Eddie Hobbs - Politically Biased?

Last night's show was appalling. He has turned the whole issue into a running gag sequence, Eddie with an arrow in his head, Eddie with a dog, Eddie with a jeep, Eddie phoning Psychics Live, Eddie with a budgie called 'Tweetie' etc. etc. Last night was more than just bad economics - the standard charge - but bad television. The lowest point came when he made a big joke out of some Lithuanian walking dogs, and when the audience were all in stitches he told them it was not a laughing matter at all.

Still, at least he did remind us of that Yeats line about fumbling in the greasy till. So it's not a new complaint at all Eddie? Perhaps a show about the Irish being a nation of complainers since the foundation of the State might be apt...only this time he might drop the 'we, the small people' routine which he churned out last night too.

I think there is a big misunderstanding going on at the moment.

"Rip off republic" focuses on the cost of goods and tax and all that, and the main argument against "everything is cheaper in Europe" line is that overheads are cheaper. Wages, lighting, rent etc.

I think we (as an entire nation) are completely missing the point. We are for want of a better phrase, greedy, intolerable, money scrounging, get one over your next door neighbour ba$tards.
It should be about "Standard of Living" not how much (or lack of) coinage is in your pocket. I fervently believe that here in Ireland, we have a pi$$ poor standard of living. I was a bartender in Austria for a year. I earned €5 per hour + tips. It wasn't a glamorous bar by any means, and the Chef (manager/owner) took home slightly more than his staff. We worked a 4 day 8-10 hour week, and my take home pay was usually around €500 (inc. tips).
My outgoings in Austria:
€300 a month rent or €75 a week
Cigs, €2.70 a pack x 7 days = 18.90
My food bill would be around €40
We always kept a bottle of champagne in the fridge too: €28 for Veuve Cliquot
Average price of a pint: around €3.10 for local Lager - €4.50 for imported beer like Guinness or Bulmers.

Could you compare that to Ireland?
My average weekly wage is 5 day week 8 hour day = €550 after tax
€505 monthly rent in an apartment 1/2 the size of the one in Vienna
Cigs, 6.35 a pack x 7 days = 44.45
Food bill would be around €60
Wouldn't keep champagne in fridge as I wouldn't be able to really afford it. But it's about €50
Average price of a pint:€3.90 to €5

So there's my "shopping basket"

If you have ever been to Vienna, you know how beautiful the City is. All workers get free medical and dental work. Street cleaners get paid the same as a bottom rung MP, so there is actually a list you are put on if you want to be a street cleaner. You can buy alcohol 24 hrs a day. Ive shared beers with Juknkies who don't need to Mug you as they are (not exactly accepted) but their condition is more understood than it is here. They get paid more social if their drug tests show the levels are lower than last time they were tested.

So thats it. Wages lower (not by much) Standard of living immensely higher. People are not greedy, they haven't lost that community spirit yet. Oh and most people would rent, as it's cheaper than buying your own place.

I think we are to hold the majority of the blame. The Govt. has f*cked us over time and time again, but they do it, by huge salaries, Consultancy fees that don't answer anything. Various fiascos - roadworks, e-voting etc. And to say that the co-alition has squandered millions is an understatement. But however, the buck stops with us. That's you and me. We were the ones that said, "Mary across the road sold her house for 250,000, do you think I could get 280,000?" We are the ones that ring in sick everytime we feel a slight tummy pain or had one too many the night before, losing productivity, We are the ones that spend a fortune on credit cards and paying (roughly) 18% interest on them. We are the people that charge person "x" so much for a service, but person"y" a little more for the same service as, "they look like they can afford it"

I think it's time to grow up as a country and stop being such miserable greedy batards.

Papa Smut wrote:

So thats it. Wages lower (not by much) Standard of living immensely higher. People are not greedy, they haven't lost that community spirit yet. Oh and most people would rent, as it's cheaper than buying your own place.

The benefits of electing a Nazi army officer President? As a matter of interest, would immigrants and Jews in Vienna share your unbridled enthusiasm for that country? I don't mean to detract from what you say - the brother and his wife and kid just spent a year in Vienna for work reasons and loved the place, but again it's easy to portray other countries as lands of milk and honey.

As for the standard of living, I believe some of Austria's own analysts put them fourth in European terms in standard of living...and Ireland second!! But then again, I guess somewhere on an Austrian board there is someone saying how good things are here, we don't elect the Kurt Waldheim's and Jorg Haider's of the world, we don't have a policy of rehabilitation of former nazis, we don't have a leader who described Hitler's social policy as 'exemplary', we have more toleration for minorities, we don't bind gag suffocate and kill deportees (check out the Martin Omofuma case in Austria) etc. etc. Utopia doesn't exist - if the Irish are guilty of anything, it's an obsession with ourselves and how we compare to other countries.

http://wko.at/wp/extra/standort_analyse/oesterreich/AUT_2005_08_EN_A4.pdf