Ireland is officially fucked

[Phox]

Would have stayed longer but the commute home on public transportation would have gotten progressively crappier. I had the option of drinking in my neighborhood and having a 15 minute walk home later or getting pints for a buck fifty each closer to work with about an hour and 20 trip home. I opted for the latter.

I always drink at home. Drinking at bars gets people like me in trouble. 

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Would have stayed longer but the commute home on public transportation would have gotten progressively crappier. I had the option of drinking in my neighborhood and having a 15 minute walk home later or getting pints for a buck fifty each closer to work with about an hour and 20 trip home. I opted for the latter.

I always drink at home. Drinking at bars gets people like me in trouble. 

I do prefer that since it's cheaper, but some Fridays you just need the ambience.

[Phox]

Would have stayed longer but the commute home on public transportation would have gotten progressively crappier. I had the option of drinking in my neighborhood and having a 15 minute walk home later or getting pints for a buck fifty each closer to work with about an hour and 20 trip home. I opted for the latter.

I always drink at home. Drinking at bars gets people like me in trouble. 

I do prefer that since it's cheaper, but some Fridays you just need the ambience.

I guess I understand. There is a little Irish pud I like to go to sometimes just down the road from my college. I don't drink there, but I dig the environment.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Would have stayed longer but the commute home on public transportation would have gotten progressively crappier. I had the option of drinking in my neighborhood and having a 15 minute walk home later or getting pints for a buck fifty each closer to work with about an hour and 20 trip home. I opted for the latter.

I always drink at home. Drinking at bars gets people like me in trouble. 

I do prefer that since it's cheaper, but some Fridays you just need the ambience.

I guess I understand. There is a little Irish pud I like to go to sometimes just down the road from my college. I don't drink there, but I dig the environment.

[Phox]

Would have stayed longer but the commute home on public transportation would have gotten progressively crappier. I had the option of drinking in my neighborhood and having a 15 minute walk home later or getting pints for a buck fifty each closer to work with about an hour and 20 trip home. I opted for the latter.

I always drink at home. Drinking at bars gets people like me in trouble. 

I do prefer that since it's cheaper, but some Fridays you just need the ambience.

I guess I understand. There is a little Irish pud I like to go to sometimes just down the road from my college. I don't drink there, but I dig the environment.

Wine is not good for typing.

[Don Coyote]

I mean, fuck, if you haven't had government cheese you haven't been poor in the US.

I can sting words together properly that I wasn't poor.

I assume that is poor for "string"?  

[Cain]

Why is redistributing food surplus to the poor a bad thing? The US has done it for ages.

Oh, it's not a bad thing in and of itself.  It just shows that the Irish government is desperate at this stage.

"Hey, we may not be able to fix the economy and get you jobs (ignore all previous comments about the "Celtic Tiger" economy.  Please?) but you can have cheese on toast every day of the week!" 

I think most poor Irish would prefer jobs.

[Faust]

It's worse then that and more complex. The current government actually have to work now, something we haven't seen in decades. While the cheese thing is a small gesture it's stuff like that that will gradually build the country up again.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I think food for the poor sounds like a good starting point... as long as it's a starting point and not a band-aid for a problem they plan to otherwise ignore.

[Faust]

I think food for the poor sounds like a good starting point... as long as it's a starting point and not a band-aid for a problem they plan to otherwise ignore.

They are cutting 15 billion from the budget. The automatic medical card rights of older people and people with conditions (I have asthema so this hits me) are being revoked, they are means testing everyone. College registration fees are doubling, social welfare is being cut but being completely removed for anyone under 23 (they expect people to live at home).
We have the most frightening budget we've ever had coming up. But Europe have basically said they are going to start pumping investment into the country once we can get stabilised.
We're worth too much to them politically because we still have:

Really good terms with china,
A clean political slate (comparatively),
Good education system.

Basically Ireland opens a lot of doors that are closed to England France and Germany because of our neutrality.

That and they are using us as a Patient Zero test case on how to get a country up and running again after a huge bank collapse because all the others just sort of stumbled out of it themselves.

[Faust]

So the IMF are going to clear irelands debt so we can actually borrow again.
This scares the shit out of me, I don't buy into the fears over losing our sovereignty but the restrictions they place on the country may make this place so unlivable that I might be forced to emigrate.
Cain, any thoughts?

[Cain]

Are the IMF undertaking "structural readjustment"?

If so, I'd consider leaving.  The last places the IMF undertook "structural readjustment" suffered lots of riots, increased crime, lowered standards of living and life expectancy and a wider poverty gap.  As indeed, it is meant to, according to former World Bank Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz. 

Also worth noting: in the 1998 Asian Economic Crisis, the only country to not listen to the IMF's advice was China.  The only country to avoid a recession was....China.  Probably not a coincidence, that.

[Faust]

Are the IMF undertaking "structural readjustment"?

If so, I'd consider leaving.  The last places the IMF undertook "structural readjustment" suffered lots of riots, increased crime, lowered standards of living and life expectancy and a wider poverty gap.  As indeed, it is meant to, according to former World Bank Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz. 

Also worth noting: in the 1998 Asian Economic Crisis, the only country to not listen to the IMF's advice was China.  The only country to avoid a recession was....China.  Probably not a coincidence, that.

So far it just looks like a massive loan, with a 5% intrest rate. But I doubt the IMF would hand over money without wanting to play with our economy.

[Cain]

Yeah.  I'd be very surprised if the loan came without conditions attached.  Relieved, but surprised.

Of course, it could be that the pre-emptive austerity budget plus Ireland's previous neoliberal model means that much of what they would demand has already been done anyway.  Plus there is an election coming up, possibly...and forcing the IMF conditionals during an election process could definitely backfire, turning the IMF into a political football which various groups and individuals could then oppose in order to garner populist support, better to wait until the election is done and a new government is securely in place.

[Faust]

That has already started, all the parties are complaining that our government is tying the hands of any future gov by imposing the conditions the IMF would demand.
But we are due to get the money before the election.

I would love to see our gov take the money, and the next people who get in completely ignore IMF sanctions saying that was a commitment made by the previous government.