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Pension levy- whats your opinion
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B)The public sector believes that everyone in the private sector made loads of money while the Celtic Tiger was roaring.
This may be the case, but a hell of a lot made big money during the boom-
You’d nearly have to take a separate mortgage to get a fellow to lay a block-
during the boom. I see very valid points here on both sides, but at the end of –
the day I will be loosing money if this levy goes through. Ok I don’t mind putting-
my shoulder to the wheel, but I think it should be right across the board. If I have –
to go to the doctor I would be expecting him to take a cut, etc etc. As for a good pension-
I’ll have a pittance after 25 years service, and that’s if they dont do away with it before I retire.
I sympathise with the lads who lost their jobs recently in Waterford etc and it may seem insensitive
at this point in time, but I suppose everyone needs a bit of a whine every now and then. There
is a lot wrong with our Country at present and we are not the cause of it, but the ones that are are
getting the big handshakes etc.
Ah feck it.., that’s it for me.Pat
Ok I’m no expert on this subject.
It seems to me that we are all to blame.
When times were good we all demanded more money, we all spent more money and we all borrowed more money.
Yes, the banks were idiots to approach lending as they did. They were basically irresponsible.I do think that government employees have a had a damn good run of late. I am in the IT industry and in
my particular position the average wage is between 45-50k. My government mates are on about 10-20k more
with a far better overall package. I have one friend who with this levy on his pension costing 250 per month he will be on
exactly what I am for doing the same job. He is pretty pissed about the whole thing however now he is quiet simply average
instead of being previously above average.
Do I have any sympathy for my state employed made – of course I do. He has become used to a certain way of life that will have to
downgraded slightly. It’s gonna be hard for him. he may have to move to a smaller house. Heaven forbid.Do i point fingers at who is to blame. Yes at myself and everybody in the country. We all got greedy. We all spent money on over priced houses and over priced cars. We got ourselves into this mess and we need to get ourselves out of it.
I’m curious about deflation…
Petrol – why are we still getting shafted at the Petrol Stations considering the price of oil?
Gas – huge increases the past few years, deflation won’t bring the price of gas down to any level of significance
Electricity – ditto Gas
Bus/Train/Other Travel Fares – on the up every year
A Loaf of Bread – prices have increased significantly in recent years due to the price of wheat
Car/Home Insurance – have these prices ever come down any way significantly?
Cigarettes & Alcohol – only ever increase
T.V Subscriptions such as Sky/NTL – Have these prices ever come down? I can only ever remember them going up
Car Tax – Anyone with a pre 2008 car is getting shafted because the new system more or less ignores their carbon emmissions
Telephone Bills – anyone notice Eircom dropping their prices recently? Line Rental is on the up all the time.Bar Cigarettes & Alcohol I’d consider most of the above standard living costs that most of us have to face on and none of them are coming down or even staying anyway static.
What are the living costs that will actually deflate in line with people’s take home pay? Can someone tell me?
J
I heard something about the whole gas and electric thing that maybe someone can clarify here.
When the recent increases in Gas rates were announced I just happened to be signing up for my Gas supply
in my new rented apartment. I asked the girl on the phone the question. If current gas costs are going down then
why is my bill going to be higher. Check this for an answer. Basically she said that Bord Gas buy all the gas they need a year in advance. So when we are paying higher rates now this is because they expect the price to higher next year. So what you are paying now is actually going to used next year to buy gas. However they are speculating on the price of gas. I then asked obvious question.
When the price of gas has stayed the same or even come out will the overpayment from this year be credited to my account or will i just get a nice cheque from Bord Gas. There was no answer.Now was this girl making this up on the spot or was she right. if she was correct then we are totally being ripped. they will be making a fortune if gas prices actually drop.
Oh and NFL – you are taking about a country that still rates soap, toilet paper, toothpaste and female hygiene products as luxury items and therefore incur a higher rate of vat.
The cost of living is always on the up… always… and I challenge anyone to prove to me that deflation is going to offset pay decreases… it just won’t happen.
Have to laugh when I hear on the news –
“some good news.. inflation is at it’s lowest for 5 years”… sure of course it is… nobody is willing to spend money (a) because they no longer have it or (b) because they are hoarding it for fear of what tomorrow holds. So it’s not primarily due to a slow down in price increases.. it’s because of a slow down in spending… which isn’t necessarily a good thing either.
PS. Add ‘Refuse Charges’ to my list – another living expense constantly on the rise.
Oh and just on earlier comments I am currently in a month to month review situation with my job.
I do not know where I will as the end of the month or the month after that.
If or when I do get the axe I will not get more than the legal redundancy.
I will get the minimum. Plus I will be in same boat as every one and it will take a long time
to find another job. I will loose my apartment and I will end up living back at home.
Still though it could be worse and i do mean that. I have my family to fall back on. There
a lot of people who are not in that position. Plus I am not married and I have no kids. I really feel for people who have
a family to support in this whole thing.At a time when the Government are looking to recapitalize the banks (€7bn) and there’s talk of transferring ‘toxic debts’ into ‘bad banks’ and then winding them down (shame they can’t make money appear as easily as they make it disappear)… I mean I can appreciate anyone being bitter when it’s their wallet that’s being dipped into unwillingly.
It’s a possibility that some Property Developers who owe millions, and never paid a whole lot of tax in this country, will get to walk away from their debt… and Average Joe will have his house taken from him when he’s made redundant. Sorry.. but something is seriously wrong with this.
Another thing that always irritated me was tax evaders… even when the Revenue did catch up with them they probably only uncovered a small fraction of what they really owed… and then they get to agree a settlement which might be in the region of 30-40% of the uncovered value. The only shame was having your name published in the newspaper.. I’d gladly take it. PAYE workers would never have such a luxury…. imagine having the opportunity to not pay your PAYE taxes for a number of years… then after 10 years agreeing with the Revenue to give them half what you owe.
Your best being very rich or on the rock n roll in this country.. cos if you sit in the middle you get it up the ass.
The likes of Bertie Ahern, Tony Blair & George Bush must be laughing their bollocks off right now… the boys all got out at the right time that’s for sure.
J
I’m in IT and I wouldn’t get out of bed for 45-50K.
Or is that monthly?
Are you boys serious? Feck. It would take me a bit longer than a year
to earn that much. No wonder I can’t afford to go to Donegal on holiday
any more – my paltry little stash of sterling must be pitiful. I feel embarrassed
when I think about it.Well..I do take exception that we are ALL to blame Graham. I have watched the so called Celtic Tiger galloping around the last 10-15 years..but it has never called at my door..I have been charged exorbitant rates from contractors to do even the simplest jobs because they knew they could get it and all the other guys where charging equally exorbitant rates.
I’ve met the kids earning more than I’ll probably ever earn and taking out huge loans to fund an extravagant lifestyle.
All through this I earned my weekly wage..and in fact now I earn less, taking inflation into account, than I did 10 years ago.
I live in a modest semi D house and drive a modest family car. I have 1 family holiday a year if I’m lucky and I still donate a percentage of my wage to charity.
Why? Because I’m not greedy. I have enough for my family to live a decent life and my kids to go to school(ever more expensive). I have my photography and manage to even spend a bit on that now and then.
So when I look around me now…I see a lot of greedy people wondering where they are going to make their huge profits now and bemoaning the fact.
The same greedy people who contributed to this mess…I’d go as far to say caused this mess.
Somebody asked earlier, where is all the money? And I think that is the most pertinent question here…not whether Public or private workers are better off..not whether hordes of scavenging single mothers or evil job robbing foreigners are getting something for nothing.
Where are all the billions that were made during this wonderful tiger romp? and where are the people who have it?
I’m sure it must make their little hearts glow with pride when they watch working people all trying to blame each other and snipe at each other.
Meanwhile I’ll still carry on working away…I might lose my job I suppose..but it’s not like I have such a huge height to fall from and I’ve been there before.
I don’t have a hefty lifestyle to fund…so one way or the other we’ll get by.
But I guess that new Beamer is out of the question now :wink:
I have to laugh myself Pete when I read stuff about people on an average wage of 40-50K!!
I guess the only good thing about earning crap money..is that you are used to earning crap money.
So a little crappier ain’t gonna feel all that bad … :wink:
Expresbro wrote:
I have to laugh myself Pete when I read stuff about people on an average wage of 40-50K!!:
I know this wage sounds excessive at times and I’m not going to be drawn into an argument over whether or not it’s justified.
The money I am on in at the low end of the pay scale for people in my position.Back to what you were saying Robbie about taking exception to my “all” comment. I take what you are saying about your own life style and knowing a little better than most people I know on this site I know you are not the sort to be extravagant or wasteful. When I say we are all to blame I mean. We may not all have been greedy with wages or wasteful with our mortgages but we are all responsible.
We all voted in politicians that continuely wasted our money. We all sit back every day and hand money over to banks who waste it.
We never act when injustice knocks at the door.
NFL mentioned early about ever increasing rates. What do we do about it. We log onto a forum and complain.
Could you imagine what would happen if just 25% of Bord Gas customers refused to pay their bills. The company would have to
do something. If half the people in Ireland refused to pay ESB until the price came down what would happen.
if everyone refused to pay their TV license could imagine the back lash.Expresbro wrote:
I have to laugh myself Pete when I read stuff about people on an average wage of 40-50K!!
I guess the only good thing about earning crap money..is that you are used to earning crap money.
So a little crappier ain’t gonna feel all that bad … :wink:
I feel like crawling into a hole – well I would if I cared – it takes me a long time to earn 45K.
PeteTheBloke wrote:
it takes me a long time to earn 45K.
It took me a long time to get to 45k. It took me a lot of training to get 45k.
It cost me a lot of money to pay for that training and it takes a lot of really hard work to
keep me at 45k. I generally work 10-12 hours days and most Saturdays.I’m not trying to justify myself here. I’m just saying that I feel I have earned it.
I’m sure other people work just as hard if not harder than i do and are on less money.
Do I think that;s right – no
Do i think it’s fair – no
Do I think I earned what I have – yesGrahamB wrote:
Expresbro wrote:
We all voted in politicians that continually wasted our money. .
Not guilty on that front either :wink:
I’ve never voted for one of those blood leaching self promoting excuses for leaders in my life.
In fact I think I’ve only ever voted once or twice for a politician who actually got elected to the Dail.
I’ve been told before that I was wasting my vote doing so, but I never see it that way.
I vote with my conscience for stuff I believe in. If those people didn’t happen to be in Fianna Fail, Fine Gael or Labour then so be it.
But I do agree with you about people moaning on forums and in pubs and suchlike..and then going out and supporting those self same idiots when it comes to election time.
Could never get that myself.
Pete: I wouldn’t worry about it too much…you know that in times of crises it’s good to be small….as long as yer not too small.. :wink:
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