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Present Day Ireland v 1930s Germany??

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Comments

  • #32
    Grand Moff Tarkin
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 862 ✭✭✭Grand Moff Tarkin


    rhamster wrote: »
    Just think people on the street need to get some perspective here.Was talking with an old history secondary schoolteacher yesterday and we happened to get into a lively debate on the state of the current economy and to my shock she made off the cuff remarks half jokingly but half serious that Ireland circumstances today resemble that of 1930s Germany with the raft of draconian taxes and cuts been put into place and the levels of poverty and hopelessness been displayed by working class people abandoned by politicians and bankers alike!!I mean c'mon are things getting that bad??Okay Enda Kenny and Fine Gael has presided over some of the most punitive taxes and cuts ever placed on this island but is this not a little dramatic and unfair.I believe Enda has had to fend off similarities between himself and Herod made by catholic magazine Alive and its editor who is a parish priest but phrases like "bring back Hitler" been banded around on streets from Dublin to Derry seem grossly exacerbated or are people down the bottom really getting that persecuted and fearful??
    I shudder to think of the pass rate in history that teacher had.


  • #33
    Fratton Fred
    Closed Accounts Posts: 26,566 ✭✭✭✭Fratton Fred


    We dont have the rampant inflation for starters.

    People would do their shopping first thing in the morning because prices for basic goods, bread milk etc would go up during the day.

    Unless I've missed it, I haven't seen that here.


  • #34
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 26,920 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Oh, who are we going to Annex? I choose Wales.


  • #35
    AlekSmart
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,002 ✭✭✭✭AlekSmart


    Shenshen wrote: »
    Actually, that is exactly why many voted for Hitler.
    So he could get things sorted out for them, and they wouldn't have to.
    The passivity of the average German at the time was what facilitated and enabled the rise of the Nazi party.

    The most important aspect of the OP would be to make one question the quality of our Teacher Training tbo.

    However,I'd have to suggest that "passivity" might not be the most accurate description for the German psyche between the wars.

    If so,then I'd sure hate to come up agin them in aggressive mood.

    There is,and always has been a huge gap between average Irish and German thinking.

    It covers every aspect of life,but is perhaps most visible(and important) when applied across the basic stuff.


    Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.

    Charles Mackay (1812-1889)



  • #36
    Dravokivich
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Music Moderators, Politics Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 22,424 CMod ✭✭✭✭Dravokivich


    Deleted User wrote: »
    Oh, who are we going to Annex? I choose Wales.

    Sure, we have our very own Sudetenland up north!


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  • #37
    tritium
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,793 ✭✭✭tritium


    I remember reading about how inflation got so bad that the german central bank couldn't print money fast enough to keep up. They took one Deutschmark notes, scribbled out the one and wrote ein billion (or whatever the german for 1 billion is) on them :o

    We're doing ok by comparison!


  • #38
    bnt
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,245 ✭✭✭✭bnt


    Fratton Fred wrote: »
    We dont have the rampant inflation for starters.

    People would do their shopping first thing in the morning because prices for basic goods, bread milk etc would go up during the day.

    Unless I've missed it, I haven't seen that here.
    tritium wrote: »
    I remember reading about how inflation got so bad that the german central bank couldn't print money fast enough to keep up. They took one Deutschmark notes, scribbled out the one and wrote ein billion (or whatever the german for 1 billion is) on them :o

    That hyperinflation happened from 1921-24, not in the 1930s.

    Does the OP mean 1930-33, the last days of the Weimar Republic, or the Nazi years after that? If the former, I can see what he means, since unemployment skyrocketed and "austerity" was tried under Chancellor Brüning from 1930-32. But we're talking about a far, far worse economic situation than in Ireland today. It was the Great Depression, after all, while this is "just" the Great Recession. :o

    Government resting upon the will and universal suffrage of the people has no anchorage except in the people's intelligence.

    — Grover Cleveland



  • #39
    Truncheon Rouge
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 388 ✭✭Truncheon Rouge


    Well we're not quite as bad off as Germany in the 1930's.
    But I can understand peoples frustration at the drop in the economy and quality of life.
    Im sure someone out there is responsible for what happened, what we need to do now is find out who this group or groups is and somehow prevent them from damaging our country again, if we could somehow localise them into one small area, some sort of focused re-education and work internment centre where they could pay back into society, through work that would set them free.


  • #40
    Seedy Arling
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,002 ✭✭✭Seedy Arling


    Deleted User wrote: »
    Oh, who are we going to Annex? I choose Wales.
    The Republic of Cork. Shut 'em up once and for all. :cool:


  • #41
    anncoates
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,925 ✭✭✭✭anncoates


    Each time you think the bleating of the Celtic Tiger cubs is bad, it goes and ups the ante on itself.

    I'm expecting the Ireland 2013 vs Haiti 2010 comparisons next.


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  • #42
    Grand Moff Tarkin
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 862 ✭✭✭Grand Moff Tarkin


    Seedy Arling wrote: »
    The Republic of Cork. Shut 'em up once and for all. :cool:
    The Rebel County kicked the English out after the lads in Dublin screwed it up in 1916 when the odds were in their favour.:D


  • #43
    clairefontaine
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,390 ✭✭✭clairefontaine


    No not yet.

    When you have to bring a sack of Euros full of 5000 to buy a bag of coal, then yes, it will resemble pre-war Germany.

    There are similarities in that painful reparation to a debt can create pre war conditions, but we are not there yet, also Ireland does not control the money printing press so it can't just keep printing notes. I doubt very much whomever runs the Euro press will do this either.


  • #44
    Cabaal
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators, Regional South East Moderators Posts: 28,726 Mod ✭✭✭✭Cabaal


    Are times hard now, yes

    Is this the hardest we've had it, not by a long shot.

    Lets look at even the 1980's, in the 1980's we had unemployment of 19%....if you also wanted a mortgage you'd also be paying 19% interest. Hell even in 1990 my sister got a mortgage with 12% interest rate...it was the norm!

    Now lets look back further, my dad was born in the 1930's and and the family owned a shop, he remembers family's coming into our shop in the 50's and 60's who would start putting money aside in August for a fruit cake for Christmas. Just a fruit cake!!!!

    Thats only one small example.

    People were that poor!

    We don't know what poor and hardship is, we only think we do. We haven't a clue in Ireland what real poverty is.


  • #45
    kupus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,151 ✭✭✭kupus


    Deleted User wrote: »
    Oh, who are we going to Annex? I choose Wales.
    Dravokivich wrote: »
    Sure, we have our very own Sudetenland up north!


    Dont forget Cornwall, Isle of Man, and a bit of Brittany and maybe Scotland, but the trouble with Scotland is, its full of scots.
    West ward we can take Newfoundland, New York, Chicago Philly, Atlanta Boston, on the other coast San fran, Leave la alone and give it to the mexicans for their help (they owe us one for the san patricios anyway) Portland, Seattle.
    We all meet up in boise Idaho.

    And hey presto the federation of the Irish States of the Northern Hemisphere is created. With the new capital of Boise Idaho as capital. And then we corner the potato market WORLDWIDE. muhaaaaa.


  • #46
    nice_very
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,723 ✭✭✭nice_very


    Kupus, if you are going to use Boise as capital, it would be in your interest getting the Basque Country onside (they are now anyway)


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