But through drive and education the Irish and Irish descendants excelled both home and abroad. If some foreigner called me a spud picking paddy - I’d laugh.

So my theory is the racism construct only works because one side take the bait and believe they are inferior when they are not.

If a former “ downtrodden people” had more confidence in themselves surely such an insult would mean far less. As they would know it doesn’t make sense logically.

Similar to how the “Fighting Irish” was once an insult to the Irish in America. But has now being reappropriated as a badge of honour.

I think racists should be laughed at and made fun of. Because given the current controversy involving a high profile soccer match. Where racism was alleged the current approach of sensitivity is clearly not working.

It was nice of you to test 'left wing ideas' with a sample set of 1, and give it a whole day before reaching a conclusion. Meanwhile we've been living in a world which has been testing trickle down economics for 40 years and the experiment doesn't seem to be over yet. We've got loads of billionaires, loads of poverty, shortage of housing, lack of schools hospitals and infrastructure, but the experiment doesn't seem to have reached any conclusions yet. I suppose the billionaires haven't accumulated enough wealth to start making it rain yet...

I know the UK system better than Ireland. I worked on a report on maintenance funding for schools, infrastructure, hospitals and so on. Turns out the government has been making real terms (adjusted for inflation) cuts to maintenance finding since 2008. Instead of fixing small problems like potholes and cracked concrete, they wait for them to turn to big problems which are far more expensive and disruptive to fix. You get a few years free when you don't spend on maintenance, and then spend loads to fix the big problem when it manifests.

My point is that if you get rid of immigrants and it frees up housing and roads in the short term. If the government follows trickle down economic policies, it won't invest in infrastructure, schools, housing etc. They'll give tax cuts to the already wealthy.

On the list you provided, I can see you've put some thought I to it. You haven't thought about then rest of the knock on impacts. You say getting rid of the immigrants in healthcare will balance out because there will be less demand for healthcare (I take your word for it that you have done the maths rather than pulling that convenient calculation form your hole). What about the rest of it? Half a million fewer people would mean half a million fewer consumers too. So the roads will get extra quiet when not only the immigrant workers are gone, but also the people who supply goods and services to those half a million people. I presume you've done the numbers on that too...

We have the highest standard of living, not the wealth. We have access to food heating and medicine, education and entertainment, technology and free and cheap travel, and we have rights our ancestors never even dreamed about.

As for the wealth - depends on your age. Me, as a Gen X, I can say we're fine yet, but we're raising a generation that will own nothing. Not a home, not even a car, not even their films, music and games. All will used under some form of rental agreement. Some of these are already happening.

Yeah if I'm in a room with a billionaire, our average wealth is huge. That doesn't really tell us much about the reality though. Having your head in the fire and feet in the freezer and calling it a nice temperature, isn't sensible.

When people working normal jobs could buy a house 40 years ago and they can't buy a house now, I'm not sure you can say they have gotten "wealthier".

What's stopping people?

Who said it was easy?

Glad you agree.