oh you’d want to be up early for those Germans……

I think what we need to finish us off is to get ff back in government

Interesting – very interesting

Great post Reada! Fair play!

Great post Reada, 1000 thumbs up

What is the point in having loads of money in the bank that you’re not using? To leave it to your kids?
With all the money in banks, they seem to have thought themselves very powerful, probably invincible. They lent hundreds of millions to a handful of people and now we’re up a certain creek without a paddle.

I hear you Réada but markets actually aren’t bad per se – they can just be manipulated by people for bad ends.

Markets also decide how many potatoes to supply to Tralee, the sort of thing that Governments and central planning simply could never do. Markets ensure that there is petrol in the pumps, oil in your tank and electricity in your plugs.

Kevin and Donal. Everybody deserves security but does anyone need millions? Sean Quinn had it and now it’s all gone. That kind of money is just an illusion. You don’t really believe you’re ever going to teach the carrot dangling just out of reach.

I guess the fundamental thing to understand about capitalism is that, yes there is unequal distribution of the cake, but capitalism makes the cake a whole lot bigger.

It is mistake to think that if people were only allowed to accumulate a certain amount of wealth that we would be able to distribute the wealth those people are being prevented from accumulating. The extra wealth would never exist as it would never have been created.

Donal. There’s plenty cake. Everybody can have a slice. I’m not saying we should all take the same size slice. Different appetites! Just think we should all stop worrying about the size of ours and starting making sure everyone had a slice!

I think people should be allowed to (legally) accumulate as much wealth as they want. You cannot deny human ambition (or greed for that matter). But I also think that wealth should be used in one’s lifetime. A 100% inheritance tax (excluding the family home) would sort it. An idealistic opinion I know, but as Réada stated, we really do need to start changing our approach to wealth. And more so, to wealth accumulated through generations. We need to instill in ourselves and our youth an ethos of what we can contribute to society rather than the privilege we can extract from it….. But I wouldn’t hold my breath…..

You are correct, money is merely a means of exchange and looking at an isolated point of time it does not matter one iota what it’s called and how it’s denominated (how many zeros for a loaf of bread).

However, if you had any savings in the bank, I believe the attitude would have been quite different. You and many others have come to understand the money as something you get off the credit card. You have come to understand the pension as something the government ought to provide. You haven’t got any savings and to make matters worse you see no need to have savings.

This is a rather tragic result of what the governments around the world and the financial wizards have done to the fiat currencies. Worse, there has been a concerted effort to devalue savings both in terms of devaluing the saved moneys and devaluing the idea of saving itself.

Let me break the bad news to you: now that you have been stripped of the means to save (that is the point of stable currency which does not lose value) and the desire to save – you now think you are free but in fact you are now enslaved as your future is in the hands of others. For retirement you will not enjoy the fruits of your labour accumulated by means of savings but instead you will get what others decide you should get.

I definitely agree about wealth accumulated through generations being an unfairness issue as it gives serious leverage and advantage, often to mediocrity.

I’m not sure that a 100% inheritance tax would be fair or that it would solve the problem. Maybe set a limit of say €1Mn is the most that someone can inherit or receive as a gift. Even then it would still be difficult to stop wealth being passed on in other ways such as private sales and so on.

@Réada
And I really don’t think we have anything to worry about. What is money anyway? It’s just a piece of paper symbolising an exchange of energy.

Im not sure I would agree with that statement. Personally, I think that there is a hell of a lot to be worried about. The ordinary joe, who has been breaking their balls to save for a house or for whatever, stands to potentially see that deposit destroyed in value if things go pear shaped over the next few weeks.

The person with the millions in their bank will be paying some accountant to make sure that if this does all go pear shaped, that their exposure will be limited as much as is possible. You can be sure that they will not be hit as bad as the rest of us.

If you have any money on deposit, then you should be worried.

The best we could hope for at the moment would be a generous culture of philanthropy.

Thanks lads. I don’t really care how much is in my bank account but I know my husband does and I understand the worry completely. I’m just sick of being scared.

And I’m not throwing in the towel yet.

That’s the best post I’ve seen here..well done.

Micea Marttin agrees with everything the Government does. He/FF is not in opposition. Every time the current shower do something, FF are saying you are implementing our policies, does that sound like opposition to you ? Yes, we have SF and the Independents in opposition. How else did they highlight last week (Gerrry Adams) that Miceal Martins own party are getting ministerial pensions, even though they were never a minister. FF have not and will never change their spots. To call them an opposition party is like saying the pope is protestant.

True, but he could be right here, we might only have weeks to save the euro. It is true, he knows as much as the experts know, nothing,

The dogs on the street know we are weeks away from something major. He’s right to highlight the disgusting axis between Germany and France. The EU as we knew it is dead.

Pmsl at Meehole…brilliant. Well done!

That has been going on from day one. It has just become obvious now.

Much and all as I dislike FF, I don’t think they’re the only reason.

There’s also a fundamental weakness in the form of capitalism the world moved towards over the past ten years – neoliberalism, for want of a better term. Our problems are particularly bad because of FF cronyism, but other economies are also grinding to a halt all over the world. Time for a radical rethink …

In all fairness, Paul, I didn’t vote for them but FF are the main opposition party with 19 sitting TDs. That means they have the right to represent the people that did vote for them and put their case forward for what they think the Government should be doing now – despite their own atrocious record. To say they don’t have the right to speak or represent their voters is simply undemocratic.

You’re absolutely correct Jamie,

I guess sometimes my brain just blocks out the fact that people actually voted for them in the last election.

It would be more in his line to explain on Morning Ireland how donations for FF ended up in his wife’s bank account. Hopefully these will be included in the Mahon Report, though I have a feeling that sitting politicians will not be discussed.

How to do his sums

That he is a school teacher is irrelevant, the problem is that he was a warped world view, where doing good for FF and their donor’s is good and Ireland is the cow to milk.

Look at most of the most divisive and bent politicians in Irish political history from Kevin o’Higgins to Haughey, to Brian Lenihan, all barristers.

It is the attitude that is wrong in Irish politics, they see the people and state as serving the top, the Irish ascendency. If they followed the politics of the countries that are bailing us out, respected the law, were held accountable, decided on decisions on whether they are good for all the people, then we would have a brilliant country. Unfortunately that would be accused of being communist or Socialist in Ireland.

Bit of both, Tommy. Neoliberalism and cronyism go hand in glove – look at the likes of Halliburton in the States. But I still think Fianna Fáil’s network of cronies and backhanders is an absolute cancer in this country, they’ll have to be kept out of power for a generation to ensure that it dies away.

“cheap credit and a flawed currency union”

Neoliberalism right there. Free movement of capital under the EU law had a lot to do with the mess countries like Greece, and Ireland, have gotten themselves into.

Then there’s the regulatory failings, which I’m sure were just as bad in Greece as in Ireland. Light touch basically means soft touch.