Which Recession Was Worse?

cml387 · 05-06-2014 07:57PM

Chucken wrote: »

I was working in Shannon around that time and I remember being genuinely frightened that it would be one of the 1st places to get kaboomed if it happened.:(

Here's some reading for you, always made me think what I was doing in 1983

porsche959 · 05-06-2014 07:59PM

Chucken wrote: »

I bought my house in 1983 at the grand old age of 19. We had the common sense not to spend more than we could afford to pay back. I remember the bank manager asking if we needed extra to buy furniture and we said no. We got 2nd hand stuff and were delighted with it.

I'll never understand people blaming others for "pushing" money at them

By virtue of buying at that time you benefited from a high inflation period which meant that within a few years your mortgage payments were nothing in relative terms.

Basically, You got lucky. You've smugly convinced yourself that it was due to your own savviness but it really wasn't.

You're closer than you think in mindset to the types that were loading up on apartments alll around the world in the 1999-2006 period.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 05-06-2014 07:59PM

Frank Lee Midere wrote: »

That and two quarters of negative growth in GDP.

That is the definition used by journalists. Most economists define a recession as a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales.
Hence the 80s were a rescession and, indeed, the severity was close enough for it to be tantamount to a depression.

Bottom line still remains that as a state we were much less well off in the 1980s compared to today.

professore · 05-06-2014 08:03PM

This one is worse. Only rich people could borrow money in the 80s, so financially illiterate people couldn't screw up. There was a huge black economy. You could support a family in the style of the time with one low skilled job. Once the 80s finished there was no big debt overhang.

Chucken · 05-06-2014 08:08PM

porsche959 wrote: »

By virtue of buying at that time you benefited from a high inflation period which meant that within a few years your mortgage payments were nothing in relative terms.

Basically, You got lucky. You've smugly convinced yourself that it was due to your own savviness but it really wasn't.

You're closer than you think in mindset to the types that were loading up on apartments alll around the world in the 1999-2006 period.

No. We added our wages and refused to buy anything that was going to cost more than a little on to what we were paying in rent. We were paying 20punts a week in a shared house and the mortgage came in at 27.50. We were far from entrepreneurs, we were just smart with our little income.

But then again all we wanted was a forever home for our family.;)

tayto lover · 05-06-2014 08:09PM

Chucken wrote: »

I bought my house in 1983 at the grand old age of 19. We had the common sense not to spend more than we could afford to pay back. I remember the bank manager asking if we needed extra to buy furniture and we said no. We got 2nd hand stuff and were delighted with it.

I'll never understand people blaming others for "pushing" money at them

I bought mine in 1978. A 3-bedroom with garage for 16,075 punts.
Got a mortgage for 16 k and try as I might I couldn't get the 45 punts anywhere (had 30 saved). Eventually got her father to loan me it.
Like you I bought a bed and got the rest of the stuff second-hand, old couch, small table and two chairs. Was 2 years in the house before I could afford a bit of cheap carpet for the floors. Used a pressure cooker that we got as a wedding present for cooking nearly everything.

Hadn't a bean but it was great to have our own home after we lived in a flat for over a year.

Banjo String · 05-06-2014 08:10PM

The feckin 80s were horrible.

Kids nowadays don't know how easy they have it tbh, Nike shoes here, I pads there, mobile phones and x boxes.

When I was a kid, I had to walk 13 miles to and home from school, bare footed and it was uphill both ways. In order not to be late, we used to have to get up so early it was still the day before.

There was 16 of us in a one bedroom, 2 storey bungalow. We used to keep our eyes peeled for free puppies and kittens ads (free meat)

Sometimes couldn't go outside and play cos my da would be wearing my clothes.

Fcuk it was hard.

henryporter · 05-06-2014 08:15PM

This one. During the 80s you could buy a pint for £1.30 in Dublin

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 05-06-2014 08:18PM

henryporter wrote: »

This one. During the 80s you could buy a pint for £1.30 in Dublin

But, we didn't have 1.30 to waste on a pint!

oceanman · 05-06-2014 08:19PM

ah the 80s wasn't so bad, I remember being in the pub nearly every night, loads of nixers around...happy days. now its just bleak full stop.

Chucken · 05-06-2014 08:23PM

tayto lover wrote: »

I bought mine in 1978. A 3-bedroom with garage for 16,075 punts.
Got a mortgage for 16 k and try as I might I couldn't get the 45 punts anywhere (had 30 saved). Eventually got her father to loan me it.
Like you I bought a bed and got the rest of the stuff second-hand, old couch, small table and two chairs. Was 2 years in the house before I could afford a bit of cheap carpet for the floors. Used a pressure cooker that we got as a wedding present for cooking nearly everything.

Hadn't a bean but it was great to have our own home after we lived in a flat for over a year.

Just remembered the Bridging Loan. Best thing ever imo!
I know it was wasted money but after a year of being a grown up and having to pay it, you had a fair idea what it was going to be like!
Suddenly the mortgage comes through and it's less the the Bridging
loan :eek:
That extra tenner was brilliant

donegal__road · 05-06-2014 08:25PM

Chucken wrote: »

I bought my house in 1983 at the grand old age of 19. We had the common sense not to spend more than we could afford to pay back. I remember the bank manager asking if we needed extra to buy furniture and we said no. We got 2nd hand stuff and were delighted with it.

I'll never understand people blaming others for "pushing" money at them

I know what you mean, but there were people in Ireland during the 'boom' that were either too young, or too inexperienced to relaise that lenders were paid very well to 'sell' money to people

eviltimeban · 05-06-2014 08:31PM

Just reading that Ann Lovett stuff now, holy cr*p! Had never heard of it before.

I grew up in the 80s and it was a pretty low time to be in Ireland I think. There was the troubles, mass unemployment, mass emigration... it just seemed to be bad news all the time. I remember being shocked at the story of the two British soldiers who accidentally drove into a funeral procession in NI only to be dragged from their cars and shot... that story stuck with me, as a kid.

I think it started to get better around 1988; with the "988" millennium celebrations people began to take pride in Dublin (and Ireland as a whole) and perhaps things started to turn around the early 90s. When I was done with education (around 1996) everything was coming up and there for the taking. The years 2000 - 2006 or so was the peak of it all.

As for the 2008 crash, it certainly had an impact on smaller businesses (and big ones, lets be honest). I never indulged in Celtic Tiger ridicularity so was protected in a way from that. I feel now we're coming out of it, though certain quarters will keep moaning and blaming "the bankers" for their own bad choices.

Chucken · 05-06-2014 08:32PM

donegal__road wrote: »

I know what you mean, but there were people in Ireland during the 'boom' that were either too young, or too inexperienced to relaise that lenders were paid very well to 'sell' money to people

I still don't get it though. When "The Estates" started being built here (East Clare/North Tipp) I would say 90% of those buying were career people with good education behind them. Most of them from Dublin who ended up working all the hours god sent to buy a house that was overpriced just because it had view of a bit of a river

I left school when I was 15 and all I ever had was a "A job" and still could do the sums to know what I could or could not afford.

AllGunsBlazing · 05-06-2014 08:33PM

Weird, I grew up in the 80's and dont remember it being anywhere near as grim or depressing as some here are making out.

Spent a hell of a lot more time outdoors and running around with me mates than the current generation for starters.

cmore123 · 05-06-2014 08:33PM

The 70s / 80s were much worse - however, back then we could just jump across to the USA or UK. They had loads of jobs; but with UK and USA having had their own recession in recent years which mirrored ours, Australia's been our only recent hope.

AllGunsBlazing · 05-06-2014 08:37PM

cmore123 wrote: »

The 70s / 80s were much worse - however, back then we could just jump across to the USA or UK. They had loads of jobs; but with UK and USA having had their own recession in recent years which mirrored ours, Australia's been our only recent hope.

Canada must be doing all right as well judging by the number of Irish heading that way.

everdead.ie · 05-06-2014 08:46PM

Kyra Thousands Business wrote: »

But, we didn't have 1.30 to waste on a pint!

£1.30 sounds an awful lot for a pint in the 80s

Frank Lee Midere · 05-06-2014 08:55PM

Kyra Thousands Business wrote: »

That is the definition used by journalists. Most economists define a recession as a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales.
Hence the 80s were a rescession and, indeed, the severity was close enough for it to be tantamount to a depression.

Bottom line still remains that as a state we were much less well off in the 1980s compared to today.

You've just reversed the actual truth. It is economists who say that two quarters of negative growth is a recession ( why would journalists come up with something so technical) and ordinary joe soaps who might make your definition. Which was also untrue of the 80's. There was no decline in economic activity, it grew every year except 1983.

The past always is poorer in modern industrial societies ( up til now) and less advanced. That doesn't mean the past was in recession.

dundalkfc10 · 05-06-2014 08:56PM

What recession?

anncoates · 05-06-2014 08:56PM

In the 88s, young people viewed recession as a periodic normality .Not as a personal insult to their lifestyle aspirations.

Frank Lee Midere · 05-06-2014 09:04PM

Nothing has clearly been so overhyped as the 80's recession. It was stagnation, low growth, high taxes. But people were better off at the end of the decade than the start. And it wasn't the 50's. I was born in 1975 and my aunts and uncles would regail us with portraits of a society in the 50's with no TV, no fridges, hand me down clothes, no Atari, no back to the future at the Cineplex, none of your electronic gadgetry like that Simon game.

Maybe they were over egging it too. Their parents no doubt whined to them about the very fact of plumbing and electricity and how lucky that younger generation was. And so on all the way back to the famine.

I miss soda stream though.

Frank Lee Midere · 05-06-2014 09:08PM

anncoates wrote: »

In the 88s, young people viewed recession as a periodic normality .Not as a personal insult to their lifestyle aspirations.

Personally I think the present young generation in the West has it worse that we did, and much worse than the boomers.

Celly Smunt · 05-06-2014 09:15PM

This recession is far more divided with a lot more puppetry all round.That alone makes me think that this one is worse.

On the other hand however,when we get back on our feet we're in a very very healthy position. The kind of position that other countries would envy in terms of investment, workforce and education. If we get the housing bubble in check, I might just hang around until the next bust.

Dan_Solo · 05-06-2014 09:17PM

"Which Recession Was Worse?"

WTF, is this one over?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 05-06-2014 09:22PM

everdead.ie wrote: »

£1.30 sounds an awful lot for a pint in the 80s

It is. They introduced a half litre glass in the mid 80s to sell at 98p because the pint was over a pound. £1.30 is way off the mark.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 05-06-2014 09:23PM

Dan_Solo wrote: »

"Which Recession Was Worse?"

WTF, is this one over?

Yes! :P

The Backwards Man · 05-06-2014 09:25PM

Frank Lee Midere wrote: »

I was born in 1975 and my aunts and uncles would regail us with portraits of a society in the 50's with no TV, no fridges, hand me down clothes, no Atari, no back to the future at the Cineplex, none of your electronic gadgetry like that Simon game.
.

Many people remember the 80s like that.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 05-06-2014 09:29PM

Frank Lee Midere wrote: »

Nothing has clearly been so overhyped as the 80's recession. It was stagnation, low growth, high taxes. But people were better off at the end of the decade than the start. And it wasn't the 50's. I was born in 1975 and my aunts and uncles would regail us with portraits of a society in the 50's with no TV, no fridges, hand me down clothes, no Atari, no back to the future at the Cineplex, none of your electronic gadgetry like that Simon game.

Maybe they were over egging it too. Their parents no doubt whined to them about the very fact of plumbing and electricity and how lucky that younger generation was. And so on all the way back to the famine.

I miss soda stream though.

If you were born in 1975 then you have no idea what it was like in the 80s. Kids were and still are sheltered from the deprivation their parents endure.
Being born in 1944, I can stand over the struggles, booms and lows from about 1962 onwards.

We could never afford a soda stream. Always fancied one, but by the time we had the means to buy one they had gone out of vogue.

porsche959 · 05-06-2014 09:40PM

Banjo String wrote: »

The feckin 80s were horrible.

Kids nowadays don't know how easy they have it tbh, Nike shoes here, I pads there, mobile phones and x boxes.

When I was a kid, I had to walk 13 miles to and home from school, bare footed and it was uphill both ways. In order not to be late, we used to have to get up so early it was still the day before.

There was 16 of us in a one bedroom, 2 storey bungalow. We used to keep our eyes peeled for free puppies and kittens ads (free meat)

Sometimes couldn't go outside and play cos my da would be wearing my clothes.

Fcuk it was hard.

You had it easy! We had to walk 800 miles to the coalmine and work for 25 hours a day for no pay and nothing to eat except dust. When we came home our dad would decapitate us with an axe. Then we'd have to get up the next morning at three o'clock and do it all again.

Which Recession Was Worse?

Comments