You’ve obviously taken offence to the way that the piece was written; Fair enough. Without knowing me, my background , or my views on this or other topics, it’s a bit of a jump from ‘I disagree with what you’re saying’ to saying that I consider myself better than anybody else.

I tend to agree with you on the consultants being overpaid and overpampered. However , 20 years ago, I remember that the most non-white faces to been seen in Ireland were Indian and Pakistani doctors that had come here to work in the health service.

The basic point being made in the original post is that there are sections of Irish society that are going to be hit harder than others by the end of the boom. We’ll either fall back on our traditional rememdy of ‘blame the brits’ or a new option, blame the new arrivals.

It’s more likely that the groups losing out the most will do the most complaining; not because they are more or less racist than any other part of Irish society, but because they will feel the most aggrieved by their change in fortunes.

Paul

That is exactly what I am pointing out.

That statement is so self righteous and self congratulatory and implies that only the poorly educated proles would stoop so low.
“But I don’t see how forecasting that a group of people – manual labour (who worked hard to do well in the boom ) will be hard hit by what comes after can be seen as ‘looking down on’ anybody.”

Thats not what was said in your predictions-dont try to back out of the implied idea that you consider yourself above “the majority of the bullies who left education early”. Talk about sweeping generalisations. Apply your logic to racial/gender situations and you might end up with “the majority of the conmen are immigrants” or “the majority of single mothers are only looking for free housing”. Your idea as expressed above is very similar to those put forward by those who practise discrimination but cant see it.
My view is that real racism will begin when immigrants can compete for jobs in the “closed shop” professions in Ireland. Do you think that Solicitors/Doctors etc will not try to bar the door pretty quickly (and effectively) if their piece of the pie is threatened? They are not uneducated. Look at the hospital consultants reaction to proposed reform. They are not uneducated.

I’m not sure what you’re trying to say, but I suspect that you disagree with me!

I’m just wondering who I’m looking down on? If I’m ‘looking down’ on the property developers that made millions despite leaving school before 16, then I doubt very much if they care what I think!

I happen to be a strong believer in education (covered in other posts on this blog). Despite having benefitted from it, I also believe that the current Irish education system is fatally flawed i.e. if you’re no good at cramming for exams then they don’t want to know. And thats before you get into the ethics of forcing Irish language education on people before ensuring basic literacy is in place. Again, I’m not sure if this can be seen as ‘looking down’ on anybody.

If the blogpost implied that racism is the fault/responsibilty of only one section of society and the rest are blameless, then you’re correct to point it out as misleading and wrong; But I don’t see how forecasting that a group of people – manual labour (who worked hard to do well in the boom ) will be hard hit by what comes after can be seen as ‘looking down on’ anybody.

For the record both Grandfathers worked as manual labour – either on the docks or as groundsmen. My parents were schooled before the era of free secondary education. I’m full of respect for people who value education because they have had to fight for it , but am also very glad that I had it a lot easier.

Paul

Thanks for the compliment. If David McW can make Economics sexy, then maybe there is hope for us tech bloggers

Paul

@Alastair : See the ‘we’ll become even more like Britain’ comment (not a bad thing). When times get tougher, I think we Irish will always find a way of blaming somebody else.

Paul

As an example I offer the Rugby World Cup – I think there was a certain amount of genuine support for them here that they’d never have received in years passed.

- Alastair.

All post-boom economies go through a phase of “burning off the fat” that sets the platform for the next boom.

Slowly but surely a critical mass of the Irish voters will realise that they are paying (money down the drain) for the luxury of “old money” sitting on their assets.

Working in Dun Laoghaire I can assure you the picture looks bleak. Falling population, closure of businesses and schools. Yet if you look at the socio-economic indicators it shows you the highest proportion of people within top two social classes in the State. The establishment look after themselves, not the common good. The result is a not-an-inch mentality, effectively blocking any development that looks as if it may “change the view”. Entrepreneurs, creative talent et al will get the message to go elsewhere.

The rot will set in and in ten years time everyone will still be blaming everyone else. Only a few months ago a senior writer in one of the Dublin dailies (no doubt a resident) blamed the declining population on the building of apartments in “high rises” (there are no buildings in DL over the height of six storeys). The sad thing is this warped logic is not challenged and nearly applauded as someone standing up for “democratic rights”. Yeah. It is all about the here-and-now “view”.

And the SUV Greens of Dun Laoghaire will continue to defend an exclusive golf club in Dun Laoghaire as a “green space” and conveniently ignore their own policies of densification.

My prediction – a future Taoiseach will use the precedent of Adamstown by creating special development products in Dublin to cut through the crap of such establishments at the critical point when their numbers don’t carry political weight and the logic of common good and sense is overbearing.