Monday, August 01, 2011

Dam Burst Coming in Ireland

.




Over-Load or Serious Imbalance
May Lead to a Dam Burst
Ireland is facing some very serious Non-Environmental Sustainability Issues


Ireland has a very serious social imbalance. This imbalance worsened during the Celtic Tiger years, and now in the recession it has been even further stretched.

So serious is this social imbalance,  that it may lead to dire consequences, some consequences I can think of such as:

(1) Big increase in psychological depression and it's many consequences,
(2) Disaffection, dissatisfaction, and social unrest,
(3) Massive growth in the black economy,
(4) Increase in money leaving the country, and
(5) Emigration on a biblical scale.

Latest figures show that 1 in 4 Irish people are surviving solely on part-time work, while some 300,000 people, close enough to 20% of the Irish workforce AFAIK,  have seen their incomes cut by a massive 50%.

Social Tension Building like Water behind a Dam

The social tension, like water building up behind a dam, is created when the hard pressed coping class are forced to look on in disbelief at a public sector where, for a large part, wages are some 10 - 20% higher than in the private sector, and additionally public employees enjoy pensions and job security unseen in the private sector.

Top that off with the fact that Ireland is paying the many public servants and in particular the judiciary some of the highest salaries in the entire world. And the cherry on the top of all that are members of Parliament and government ministers who are paying themselves more than their US and German equivalents.

Professional services in Ireland are another factor in the imbalance. Many professions in Ireland are some of the highest paid in the world, the feeding frenzy is driven in large part by the medical and legal professions expecting to earn €200,000 as a ballpark figure. This in turn leads to very expensive medical treatment and other services.

Ireland needs to take serious and immediate steps to re-balance the dangerously high level of the waters of imbalance, or prepare for a catastrophic flood




.

No comments:

Post a Comment