Politicians have both a political and economic incentive to tell you that everything is fine, until it isn’t. It’s not lying, necessarily – but it might just be unwarranted optimism.
Aren’t we all adults? If somebody is willing to spend €415 on a concert ticket to hear songs that have been on the radio for thirty years, shouldn’t they have that right?
We are spending an additional €30billion annually – can a politician point to €30billion’s worth of betterment in Irish society? Is the Health Service better? Are the Gardai more efficient? Why do we still have a crippling teacher shortage?
The US, absent a course correction, is on course for an inevitable fiscal crisis.
There’s a strong argument that we could make the poorest people in Ireland better off by taxing their incomes at a higher rate, while drastically cutting the taxes that actually drive up the cost of living, like VAT and fuel duties.
The only way, ultimately, to reduce support for the “far right” is to show their voters that there is a better option. But the political establishment across Europe has absolutely no intention of doing so.
The numbers cited are entirely random and wholly meaningless. Closer analysis reveals that the term “experiencing deprivation” embraces children “at risk of poverty”.
With figures like these, most households probably have good financial news coming in the budget.
If anything, nationalists may have missed an opportunity by not simply shrugging their shoulders and saying “if that’s what it costs, then that’s what we will pay”. There’s more than a hint of “arguing with your fiancé over the cost of an engagement ring” about the focus on money
Hardline nationalists who’ve spent a lifetime wanting the Brits out now find that they must simultaneously argue that the Crown is an honourable and generous institution that will aid their cause.
It is Government interference in the market, not the market itself, that has caused this problem.
The public, and their changing choices, are much more to blame than the politicians are.