MOST GLORIOUS LEADER (1 Viewer)

[ann post]

michael noonan talking about our most glorios debt at 9pm tonight.

 

[ann post]

Most Glorious Update

 

[ann post]

WTF with the michael martin thing.

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

WTF with the michael martin thing.

What thing?

I despise that fuck.

 

[ann post]

What thing?

I despise that fuck.

enda kenny made a speech on tele about the bailout exit yesterday evening.

micheal martin one today. on rte. i've no idea did he buy ad time or were rte oblidged to broadcast it. anyways, its a pretty facepalming.

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

enda kenny made a speech on tele about the bailout exit yesterday evening.

micheal martin one today. on rte. i've no idea did he buy ad time or were rte oblidged to broadcast it. anyways, its a pretty facepalming.

I think RTE have to give equal time.

I'd love a link to the vid.

 

[тхеодоре кацзынски]

Micheál Martin gives his own State of the Nation speech · TheJournal.ie

Here's a transcript if that helps.
Given his part in successive FF governments I don't think Martin can give any other leader/party grief.
Also - "Now, more than ever, Irish politics needs change".
Fuck you Martin and fuck that Willie O'Dea rat, fuck Mary Hanafin and fuck Mary O'Rourke and any other FF'er who wants to come crawling out of the woodwork in an attempt to convince us FF are a decent party who deserve another chance.

 

[ann post]

wish he'd just fuck off.

if gurry odoms did that dublin would go fucking apeshit

 

[Lili Marlene]

Different most glorious leader

Time for citizens to forge a better future for our country - Political News | Irish & International Politics | The Irish Times - Wed, Apr 02, 2014

anyone have an opinion?

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

Different most glorious leader

Time for citizens to forge a better future for our country - Political News | Irish & International Politics | The Irish Times - Wed, Apr 02, 2014

anyone have an opinion?

Nothing will ever change more than glacially.
Entrenched vested interests will see to that.

The best way to deal with the problems of society is ensuring your own financial security.

The country is fucked.

 

[Lili Marlene]

I'd venture that the 'vested interests' holding back change are people who are ensuring their own financial security because they believe the country is fucked.


I don't necessarily disagree though.

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

I'd venture that the 'vested interests' holding back change are people who are ensuring their own financial security because they believe the country is fucked.


I don't necessarily disagree though.

Well, I meant people in positions of authority. People with something to lose.
Any time you change something, someone loses. No one wants off the gravy train.

 

[ann post]

gravy train.

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[7 - No tomorrow]

Even on the micro level; I had the brother-in-law in my ear the other day about government overspending on things.
I suggested we should means test the Children's Allowance (blatantly having a go like) and he went apoplectic.
Say the same thing to someone with a college-aged kid about fees, you'll likely get similar.

Everyone wants fairness when it doesn't cost them anything, when it hits their pocket the mood darkens. Altruism is a wonderful thing in the abstract, or on an Op-Ed piece; it does not grow naturally.
Michael D can write all the letters and speeches he likes, nothing's gonna change that.

 

[Squiggle]

Even on the micro level; I had the brother-in-law in my ear the other day about government overspending on things.
I suggested we should means test the Children's Allowance (blatantly having a go like) and he went apoplectic.
Say the same thing to someone with a college-aged kid about fees, you'll likely get similar.

Everyone wants fairness when it doesn't cost them anything, when it hits their pocket the mood darkens. Altruism is a wonderful thing in the abstract, or on an Op-Ed piece; it does not grow naturally.
Michael D can write all the letters and speeches he likes, nothing's gonna change that.

I'd be 100% in favour of scrapping a whole range of "benefits", in return for a 10% flat tax, scrapping of the USC, a serious reduction in PRSI and not having to pay a levy for a pension I'm not entitled to. I currently get to take home less than 40% of my gross, but we are means tested on the gross. Let everyone keep 80-90% of their gross (as currently happens in most US states) and then people will be much happier to consider means tested benefits.

Squeezing middle earners has gone about as far as it can go. We'd be financially better off if I quit my job, and we were willing to tolerate a short period of homelessness. There is nothing fair about the way we are taxed in Ireland. My last pay raise actually reduced my take home pay.

 

[Lili Marlene]

Yes, well if we all assume everyone has a negative attitude and is only out for themselves then it's a vicious cycle of resentment, probably coupled with a fair amount of self-loathing. Whether altruism grows 'naturally' (whatever that means) or not is a matter for debate but if people close to me are willing to be fair then chances are I will be as well.

The President does seem to actually care about the country, which is more than can be said for most people, so I'd be willing to actually listen to what he has to say. I think the questions he is asking are worth talking considering.

What is necessary to human flourishing? What human capabilities does Irish society encourage, genuinely enable, or block? Can we balance the freedoms and the flourishing of citizens with the needs of the public good? What is an appropriate discourse on the relationships between citizens and between citizens and the State? What should be the character and content of civic virtue in a republic responding to present circumstances and future challenges?

 

[Lili Marlene]

I'd be 100% in favour of scrapping a whole range of "benefits", in return for a 10% flat tax, scrapping of the USC, a serious reduction in PRSI and not having to pay a levy for a pension I'm not entitled to. I currently get to take home less than 40% of my gross, but we are means tested on the gross. Let everyone keep 80-90% of their gross (as currently happens in most US states) and then people will be much happier to consider means tested benefits.

I'd go with this as well. If nothing else, it's massively confusing. From what little I know about economics, on a very broad level most economists seem to agree that taxes/benefits should be a lot simpler to comprehend and work out.

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

I don't know many states where that 80-90% thing happens.
Maybe New Hampshire, they have no state income tax. You still pay federal though.
A flat tax disproportionately punishes the poor and middle class, it's a free ticket for the wealthy.

My taxes are effectively - these are not the rates but the percentages of my paycheck.

Federal Tax 15.67%
Social Security 6.09%
Medicare 1.42%
State Tax 3.71%

Which is actually way better than I thought.

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

Whether altruism grows 'naturally' (whatever that means)

It means that if it were gonna happen, it would have happened already.

No one has cared enough thus far to make it happen.

The best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour.

 

[Lili Marlene]

It means that if it were gonna happen, it would have happened already.

No one has cared enough thus far to make it happen.

The best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour.

If you told someone in 1850 that in 2014 we will have gone over 50 years without a massive multi-country war in Europe they would have laughed you out of the bar and into the mental asylum. Clearly we've been making some attempts at altruism at a state level in our recent history.