Not since hubby and I had a major blow–out over the purchase of a box of Shreddies have things been this tense in the Perrins house. There has been a fair bit of back and forth, discussion and debate over the last week on just what is being spent, where the money is all going, and whether each line-item is really necessary. It’s been a real humdinger.
In this atmosphere therefore, this piece in the Irish Times caught my eye: “Are women paying more than men for everyday items? Oh let me count the ways. Being female comes with added financial burdens when it comes to getting goods and services.”
As usual the Irish Times miss the point. It is not being female that comes with added financial burdens, it is being Irish that comes with added financial burdens.
Sure women are more price sensitive in some areas, usually grocery shopping, than men who are sensitive to big spend items such as bills and holidays for instance. But this is where the Irish Times gets it wrong. It is not women who are paying more than men for everyday items – it is families. This is because most adult women in Ireland live in families, run the household and with their husbands pay for the food and put that food on the table.
The problem is not that products such as razors or shower gels cost more for women (the so-called pink tax) than men (surely husbands and wives are using the same shower gel?) it’s that governments of every persuasion have maintained a prolonged financial war against both women and men for some time now.
The Irish Times in an attempt to stoke the gender wars point out that “even some medication marketed specifically for period pain” cost more than standard painkillers. “You’ll also see a pink tax on services such as hairdressing, dry-cleaning and in the beauty industry too.”
Listen, if you are a woman who is foolish enough to purchase painkillers specifically for period pain – that’s on you. What you should be doing is purchasing the very cheapest, generic brand of paracetamol which is usually at the bottom shelf. Likewise I could write an entire blog questioning why women feel it necessary to hand over large amounts of their hard earned cash (not to mention the time lost) to the beauty industry but that’s a different issue. I’m all for maintaining standards but moderation is a virtue.
No, the real problem is not a ‘pink tax’ or painkillers just for periods (an outright racket), the problem is the cost of living. The problem is that this government for instance will go ahead with the carbon tax this week to punish Irish voters who have the temerity to run a diesel car and rely on fossil fuels to heat their homes as opposed to mystic meg and her wind power.
As John said “This entire Green Boondoggle – of which the Carbon Tax is perhaps the most important symbol – is an enormous cancer on the national economy, sucking resources from productive sectors of the economy in pursuit of an almost religious mania to reduce Carbon Emissions.”
It is an enormous cancer not just on the national economy but the family economy which is the micro economy to the macro national economy. It not only sucks resources from the productive sectors of the national economy it sucks up your resources. You, dear reader, have to work harder just to maintain the living standards you had last year.
That is your time, your life energy spent at the office when you could have been home an hour earlier with the children or in the pub with a friend or just going for a walk. But no. You are denied these fulfilling and meaningful life experiences because you are a carbon producer and therefore must be punished, according to this government. It’s a disgusting assault of humanity itself.
The government says they are on your side but we know this is a lie, a lie coming and going. Has the government done anything with the money they take in tax, to ease the burden inflicted to appease the Sun Gods? Nope.
As Niamh pointed out a few months ago child benefit hasn’t increased in an astonishing 13 years. “While incredible, eye-watering, sums of public funds were being wasted on enormous projects (some still not completed) and funding every diversity project under the sun, the cost of raising children was obviously lowest on the government’s lists of priorities.” It seems it has become cheaper to raise a family in the last 13 years, according to our governing Overlords.
This is why we are where we are. This is why I have been on the phone this week to my dear husband informing him of the exact price of the spaghetti bolognaise (at least 15E) and that there will be no ‘seconds’ in this house from now on. Seconds are now known as next week’s dinner. That is separate from ‘left-overs’ which will be served up to my children this very day.
And the killer is, I know that we are the lucky ones. We as a family (and this is not to boast but merely to be self-aware) are part of the 10% – it just never actually feels like that. What the other 90% of families are doing in response to the government reigning down taxes and penalties and surcharges upon their heads I will never know. But I salute you all and feel your pain.
So that’s my gripe, groan and bellyache for the week. I don’t think it is unreasonable to ask that your government stop thinking up new and inventive ways to punish you for your very existence. But then that’s just me.