Budget Day

So, I was asked by someone across the pond to explain a bit of the situation that Ireland finds itself in in a historical context sort of manner. I believe by this, they mean to explain Ireland's situation at the moment from the people who are living through it rather than through the eyes of the very dramatic if slightly detached Sky News.

So simply put, we are in the shit (but im sure you all knew that already). Pretty much what happened was during the Celtic Tiger the banks gave out loans to people. For example, Mr X would enter a bank, say "Im a builder and I want a loan to build a heap of houses down in Cork", and the bank would say "here is 3 million euro for you to build your houses, and now make sure you give that back to us, but no rush on it really".

Then, as with all things that go up, the mad demand for houses dropped, and the builders were left with these houses and no people to buy them. So they went back to the bank and stated that they didnt have the money to pay back the loan, and the bank had no way of getting back all the money that they carelessly loaned them.

So now, the banks are broke (yet still paying their big boys in the high places crazy amounts of money), the government have had to bail them out which is costing the country (ie all the people in low paid jobs, not the builder who got the loan) BILLIONS of euro, and also we are now getting a loan from the International Monitary Fund (the EU) which we not only have to pay back, but we pretty much gave back our freedom to make any decisions for ourselves. Considering Ireland only gained freedom in 1941, the thoughts of giving it up again does not go down well.

Ok, now down to the position of the ordinary people, and what we think. Well, put simply, we are completely fed up with bailing out big cat bankers, the people who owe all the money are now getting all their debts cleared because they are bankrupt, while if the ordinary people dont pay their annual TV licence (which doesnt pay for your channels by the way, its just a tax for owning the tv) they get sent to jail.

They say that "everyone was irresponsible during the boom times", thats crap! The mojority of normal people saw no increase in wages or income, they plodded along like they always had. Only a minority of people made money out of the boom times, but by god they made a fortune. Everyone else worked their asses off to make ends meet, same as now, only now its gonna get a lot worse.

People cant feed their kids, thousands of people have lost their homes through not being able to pay their mortage because they lost their jobs, tens of thousands are getting their electricity cut off, and Brian Cowen is still on more money than Barak Obama!!! Not only that, but we cant even get an election because some smart guy about 60 years ago decided that only the leader of the country can call an election, therefore, since Cowen doesnt want to loose his job, he wont call an election, and there isnt a thing anybody can do about it.

They are also planning on cutting the lowest earning people's wages, raising the tax income for the middle to low earners, and the high earners will still be living in their big houses and getting all their child benefit and things will be fine for them. Their fix for the banks is to change the nameof the bank!! The big guys will still have their jobs, nothing will change. Its a disgrace, and the irish people are so disheartned with what they see, thousands are leaving on a monthly basis to try and make a life somewhere else, its  a nightmare.

To wake up every morning, at 19 years old, and know that you will have to move to another continent as soon as possible in order to make some money and get a job, and leave all your family and friends behind, with very little hope of ever returning, all because of someone else's mistakes, is sickening. I bet Cowens kids wont have to leave to do that.

People believe, and rightly so, that we are no longer living in a democracy, but we are living in a dictatorship. Its hell on earth, and there isnt a thing we can do about it.