The Big Bailout of the Eurozone (Another crisis coming? - Seriously)

[armaghniac]

And what about closing every car tax office?

This would not be a big saving, you still have to have a registration system to keep track of cars. When car tax was abolished in 1977 there was still an annual registration disk. It in no way compares to the loss of revenue to Gordon Brown of making fuel more expensive in the ROI, car tax is a good tax in that you can't smuggle it.

[muppet]

And what about closing every car tax office?

This would not be a big saving, you still have to have a registration system to keep track of cars. When car tax was abolished in 1977 there was still an annual registration disk. It in no way compares to the loss of revenue to Gordon Brown of making fuel more expensive in the ROI, car tax is a good tax in that you can't smuggle it.

That is all going to happen anyway. I reckon Brown will try to inflate Britain's problem away which will see Sterling tumble against the Euro. 

[carribbear]

We have a Dept of Health and a HSE which appear to do the same thing. Scap one of them.

Bye bye Government Jet and abusing the Aer Corps by using their aircraft for ministerial trips. Aer Arann, Ryanair & Aer Lingus from now on. The ministerial car needs to be looked at, certainly needed for a few but not for all.

Pull the army home and deploy them on the streets as reserve gardai. Cut weapons spending (1 billion last year)

HSE should be scrapped, get rid of the paper pushers and get more actual health professionals (doctors/nurses) in the hospitals. Scrap the dual practices in hospitals as well, you're either a public or a private doctor. that way they stop getting income on both sides of the fence and using the hospital faciities for their own monetary gain.

[tyronefan]

the problem with cutting the public sector is that they just go on the dole so they are still costing the state although granted not as much

[tyronefan]

Do we really need an army, 

[carribbear]

Do we really need an army, 

China are nervous that Cowen will order the invasion.

[tyronefan]

 

I think he has enough on his plate without invading China at the minute

[Rossfan]

Big Countries usually start a war when they have economic problems  but Bush as usual got it wrong .
He started a war which caused the economic problems.

[armaghniac]

China are nervous that Cowen will order the invasion.

I think China is out of reach, but could we not annexe our fellow Gaels in the Isle of Man. We might find some interesting deposits in their banks.

[Bogball XV]

The real problem is that most of this catastrophe in the national finances has been predicted a long time ago. The Government only woke up to it today. How does that happen? How can they be that incompetent?

Is it that they are incapable of seeing beyond the advice of Public Servants who have a slight vested interest in public expenditure?

Is the problem that our finance department, in common with economists everywhere base all predictions on nice little models that have been somewhat useful over the past 50-100yrs in predicting what happens in economies that are constantly growing, allbeit with a few minor recessions or periods of negative or negligible growth? 

Is it also the case that these models, like most economic theories were developed in response to past events and by the study of what has happened in the past?  Is there now a case for throwing all these models and theories by the wayside as conditions have now altered and perhaps altered for good?  Do they realise that in the 1980's and 1930's economist also thought they had it sorted many times and that this time they wouldn't allow the mistakes of the past to be repeated? 

Our whole western society is and has been based for much of the past century on the basic thesis that consumption will increase, what happens when saturation point is reached, when consumption starts to decrease, when society feels that perhaps the new car, the new tv, the new gadget is not necessary (or more pertinently the loan required is not available)?  When we talk with scorn about the financial products that were created over the past number of years and talk about how these products were simply forms of gambling that were unrelated to the real economy, we forget that these products allowed for the situations whereby crdit was freely available to almost everyone in western society, now that we're set on removing these toxic products, and that's what they were, how can demand get to the same levels without the credit that flowed because of the global financial markets?  Is there a possibility that global demand has reached it's zenith and that the only way is down?  Does that in turn mean that employment has to decrease massively worldwide, that the pie has shrunk dramatically?

We've all been talking about how Ireland is uncompetitive and how wages have to be decreased before we can attract new industry, but what new industry?  Since worldwide consumption of everything is plummetting, what can we make that will be attractive?  We see various Japanese companies slash employment for the first time ever, we see the germans doing likewise, the eastern european countries that were supposed to be taking all our jobs are in crisis and are likely to need bailouts before us?  What might get the global economy moving again?  Another world war?  History shows that is one way to boost demand, is that where we're heading?

If we look at the fundamentals, what do we as a nation require in order to satisfy most of the people living here?  Food, water, healthcare and energy are certainly fundamental, all nations need these things, do we have the potential to be self sufficient in all these things?  Should we be trying to ensure that we are? 
To my mind it's a no-brainer that we try and work towards energy self sufficiency as quickly as possible, likewise with food and water, at some stage trade and commerce will pick up again, it's best that we have something with which to trade and then what we have will always be worth having.

Worrying about pension levies and public sector cuts and tax increases etc is all well and good, but are we maybe taking our eyes off the big picture?

I know there's an awful lot of crap and simplistic thinking in what I've written so i'd welcome criticism and other points of view, go on lads, rip it to pieces

[Lecale2]

Another world war?  History shows that is one way to boost demand, is that where we're heading?

Anyone who has studied the 1930s will generally tell you that The New Deal did very little to end the depression. It was the war that did it. Building things and then blowing them up boosts the economy.

[Declan]

Interesting thesis BB - Does anyone seriously think that our current govt is capable of using the proposed tax increases properly?
Watched Prime time last night and was astounded at Demspey's performance- If this is the man sent out to bat by the Govt and is seen as one of the senior voices we are well and truly donald ducked   

[Hound]

Heard a clip on the radio this morning.

Was half asleep, so I hope I didnt get it wrong.

I think it was some Green Party woman, suggesting a 1 cent tax on texts. She said there are 4 million mobile phones in Ireland and this tax would raise €1.4 billion a year - painlessly.  Its a genius of an idea if I heard it right. (And why not 2 cent!).

Just now trying to work out the figures as it sounds extraordinarily high.

€1.4 billion at 1 cent = 140 billion texts a year.
4 million phones = 35,000 texts per phone per year
Therefore 95 texts per phone per day (on average).

That can't be right. Maybe 9.5 texts per day on average. Its very early, so maybe I've a mistake in there, or maybe she made a mistake or I misheard and its €140m a year in revenue.

[Declan]

No hound you heard right - did I not hear from some OFFCOM report that we send 23 million texts a week though which is about right on those figures?

[Tubberman]

Heard a clip on the radio this morning.

Was half asleep, so I hope I didnt get it wrong.

I think it was some Green Party woman, suggesting a 1 cent tax on texts. She said there are 4 million mobile phones in Ireland and this tax would raise €1.4 billion a year - painlessly.  Its a genius of an idea if I heard it right. (And why not 2 cent!).

Just now trying to work out the figures as it sounds extraordinarily high.

€1.4 billion at 1 cent = 140 billion texts a year.
4 million phones = 35,000 texts per phone per year
Therefore 95 texts per phone per day (on average).

That can't be right. Maybe 9.5 texts per day on average. Its very early, so maybe I've a mistake in there, or maybe she made a mistake or I misheard and its €140m a year in revenue.

Yeah, I heard it on NewsTalk this morning. Mary White was saying if we put a 1c tax on all texts, it would bring in around €1.4bn a year. Claire Byrne said they had got the figures for last year and 25m texts were sent. This would actually bring in €91m 
Plus, how many of these texts come out of bundles (50 free a month, free SMS for life etc) so the actual figure could be lower again...