I know of a workplace that installed a gym, Some of the new recruits were moaning to me (I was there for a day) about what the gym didn't have. A generation of spoiled kids have grown up and nothing is ever enough for them. They didn't have to work in school as fewer students were doing the leaving and they knew they could pick what job to take.

A bit of competition is good.

Was that offensive? There was a huge rise in the amount of people moving here, starting about fifteen or sixteen years or so ago. You heard about this right?

Well some of these cats are pretty fond of popping out the sprogs. You may have noticed.

Now.... just let me crunch a few numbers here....it seems to me that the first wave of these children would be coming up towards leaving cert age around now and hence, there might be a slight rise in the number of people applying for third level places.

Do you consider this to be racist?

__________________
“Call a thing immoral or ugly, soul-destroying or a degradation of man, a peril to the peace of the world or to the well-being of future generations; as long as you have not shown it to be ''uneconomic'' you have not really questioned its right to exist, grow, and prosper.”

EF Schumacher

This is just silly talk. It displays an extraordinary level of prejudice and staggaring absense of wisdom relating to the complexity of life. This sentiment comes directly from your own feelings of envy, make no mistake.


I'm sure I wouldn't have found it too hard to find a grumpy, envious old man to say exactly the same thing about you when you were young.

Anyway, I'd take a nation of "spoilt" young people over a nation of kiddy fiddling, greed mongering middle aged people any day.

__________________
“Call a thing immoral or ugly, soul-destroying or a degradation of man, a peril to the peace of the world or to the well-being of future generations; as long as you have not shown it to be ''uneconomic'' you have not really questioned its right to exist, grow, and prosper.”

EF Schumacher

my friend was interviewing graduates a short time ago. He said that the standard is much higher this year than in prior ones, they are only seeing people with 1.1 degrees while in prior years they took on a much lower quality.He also said the ones they took on are much more motivated than over the last few years.

All of this is common sense, competition drives performance.

Rubbish, academic achievement relies heavily on other factors rather than motivation. Think about it before you type any more.

Please provide a link to where I said competition is the ONLY factor


It is a factor - you have said it isn't a factor, that is clearly nonsense and I suspect you know this and are trolling. Look at people getting on a train in the morning, when there are few people on the train they walk casually to the seat, when it is packed they scramble and barge their way on. They are trying harder to get a seat because they are in competition.

Many arguments are debateable but this is clear cut. Competion is ONE OF THE FACTORS in performace. To disagree is just stubborness.

Students might put the head down a bit more for the leaving in order to get into the course, but after that, I can't see how they would be studying harder for competition purposes? They'll just go on the p1ss for three years and scrape by in the exams like the majority of students do.

the points required for a course are nothing to do with the level of difficulty of the coursework. it is all a supply and demand driven thing. a persons aptitude for a career is not taken into account at all in most cases I would personally prefer to have for example a nurse who has an ability to make a patient feel less stressed and worried by their manner than some overachiever who happened to be top of their class with a distant and cold manner. it does not require super intelligence for many of the courses that have high points. it's just that they are popular. the points system is a flawed one imo. I also don't see your point re entitlement all are entitled to an education - not necessarily a free one, but the points race has nothing to do with the grants system.

Not so, I have never come across a study that shows that lack of places at 3rd level improves anything. You again are making the mistake of trying to tack your 'greed is good' ideology on to aspects of life where it has no place. And really if life was just so simple!!!!

I graduated in the 80's, when there was extreme competition for 3rd level places. The only thing that motivated me in making my CAO choices was the possibility of getting a job. So I got a life and a job, not a lifestyle, which is what the current crop of students seem to expect as a right.