Are we lucky to live in Ireland?

Yes because we have a decent standard of living. I'd rather live here than Africa or Asia and many parts of Europe. North America / Canada / Australia would also be nice places to live imo. The only thing about Ireland is that the weather is a bit shíte although we don't get any extremes which is _kind of_ a good thing. It's a bad thing due to the fact that the whole place shuts down due to a hint of ice because we're totally unprepared for it. It's good because it means we don't have to deal with intolerable conditions

we're a grand auld country, jobs for life for the boys, and if your banking enterprise catastrophically fails, sure the govt will bail you out, while you can feck off scot free

im invisible wrote: »

'bout three fiddy

how high is his brother(?)

Yes. I know him well. Nice guy :pac:

If you compare Ireland to a third world country or a scary middle eastern represive place, then yes, we are lucky. Compared to most of Europe, USA, NZ and Oz - we are living in the dark ages, so no.

pmcmahon wrote: »

i plead anyone to go to Scandinavia and see how far behind we are

True. I miss some things about Sweden terribly sometimes-the efficiency of the place, how clean and safe it is, low levels of corruption and Govt. incompetence, how socially progressive and egalitarian it is compared to here with the vast majority having a high standard of living not just those at the top of society like here; and what a great country it is to be a woman in, in terms of equality and rights.
And the people are lovely too when you get to know them.

I did miss some things from here though like the warmth and casual friendliness of the people, how easy it is to strike up a conversation, how much less Irish people are fixated on their appearance (though that's not always a good thing :pac:) and our beautiful country side.
Overall I'm happy to be living here and don't think I'd leave again unless I had to. I love this little country of ours, warts and all

annascott wrote: »

Compared to most of Europe, USA, NZ and Oz - we are living in the dark ages, so no.

Elaborate please?Standard of living in Ireland is a least the same if not greater than these places you mentioned?

It's all relative really.
Compared to third world countries, we're incredibly lucky to be living in such a country.
Yet compare us to other countries with a similar standard of living to us, and there are some ways in which we're not perfect.

Our general infrastructure has improved, but there's little things like not building services when building the motorway network, or building a national stadium that's too small that are just ridiculous.
Which is all to do with the *adopts Roy Keane voice* acceptance of mediocrity and lack of planning and organisation which is part of our culture, the "ah shure 'til be grand" attitude. Also, compared to other countries like America or France, we're very accepting of corruption and poor planning, or at least not very willing to take action against what we don't like.
Lots of people still seem to have an inferiority complex about the country too, and be very concerned about how we're seen by the "big" countries like America and the U.K, and too concerned about how we look to them, not embarrassing ourselves.
We're also still old-fashioned in many ways. It's not as obvious or as powerful as before, but the unquestioning acceptance of Church authority is still out there. We've only had divorce in this country for 16 years, I think, and it was a fairly tight vote.
And our food, well, spend a week in Italy, France or Spain and try to go back to a feed of boiled spuds with a bit a butter for taste.

Having said that though, on a global scale, it's pretty good to live here. Compared to many countries we're fabulously wealthy with a strong welfare state (though not compared to the Nordic countries), and we speak English.

pmcmahon wrote: »

i plead anyone to go to Scandinavia and see how far behind we are

Fúck Scandanavia. 6 months of subzero temperatures, 6 months of constant darkness, Devil worshipers, Death Metal, Vikings, ridiculously high taxes , Shroomed off their tits Reindeers and every lame ass matt cooper/joe duffy contributor saying "Oh, we should look at the Scandanavian way of doing things".
NO!!!
Fúck Scandanavia

Ireland is fúcking lovely.:)

Fúck Scandanavia. 6 months of subzero temperatures, 6 months of constant darkness, Devil worshipers, Death Metal, Vikings, ridiculously high taxes , Shroomed off their tits Reindeers and every lame ass matt cooper/joe duffy contributor saying "Oh, we should look at the Scandanavian way of doing things".

Surely there must be bad things about scandinavia too?

Daroxtar wrote: »

So you don't think we've experienced much change of attitude in the last 16 years? Seriously?

Outwardly, definitely, and it's only going to continue changing.
But look at things like the fact that very few politicians will even mention the issue of abortion, or some of the reaction to the David Norris "controversy". Or the racism in this country (though the racists are more than matched by welcoming Irish people, it's still very common to see/hear casual and sometimes not-so-casual racism).
Things have definitely progressed, but I think there's still a large portion of the population that is fundamentally conservative and who will automatically fall back on the old way of doing things when push comes to shove. They just don't have much of an outlet anymore.

Fair enough, but politicians are usually consevrative middle aged people and the dont like to stir things too much. Ireland has a large young population and the mindset amongst the under 40s is incredibly different to that of many of the over 40s. In another 10 years things will be unrecognisable here to what they were like 10 years ago.

Daroxtar wrote: »

Fair enough, but politicians are usually consevrative middle aged people and the dont like to stir things too much. Ireland has a large young population and the mindset amongst the under 40s is incredibly different to that of many of the over 40s. In another 10 years things will be unrecognisable here to what they were like 10 years ago.

I agree, though I think it may take a little longer.
Some of the over-40s of today were relatively progressive in their youth, and some of today's under-40s will have to become conservative 40-something politicians.
And the brown envelopes will probably knock the idealism out of some of them.