No quitten we're whelan onto chitchat 12.

This is why I love sci-fi. I really enjoy listening to sci-fi to see authors take on what might be out there. Star talk with Neil DeGrass Tyson is really interesting podcast, I find him easy to listen to.

that was the F104 wasn’t it? Happed in a steep dive

I expect this to be an unpopular opinion but,

if we’re facing a genuine squeeze on availability over the next 6-8 weeks, reducing the price of fuel isn’t necessarily the solution either 🤷🏻

we know lots of people were forced back into commuting just to keep office lease values high rather than any real productivity drive.

It’s hard to see a solution that hits all bases.

We can’t long term take the duty off fuel, part of the 2008 crash in ireland hit so hard because we had all revenue coming from the new home sector, diversifying and having other revenue streams is key. But everyone protests at that be it fuel, vrt or water charges. We need a diversified taxation system, however we get that balance sorted I don’t have that answer.

A good starting point for fairness & equality would be a tax system where everyone pays their faur share.

Cut out this tax exile bs

Some citizens in most countries probably feel just like that. Yet, taxation has to happen, money must be collected. The broader the base for this collection the less the potential shocks down the line.
People cried foul in 2008 with our over reliance on housing for tax take, yet there have been nothing but moaning, complaints and protests at attempts to broaden the tax base. 2026 and here we are again staring down the barrel of a global recession and essentially over reliance on one single tax revenue stream again, just it’s the multinationals this time.

Plus 1.

I work in the public service, last Autumn the opw came round to survey where I work to seek areas to spend money, I kid you not to 'spend money'. Now did you ever survey your farm or business to seek to spend money? We all know where money should be allocated to without a survey. I also aware this was carried out on multiple public service sites.

They didn't learn from the last recession. Fact; corporation tax is not going to last and its unfairly propping up our revenues just like VAT did in the celtic tiger.

Last budget they should have gave relief to the middle class instead of useless capital expenditure, but next time out when the need to buy votes they be looking for money as they can get that room to spend it.

The problem in the US is there system is flawed. For years and still is its based on a low tax system. This has denuded there education and health systems, as well as preventing social supports. Our system is flawed, but theres is beyond repair because of there voting and political system.

When you have only 50% of your school going children going to college in a modern technological world you arr basically f@@ked

You can see plenty of alternative trade deals being set up to sideline tie US over time. The longer Trump stays in power the stronger and more ingrained these alternative trade routes become.
Trump is also risking loosing the petrodollar/reserve currency which massively favours the US in global trade.

It’s looking more and more likely that a global recession is imminent, coming out of that countries will definitely flex away from reliance on the US to prevent them having enough power to drag us all down again.