The Definition of Delusion
May 26th, 2010 by Donagh
Look Delusion up in Wikipedia and this is what you get…
From a Guardian article today on the “Irish Situation”
Despite sitting at a desk surrounded by thousands of square metres of vacant office space in Dublin’s docklands, John FitzGerald, an economist at the Economic and Social Research Institute, an independent think-tank, is far more optimistic than the EU about Ireland’s prospects. A studious man who does not mention that his father was once Ireland’s prime minister, he forecasts annual growth zooming up to as much as 5% between 2012 and 2015, before falling back to what he calls “boring, European” levels.
Ireland has had to re-price its economy to become globally competitive again, FitzGerald argues. Rents and private sector wages have fallen following the drastic public sector wage cuts. The country’s strength, and weakness, is that more than half its employment and well over half its manufacturing comes from foreign-owned firms. As the global economy recovers, so will Ireland’s, with IT services, software and healthcare making up a new, “smart” economy. FitzGerald believes the government “did a lousy job on banking”, but has now got the cuts spot on. “They are wise because they have psyched the people of Ireland up to absorb huge pain. If we are right, they will surprise the people of Ireland in 2013 by saying the cuts are all over.”
More surprisingly, he says the popular view that ordinary people are paying for the mistakes of an untouchable elite is wrong, and the masochistic budget has been “probably the most redistributive budget of the last 20 years” – he pauses, drily – “by accident”. According to the institute’s research, the budget has hit the top 20% of household incomes by 6%, while the bottom 40% have seen rises of up to 2%. “The rich have paid a much higher price than the poor. But everybody is worse off,” FitzGerald acknowledges.
Two quotes leap out from that Guardian piece -this from Lorcan in Limerick:
Irish people were used to shit homes, shit education, shit hospitals. In England, there is a cultural memory of things working. There is no cultural memory in Ireland of things working. The self-flagellation gene in Ireland is very strong – ‘cut us to fuck because we’re used to being the downtrodden victim’. We almost feel better for it.
And the fact that Gideon Osborne, were he to make cuts comparable in scale to Lenny’s, would be looking for £150bn, rather than the £6bn he’s actually aiming for…
What’s your Wiki-shadow site called Donagh - Beardipedia ?(I know it’s been a while since the last ‘beardy’ joke - had thought I’d kicked the habit).
Marianne Faithfull being somehow related to yer man Sacher-Masoch should be perhaps proposed as our next finance minister - in the light of all those ‘pain’ metaphors (self-inflicted or otherwise).
She’d give us a better standard of come-all-ye than Cowen.
“they will surprise the people of Ireland in 2013 by saying the cuts are all over”
Wrong. The cuts will be over in 2012, in time for the general election.
Lorcan in Limerick was a great find for the Guardian journalist, (’cut to fuck’ added for extra authenticity) and he reminds me of that bit in the Poor Mouth when Bónapárt Ó Cúnasa jumps in a ditch when he thinks he sees an Englishman coming down the road.
On the point about Lenny’s cuts being the equivalent of cutting 150bn out of the British economy - Jesus fucking Christ.
Seán, I miss those beardy jokes.
Apparently Martin Mansergh said on BBC radio in Feb that Ireland was fortunate when the crisis hit because the government doesn’t have to face the electorate until 2012. One reason for having all the pain ‘up front’.
http://www.progressive-economy.ie/2010/02/no-laughing-matter.html