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When was social equality sacrificed on the altar of corporate greed ?

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Comments

  • #32
    prinz
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,598 ✭✭✭✭prinz


    seamus wrote: »
    Well, yeah. My mother shared a room with 3 sisters (in a double bed) until she was in her late teens (mid-late 60's) and moved into dorms to do nursing. And her father was a frontline civil servant, providing a decent home and standard of living for his family.
    Just because it sounds impractical and ridiculous nowadays, doesn't mean that it wasn't the done thing..

    I didn't have a room to myself until I was well into my teens and the olders ones were moving out. That was two sharing. It was also a decent sized room, the type you wouldn't get in your €150k three bed semi.
    seamus wrote: »
    ...these days...

    Er, yes these days. That's the whole point, these days you can't do the same things you could a few years ago to save on costs. I could inherit my brothers jackets/books and what not. People thought nothing of it, because it's not normal. Nowadays that kind of things raises eyebrows.
    seamus wrote: »
    Again, you have to compare like with like..

    But you're not doing it. You are comparing a great life when I was growing up in the 80's only in a four bed bungalow with a large garden, with over-crowding in a three bed semi, corner-cutting when it is not as acceptable to do now as it once was, etc etc... As for the child not losing out, I'd say the chances of a child being bullied over wearing hand-me-downs, reusing books, homemade lunches and whatnot is a lot higher today than it would be say 20 years ago... because back then the majority were in the same or similar boat. Not today.


  • #33
    Wicklowrider
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,029 ✭✭✭Wicklowrider


    black francis wrote: »
    The fact is that for the vast majority of people of this country (and dispite all the moaning that goes on), life is much better than it was 30years ago - both in terms of average disposable incomes and life expectancy.
    You're looking at the past through rose-tinted glasses.

    If anyone doubts that, in general, the ORDINARY person didn't have things better then they weren't around to experience it.

    We didn't get to spend a week on a trolley if we got injured. I had to go to casualty in the '70's and was in and out in an hour.Teenagers were able to walk to and from their social engagements. Kids played outdoors and ran and cycled. There was less serious crime. There was a hell of lot less obesity.If anyone remembers that time, can they remember a single incident of road rage? No? thats because people weren't stressed out of their heads. Were there gyms? No? thats because people ate better, exercised without even realising.As late as '87 I bought my semi in a decent area for twice my annual gross salary and had it paid off within 10 years (I was uneducated and unskilled during those times) My wife & I took turns off work during that time to raise our 2 sons. I've news for people who think they need all the latest toys - it gets old fast and when it does you need the real things in life to fall back on.
    I'm not looking back through rose tinted glasses either. I worked hard, loved my community and its people. They knew who I was and I knew them. As a child growing up they looked out for me, knowing when to have a word with my father if they thought I was going wrong ( try doing that today and see what happens).


  • #34
    prinz
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,598 ✭✭✭✭prinz


    Wicklowrider wrote: »
    As late as '87 I bought my semi in a decent area for twice my annual gross salary and had it paid off within 10 years..

    Just on this. I went to daft to find a similar house to the one I grew up in, same bedrooms, same bathrooms, same town etc. The asking price on Daft is 17 times my current annual gross salary :pac: despite the fact that I am now only a few years off the age my parents were when they bought theirs, I doubt it cost them 17 times their annual gross salary back in the day.


  • #35
    Frank Black
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,296 ✭✭✭Frank Black


    Wicklowrider wrote: »
    If anyone doubts that, in general, the ORDINARY person didn't have things better then they weren't around to experience it.

    We didn't get to spend a week on a trolley if we got injured. I had to go to casualty in the '70's and was in and out in an hour.Teenagers were able to walk to and from their social engagements. Kids played outdoors and ran and cycled. There was less serious crime. There was a hell of lot less obesity.If anyone remembers that time, can they remember a single incident of road rage? No? thats because people weren't stressed out of their heads. Were there gyms? No? thats because people ate better, exercised without even realising.As late as '87 I bought my semi in a decent area for twice my annual gross salary and had it paid off within 10 years (I was uneducated and unskilled during those times) My wife & I took turns off work during that time to raise our 2 sons. I've news for people who think they need all the latest toys - it gets old fast and when it does you need the real things in life to fall back on.
    I'm not looking back through rose tinted glasses either. I worked hard, loved my community and its people. They knew who I was and I knew them. As a child growing up they looked out for me, knowing when to have a word with my father if they thought I was going wrong ( try doing that today and see what happens).


    I can hear the Hovis music playing in the background as I read this - where to start?
    Health Service - life expectancy and infant mortality have increased significantly since the time you fondly remember.
    Road Rage - maybe there wasn't as much but the road fatality statistics show nearly twice as many people were being killed on roads 20 years ago despite the fact there were far less cars around - it was not a golden age of driving on Irish Roads.
    There was less serious crime? - bollox, crime rates have been steadily reducing per head of population in the developed world over the decades.


  • #36
    mackg
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,938 ✭✭✭mackg


    When talking about passing clothes along to each sibling I was wondering how much the need for this has deteriorated with shops like pennies selling cothes for practically nothing?


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  • #37
    Happy Monday
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,220 ✭✭✭Happy Monday


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo

    And you tell the current generation this and they won't believe you!


  • #38
    Wicklowrider
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,029 ✭✭✭Wicklowrider


    black francis wrote: »
    I can hear the Hovis music playing in the background as I read this - where to start?
    Health Service - life expectancy and infant mortality have increased significantly since the time you fondly remember.
    Have you a source re longevity pre '80's to today specific to Ireland? I could find none despite trying and am genuinely interested. You do realise we are discussing quality of life and not longevity either way?
    black francis wrote: »
    Road Rage - maybe there wasn't as much but the road fatality statistics show nearly twice as many people were being killed on roads 20 years ago despite the fact there were far less cars around - it was not a golden age of driving on Irish Roads.
    Road Rage was given as an example of reaction to stress in modern irish society. Are you seriously going to argue that stress is not more prevalent and dangerous today in Ireland than it was pre '80's? That this stress isn't a result of our lifestyle choice?
    black francis wrote: »
    There was less serious crime? - bollox, crime rates have been steadily reducing per head of population in the developed world over
    Again, I am talking about Ireland.
    So, in '95 when the Dept of justice revised their estimates for extra prison places required up to 2000 extra places ( in 1980 it was just 200 extra required...) they were just playing around? When they doubled the number of Gardai from the early '70's it was just good fun?
    Do you seriously contest that the "bomb squad" were called out weekly in the'70's? That there were 2-3 kidnappings a year? That there were gangland shootings several times a year? That we had a legion of gang leaders living abroad whilst ordering extortion, murder and robbery here? That the big criminals we do get locked up were able to command their gangs from within our jails? How many eldery people worried about home invasion in the '70's? Would a self appointed "Property Developer" have got a bank loan secured on thin air in the '70's? Would an ordinary person been allowed a mortgage of several times their salary? Would a mugger have walked out of court without a sentence........ It goes on and on.We had huge challeges back then and all was far from perfect. We had a chance to develop a greater country but instead we bought into the material dream life. It did not work out and depression, drug dependency, ill health and anger are the results.Disenchantment among our young is on on the rise, as is suicide. The choice is to try something else or just go ahead and rot away.


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