Austerity - what is it then ?

Bell Butter · 11-06-2012 09:25PM

The Waltzing Consumer wrote: »

Unfortunately not, austerity in Ireland is trying to bring spending in line with income.

It is not to pay for the mistakes of the very wealthy, you might be thinking of the banks, but that is a separate issue, it is about what we take in taxes compared to what we spend.

Unfortunately, there is a large imagination in the public where they imagine the rich paid nothing and the lower and working classes pay for everything. For the last decade or two, this has simply not been the case. FF promised the majority little or no taxes and spent spent spent. The vast majority of our taxes came from.........the high-middle to high earners, whilst you had something like 40% of the working population in the lower brackets paying literally 0% income tax. Now that is fine if spending was in line with that tax take, but it was not, and we ran up debts and the morons kept voting in FF.

Yes I see what you're saying but... sovereign debt and bank debt should be separated, the fact of the matter is that the public are paying for banking debt, I pay a lot of taxes believe me, but the whole population paying for the fat cats annoys me something rotten.

lifelongnoob · 11-06-2012 09:31PM

this recession worse than the 80's ... first of all... we did not get free money... we have to repay with interest... also during the 80's recession we didnt have to surrender sovereignty to EU.

Potatoeman · 11-06-2012 09:33PM

Austerity is cutting your spending so you are not borrowing money you don’t have. The banking bailout is a small issue compared to government spending based on temporary income. Opposition politicians don’t admit this but the problem is spending and the fact we get very bad value for money. If they were being honest they would say what we really need higher taxes and less government spending.

Bell Butter · 11-06-2012 09:33PM

lifelongnoob wrote: »

this recession worse than the 80's ... first of all... we did not get free money... we have to repay with interest... also during the 80's recession we didnt have to surrender sovereignty to EU.

Because we had the ability to de-value our currency, we no longer have that. The UK did it last year to save their economy. While it's still not great, it's better than here.

ejmaztec · 11-06-2012 09:48PM

Aus-terity is having to move to Australia to avoid death by starvation.

Feathers · 11-06-2012 09:54PM

Helix wrote: »

if you saved €100 a week between the ages of 25 and 35 you'd have €52,000 in savings. if your partner had done the same you'd have a joint account with €104,000 in it

not exactly beyond most people

If you never had to draw on your savings, it's not. Even without buying a house, a lot of couples in their mid-30s would have had kids & a wedding, modest holiday, change of car, etc, etc.

Phill Ewinn · 11-06-2012 09:59PM

Helix wrote: »

if you saved €100 a week between the ages of 25 and 35 you'd have €52,000 in savings. if your partner had done the same you'd have a joint account with €104,000 in it

not exactly beyond most people

If I had've traded my cow for those magic beans I'd be living it up now.....

Helix · 11-06-2012 10:01PM

Feathers wrote: »

If you never had to draw on your savings, it's not. Even without buying a house, a lot of couples in their mid-30s would have had kids & a wedding, modest holiday, change of car, etc, etc.

i used €100 as an example. if you're ritually writing off a ton from your wages every week, then you'll learn to live within your means. if you need to save for other stuff, then you keep temporary savings in your current account

i certainly dont have any intention of dipping into my actual savings until im in my 50s tbh

Helix · 11-06-2012 10:02PM

Phill Ewinn wrote: »

If I had've traded my cow for those magic beans I'd be living it up now.....

if only someone had taught you the value of money when you were younger eh, you'd actually have some money put aside

The Waltzing Consumer · 11-06-2012 10:11PM

Bell Butter wrote: »

Yes I see what you're saying but... sovereign debt and bank debt should be separated, the fact of the matter is that the public are paying for banking debt, I pay a lot of taxes believe me, but the whole population paying for the fat cats annoys me something rotten.

I see what you mean and I would agree in sentiment, but the "fat cats" don't exist in the real numbers we want them to and the majority are just normal people. There are a lot of Mick Wallaces (buddies with Wexford and ULA), Priory Hall (Developer buddies with SF), the Anglo ass***** (buddies with FF), the landlord ass***** (Buddies with Occcupy Dame Street).

The main point of above with all those examples is that it really is Ireland as a whole who got us in this mess, there are of course plenty of people who did nothing reckless and are now lumped with higher taxes and charges, but by in large, the politicians we elect and the majority of the country have set abysmal standards and it is all our mess now.

You are probably dead right to be annoyed, but it is way too common to hear absolute gob****** trying to blame the whole mess when they played a part themselves. :pac:

Son Of A Vidic · 11-06-2012 10:51PM

zagmund wrote: »

Austerity - what is it then ?

It is essentially the means to which you unjustly extract the life force and potential growth from an economy. In order to cover the losses incurred by others. Namely the endemic reckless lending and financial mismanagement of larger banks (German& French), to the smaller incompetent banks (Irish banks). It's a win-win for the **** bankers, they gamble, they lose, we pay.

kincsem · 11-06-2012 10:53PM

Temptamperu wrote: »

Austerity is what the government are trying to do to get us out of recession. It is not working.

It hasn't started yet.

Pedant · 11-06-2012 11:36PM

Austerity is an excuse for Sinners and other Lefties to start moaning and shouting about everything and trying to make themselves look all important, but not actually coming up with any solutions.

Pedant · 11-06-2012 11:40PM

ejmaztec wrote: »

Aus-terity is having to move to Australia to avoid death by starvation.

The shooting of the heir to the Aus-tro-Hungarian throne started WW1.

A lunatic from Aus-tria started WW2.

Aus-terity during the eurozone crisis caused (or will cause) WW3.

It's all about the "Aus" people.

K-9 · 12-06-2012 12:08AM

zagmund wrote: »

I'm not making light of job losses or reduced income, but when everyone (journalists, politicians, Joe Public, barman, yer ma, etc . . .) talks of "austerity", what are they actually referring to ?

Politicians and economists? Balancing the books.

Joe Public? Less money in the pocket due to tax increases, cuts to child benefit and welfare.

I remember back in the 80s when everyone was leaving the country, we had wide scale long-term unemployment, and we were being hammered by high taxes and low service levels. In those days we just called it a recession and didn't bother with all this theory talk you get on the radio where they tell us that last month Ireland was technically not in a recession but we continue to experience austerity. We just said there was a recession on. In those days we had no money, we knew we had no money, there weren't many jobs, we knew there weren't many jobs, etc . . . The idea of calling it "austerity" didn't come to mind as far as I remember.

This time around we're told that we are experiencing (or will experience) "austerity". Does anyone know what specifically is meant by this austerity concept that is different than the old days ?

And before the entire country ran out of money, did anyone other than very posh people who could no longer afford to go to Gstadd for the season due to a temporary change in circumstances ever actually use the word "austerity" ?

z

p.s. what's the big rush to "go back to the markets" instead of just keep on getting all this free money from Europe ?

In the late 80's we'd a large black economy, severe, choking tax rates and endemic corruption but we were poor, got paid low wages, had a decent education system and the advent of globalism, which we embraced.

Now we've high wages so austerity often means pay cuts, in return for productivity for the working man. Now we hate globalism. Tax Rises because we cut taxes too much, an education system and infrastructure that rested on its laurels and multinationals don't create the amount of jobs we need, especially the secondary industries.

Austerity - what is it then ?

Comments