I'm not sure people are waking up to what is going on. The Irish Independent costs €1.80 to buy. The Belfast Telegraph costs 65pence(70cents in euros). This is nearly 3 times of a difference! What is to stop Tony O' Reilly moving the entire Irish Independent operation to Belfast? Maybe keep about 5 people employed in the Republic. I think large numbers of middle class jobs could end up being outsourced to the North.Originally Posted by draiocht23
UK state pensions are also considerably lower than ours here. In fact, all social welfare payments are.
People tend to forget that we have even the poorest in RoI have significantly more disposal income than their counterparts in the UK and our prices in shops reflect that.
People want it both ways, they want prices here to be close to or on a par to UK prices BUT they DONT want similar UK wages(which means large pay cuts).
Live in a high wage economy, live in a high price economy. Its natural. The problem occurs when one rises and the other follows and a spiral begins. Oh and it also affects the composition of our exports and what and whom we compete aganist.
The sterling equivalent of Irish wages is irrelevant to the majority of Irish workers who get paid in Euro and buy in Euro. The international exchange rate rarely comes into the equation. If any currency was to get mixed into their calculations it would be the old Irish punt(for large purchases)
As for frontier workers and those that travel alot to the UK, then perhaps the Eur/sterling rate has become more of an issue in their decision making.
The recent media coverage of sterling weakness has also given rise to bargin hunters from as south as Cork, but its not the norm.
Its unhealthy to measure your lot in another currency when you dont use it.
Any time I see this kind of thing I always wonder what's supposed to happed to people earning 1% above the average industrial wage. Do they end up earning 9% less, meaning that people just under the average industrial wage end up earning more than them? Or does everyone who earned up to 10% more now find themselves reduced to the same level as people who they previously earned a premium over? But that's just a practical flaw in the idea. There is a more substantive problem.
The substantive point is the most overpaid public servants are actually those in the lower grades (this is according to the ESRI and not just a vague whinge). Hence, your suggestion for a freeze would actually have the effect of stuffing us with the highest imbalances. Effectively you are saying 'I want to cut 20% off the public sector wage bill while overpaying junior staff by 30%'. That simply doesn't make sense.
Politically, I don't see it as feasible to cut the lower grades by a higher percentage (even if that is what is justified objectively). So an across the board cut for all workers is probably the best way to proceed.
However, banks know they have a duty of care to their clients and I'm sure that this should prevent them lending irresponsibly.
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INM have already outsourced their tele-ads department to Armagh. Over 200 permanent employees were made redundant from the Abbey Street premises in 2004. Advertising staff had the option of relocating to Armagh and the Circulation staff to Clonakilty.
Look the banks bad debts are by all accounts in and around 60 billion when this is finally realized you can put your theory to the imf.
I haven't seen the Big Mac Index in a while, but it always indicated that Ireland was one of the cheapest countries to live in vis a vis PPP.
A demagogue is someone who will preach doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.
You'll understand, its not so much 'my theory' as 'the ESRI's analysis'.
However, your main point seems to agree with what appears to be Brian Cowen's strategy. Just do nothing until things get so bad that someone puts the country into liquidation. That would avoid us actually having to do anything so inconvenient as to try to take control of our own lives. I mean, its not as if we ever did it before, so why start now?
However, banks know they have a duty of care to their clients and I'm sure that this should prevent them lending irresponsibly.
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It would be rather hard to cover ROI news from Belfast. Going to be tough for freelancers though, and there will be (even more pronounced) skeletal staff numbers on loads of papers.
How can anyone be so ignorant to say all private sector wages should be cut by 15%? What if their boss or company is making mega profits, should their wages still be cut then? All cutting wages will do is boost profits for the gombeen men while give more hardship to the rest of us.
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