Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

What will the world look like in 6 months?

Options
2»

Comments

  • Options
    #32
    Good loser
    Registered Users Posts: 3,169 ✭✭✭Good loser


    Leonard Hofstadter wrote: »
    I agree with you about socialism, there needs to be a big campaign to highlight the fact that the reason we were rightly able to afford to give those who lost their jobs at least €350 a week for the next three months is because we had sensible centrist economic policies.

    The problem with socialism is eventually that you run out of other peoples' money. Imagine if we had had the Shinners or others on the far left in power the past few years. The money to do the right thing and allow businesses to survive and people to still obtain a somewhat decent income wouldn't be there. Or else we'd be paying 65-70% marginal tax rates not the 49% we pay now on incomes below €70,000, which is just a no-no in terms of attracting high paid jobs to fund the public services we need and it's no incentive for anyone to work harder.

    So I agree that we need to balance the books and we are all going to have to accept that the €10-20 billion (depending on how long this goes on for) is going to have to be paid somehow. I am normally completely opposed to paying more taxes but I am one of the lucky ones, I have my job and my salary is unaffected, so I deserve to have to pay more taxes for the next while (not 65-70% obviously but certainly I'm quite happy to have to pay a few per cent more for the next few years to pay off the debt we're racking up). They should increase the property tax also and some of the largesse on the various freebies we get from the Government, like free GP care for all children (I have no issue with subsidised GP care and a modest charge of even €5 because nobody should have to choose between a GP visit and food on the table, but completely free is just an incentive to clog the system up and waste our money), €15 dental visits, and so on, needs to be severely curtailed also so we can balance the books.

    I also wouldn't for a second begrudge the doctors and nurses and the healthcare staff a pay rise of at least 5%.

    They more than deserve it for quite literally putting their lives on the line for the rest of us.

    I have had a few experiences myself recently with our public hospitals (before Covid-19 happened), and while I know it's cliched to say they are fantastic people, it's simply the truth. So even if it wasn't for how brilliantly they are handling Covid-19, they well deserve a pay increase anyway.


    I agree with all your sentiments except I do not think it is right or appropriate to increase pay to one sector, as distinct from any other, when all this is over.
    Many, many people will be poorer after this is over and it is those that will have to fund any increase in pay. The remuneration of those on the front line will not be reduced and may even increase with extra hours worked.

    I am not denigrating their contributions in any way.


  • Options
    #33
    Danzy
    Registered Users Posts: 13,260 ✭✭✭✭Danzy


    sandbelter wrote: »
    I think for all the noise about Corona it is distracting us from the "big" unknown...namely that it has given Iran time to quietly develop its nuclear weapons program. This is an anathema to the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel. At some point one of snap back quicker than anticipated when it finally over.

    Iran is being battered sideways by the outbreak.

    Keeping power and control will be a significant achievement after this.


  • Options
    #34
    Bayman81
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3 ✭Bayman81


    The Ireland 10Y Government Bond has a 0.200% yield.
    The annual interest costs on 50-100bn of extra debt is 100-200mm EUR. Hardly life changing for a 80bn budget.

    This will just limit any future promises any party can make, but that’s not exactly a bad thing.


  • Options
    #35
    salonfire
    Registered Users Posts: 3,078 ✭✭✭salonfire


    Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »
    How much are professional football players getting paid at the moment? And how much work are they doing?

    You pay people as much as you value their contributions to society and maintaining the status quo. Or you don't and see what happens to the status quo.

    I'll go with paying people extra, thank you very much. Small price to pay given the alternative.

    Last time I checked, my taxes were not used to pay professional footballers so I don't give a hoot what they are paid.

    People are not paid on their value to society, in which world are you living in? If that was the case, the farmers (who produce our food) would be multi-millionaire!

    Pay people extra with what money? There will be a 21bn hole blown in the country's finances when this is over.


  • Options
    #36
    Headshot
    Registered Users Posts: 53,848 ✭✭✭✭Headshot


    I'm hoping the days of relying on China to manufacture will be gone.

    I've read that Japan are investing over 2 Billion to help its manufactures shift from China back to Japan.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-08/japan-to-fund-firms-to-shift-production-out-of-china

    Europeans need to follow this example


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #37
    con___manx1
    Registered Users Posts: 1,465 ✭✭✭con___manx1


    NSAman wrote: »
    China will loose a few of its manufacturing markets.

    Simple things that need to be manufactured in each country will be done in each country. Basics in the healthcare industry will be manufactured in each country. Supply assurance.

    USA... could go either way. Depending on how this plays out, Trump will either loose massively or win massively* (my own feeling at the current time is that he will loose massively).

    Biden should be replaced with Cuomo (who has been fantastic in all of this)

    Europe will go into a deep recession. America will be seen as the place where business continues and thrives. China will be seen as the enemy of the world and people will become less dependent on manufacturing from there depending on Trumps future (see above *).

    Business will see that working from home is viable and many cuts to offices will occur.

    Air travel will be much more expensive (depending on who survives)

    My own hope, is that social improvements like taking life more on a personal level (rather than money being king) will happen.

    Social influencers and vacuous individuals will disappear..(I can only hope... Karadashians)

    why do you thhink america will thrieve after this? I think the uk could be righly screwed with no support from the eu


  • Options
    #38
    Leonard Hofstadter
    Registered Users Posts: 5,540 ✭✭✭Leonard Hofstadter


    Headshot wrote: »
    I'm hoping the days of relying on China to manufacture will be gone.

    I've read that Japan are investing over 2 Billion to help its manufactures shift from China back to Japan.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-08/japan-to-fund-firms-to-shift-production-out-of-china

    Europeans need to follow this example

    Completely agreed. We need to start making things in the EU once more.


  • Options
    #39
    Infini
    Registered Users Posts: 4,573 ✭✭✭Infini


    Leonard Hofstadter wrote: »
    Completely agreed. We need to start making things in the EU once more.

    If there's one thing that this whole thing has made clear is that China is becoming a liability purely because of its government, they refuse to allow companies to be majority owned by non nationals, I'd say a similar situation will be needed as well for chinese investors down the line not to mention its not good to be overdependant on a totalitarian goverment that is hostile to other parts of the world


  • Options
    #40
    10000maniacs
    Registered Users Posts: 4,797 ✭✭✭10000maniacs


    Obviously world currencies are going to drop. Where is that US$6.9 trillion worth of global fiscal policies coming from? There is not enough gold/silver/platinum in reserve to cover it.


  • Options
    #41
    boring accountant
    Registered Users Posts: 335 ✭✭boring accountant


    Harry Palmr wrote: »
    The world might become more "socialist" for a while, people have seen massive takeover of the private by the public for the collective good. If it's seen to work the uber capitalists and right wing ideologues might have a harder time making their case for a smaller state and untrammelled capitalism as the key to private wealth.

    During this takeover people have seen a massive decline in private wealth. They’ve seen their income security evaporate. I don’t think they’ll be in much of a rush to let unaccountable bureaucrats take over the economy again.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #42
    boring accountant
    Registered Users Posts: 335 ✭✭boring accountant


    ArthurDayne wrote: »
    It’s an interesting question. I think this event has shaken the collective confidence of capitalism — whereby for years we have tended to view the world in terms of economic phenomena and ‘the market’, yet now we have been sorely reminded that we are little more than organic material at the mercy of nature. The true forces of Earth are natural, not economic or political and, as Fintan O’Toole quite profoundly put it, Covid-19 has reminded us that we are not the kings of this world. We have been brought face to face with our ultimately pathetic fragility within the organic world we inhabit, which many of us subconsciously believed we had detached ourselves from and placed under the control of our supposed ingenuity and technological savvy.

    Positives and negatives can be taken from that epiphany, and much will depend on just how severe the now inevitable recession is going to be. I would hope that following all this, people will realise that ‘globalisation’ is not merely an economic phenomenon, but an opportunity for humanity to understand that the true threats to our prosperity are global ones requiring global co-operation to overcome — climate change, disease, the nuclear threat, the depletion of resources. This need not be seen as ‘hippyism’, or even a call for socialism. This pandemic can instead be seen as a living lesson that the corporate world gearing its talent, innovativeness, and financial might towards — not merely sustainability — but an appreciation of the profit-making power of commercialising solutions to global problems might actually be the future of capitalism.

    Alas, the vision that this pandemic might usher in a new era where businesses see the profit making potential of solving, or at least combating, global threats seems like an optimist’s dream. The sadder probability is that the coming recession will yield only the same bitterness, hatred and finger-pointing towards vulnerable scapegoats that every recession before it has yielded.

    Sorry, but Fintan can wax lyrical about his own fragility all he wants, but the vast majority are no more susceptible to Covid than they are to a common cold.

    In 6 months, the mass hysteria which has taken hold, which has more in common with Tulipmania or the Salem Witch trials than it does with the Spanish flu, will fade away and people will ask themselves how they could be so cowardly.

    Then, opportunistic politicians will throw another class of experts under the bus to cover their own asses for the economic devastation they have allowed to take place. The last crisis it was economists fault, this time it will be scientists.


  • Options
    #43
    pixelburp
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 35,941 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    Interesting cross EU survey was taken and threw up some interesting feelings from those polled. As with a lot of political surveys, you can read into it however your own personal beliefs or biases dictates, but taking me own ... a majority felt the EU let them down or was "irrelevant" during the crisis - but

    A majority would also prefer to see more cooperation in future than less. That the frustration towards the EU doesn't pan into EuroSceptism or an increase in support for hyper nationalistic parties. Rather it suggests the desire for more cohesion. No doubt as the dust settles we'll see more tangible actions falling out from this limbo that was 2020, but polls don't immediately point towards cracks in the EU; indeed it wouldn't take much for CoVid to fast-track even greater federalisation:

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/23/europeans-believe-in-more-cohesion-despite-eus-covid-19-failings


  • Options
    #44
    ShatterAlan
    Registered Users Posts: 2,807 ✭✭✭ShatterAlan


    Larbre34 wrote: »
    With oil prices in the toilet, Russia's influence on the world will be no more than it is now.

    And in 8 months, Andrew Cuomo will be elected 46th President of the United States.


    Considering he is not a candidate how do you figure that out, Nostradamus?


  • Options
    #45
    ShatterAlan
    Registered Users Posts: 2,807 ✭✭✭ShatterAlan


    Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »
    I'm curious to know where all the money for the stimulous packages and financial help for people who lose jobs or freelance work becuase of this, as we are alking worldwide.

    Will (can?) international debt between countries be simply written off? (Don't knoe much abotu world economics on this livel, so feel free to explain answers like I'm 5, as the phrase goes). Will counties with specific resources and raw materials suddenly find themsleves in much stronger positions?

    Will things like backpacking and short-hop travelling being too expensive? Will festivals and large-scale sports events become a thing of the past?


    If countries have billions set aside to spend on useless wars they also have the same if not more set aside to pay you when those wars stop you going to work and living in a bunker.


Advertisement