"The Limits of Austerity" - Domestic Demand Falls 22%

[C. Flower]

The latest "What's Left" study from the Irish League of Credit Unions, shows half of car owners are struggling to keep their car on the road, with over 60% delaying servicing their cars.

28% can't afford to pay the Household Charge and over 40% think they have no future in this country. The other half are doing just fine. What a divided country we are now.

http://www.creditunion.ie/communicat...le,5405,en.php

Irish Times interview with a couple caught in the mortgage/commute trap.


http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...94.html?via=mr


Once people are unemployed, and can't afford to run a car, living with no public transport ( 47% of those surveyed), the trap is even deeper.

[Sam Lord]

Irish Times interview with a couple caught in the mortgage/commute trap.

“That individual is going to spend just a whisker less than €3,000 in a year on fuel and about €1,600 of that is tax. That goes straight to the exchequer.

“When you think that people are spitting feathers in anger about the household charge, the typical motorist will spend 16 times that amount on fuel tax every year.”

Where is the ULA when you need it?

[Baron von Biffo]

Where is the ULA when you need it?

• Holding endless meetings about excruciatingly detailed procedural points relating to who sits nearest the door if there's SP and SWP members in the same room.
• Fighting for the rights of a plantation powner to block a development that's in the public good.
• Campaigning against property taxes.
• Looking for a clue.

Ok, forget the last point.

[C. Flower]

Electionlit has picked up on the most recent "What's Left" survey by the Credit Unions.

Survey - http://www.creditunion.ie/communicat...le,6905,en.php

He points out that the Ulster Bank fiasco has shown that a lot of people are living hand to mouth, just able to pay their bills, and have no cushion whatsoever for emergencies.

http://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/201...hand-to-mouth/

The Campaign Against Household And Water Charges site site points out that it is only austerity for some people, while others are better off than ever.

Survey findings that over 1.8 million people have only €25 per week left after paying their bills prove that it is not feasible for the government to believe that it can impose water and property taxes on people who are already completely strapped for cash.
The Irish League of Credit Unions’ ‘What’s Left?’ survey showed that 602,000 people have absolutely nothing left when they pay their bills, that half of households struggle to pay their bills on time and that 40% of households have had to borrow to pay their bills over the last 12 months.
In this context, how does the government possibly believe that it can impose property and water taxes which will amount to over €1,000 per household? People’s incomes have been slashed by a combination of austerity measures and stealth taxes. They have had enough and cannot take the imposition of any more financial pain.
These figures must be looked at in the context of figures released last week which showed that the top 10,000 Irish earners who have average incomes of €595,000 per year pay an effective tax rate of just 29%.
Instead of wasting time sending harassing letters to people who have refused to register for the household tax, the government should be taking moves to ensure that the wealthy are made to pay more tax.
Austerity measures are inflicting real financial pain on householders across the country,” Mr. Kerr concluded. “That is why people are refusing to register for the household tax and are preparing to resist the imposition of property and water taxes. It is also why thousands of people will take to the streets on Wednesday of next week (18th July) and join the CAHWT-organised march against austerity. People have had enough and are determined to fight back.

[C. Flower]

Some unscientific indicators this week, heard on RTE radio

- large numbers of pets being abandoned
- the "smallest amount ever" bet at a race meeting at the Curragh.

Not betting might be just cautious use of funds, but pet abandonment suggests that some people are on or below the bread line.

[C. Flower]

Sunday Independent today says in the Business News that the average Irish consumer's debt is now €10,000 - up from €2,442 in 2008. Commuter areas and rural areas have shown the worst increases.

That looks as though people can't pay car debt, and that travel costs are unaffordable. Also - people in rural areas who lose their jobs can't move to another one - houses unsellable and negative equity.

Does not augur well for any increases in taxation.

[Ogiol]

I wonder if anyone could direct me/us to somewhere where a reasonable (offical but not made-up) figure could be gotten regards the fall in GDP since the onset of austerity (2009/2010) ??

Are we talking maybe a 50% drop in the real economy. Another interesting piece of info would be the emplyment figures for 'irish' companies vs. the start of austerity.

[Ephilant]

I wonder if anyone could direct me/us to somewhere where a reasonable (offical but not made-up) figure could be gotten regards the fall in GDP since the onset of austerity (2009/2010) ??

Are we talking maybe a 50% drop in the real economy. Another interesting piece of info would be the emplyment figures for 'irish' companies vs. the start of austerity.

I would not think that kind of info would be easily available. Smells to much like truth, and that, you shall never have, for it destroys power...

Did read somewhere that some American worked out that on average world wide real unemployment is something like 23% higher than what governments admit to.
Figures get distorted by "tricks" like state trainees, jobs programs, and in the old days conscripts (wonder how long before that gets introduced again). Here in Greece they simply don't count those unemployed for more than a year. Estimate the number of people without income in this country around 600,000 and rising by 1000 a week, because that is the number of jobs this country loses every week. After 1 year, you are no longer a statistic and therefore don't exist...

[Ephilant]

I wonder if anyone could direct me/us to somewhere where a reasonable (offical but not made-up) figure could be gotten regards the fall in GDP since the onset of austerity (2009/2010) ??

Are we talking maybe a 50% drop in the real economy. Another interesting piece of info would be the emplyment figures for 'irish' companies vs. the start of austerity.
Today 08:50 PM

Would this be of any use to you?

http://www2.euromemorandum.eu/upload..._euro_area.pdf

[C. Flower]

I would not think that kind of info would be easily available. Smells to much like truth, and that, you shall never have, for it destroys power...

Did read somewhere that some American worked out that on average world wide real unemployment is something like 23% higher than what governments admit to.
Figures get distorted by "tricks" like state trainees, jobs programs, and in the old days conscripts (wonder how long before that gets introduced again). Here in Greece they simply don't count those unemployed for more than a year. Estimate the number of people without income in this country around 600,000 and rising by 1000 a week, because that is the number of jobs this country loses every week. After 1 year, you are no longer a statistic and therefore don't exist...

Best I can find.

http://www.rte.ie/news/business/economy/gdp.html

[Dr. FIVE]

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee




http://trueeconomics.blogspot.ie/201...a-at-1998.html

As the chart shows, Ireland's current per capita national incomes stood at EUR27,105.6 in 2011, down 19.74% on peak and below 1999 level. Irish per capita national disposable income at EUR26,575.7 in 2011 was down 20.2% on peak levels and was below 1998-1999 average.

Using IMF projections for personal consumption and private investment for 2012, Ireland's 2012 per capita national income can be expected to remain below 1998-1999 averages in 2012.

Put in different terms, as the result of the current crisis, Ireland's real economy has already lost not a decade but over 14 years worth of growth. Assuming disposal incomes per capita grow at 2.5% per annum into perpetuity, Ireland will regain 2006 peak levels of real income per capita by 2022, at 2% by 2024 and at 1.75% - by 2026, implying that the 'lost decade' for Ireland's economy is likely to last not 10 years, but between 16 and 20 years.

[C. Flower]

http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/0214/367...-study-impact/

Caritas study.

This looks not only at what is going wrong, but also at how people should be protected.

http://static.rasset.ie/documents/ne...sis-report.pdf

The main thing to grasp is that this is not a temporary glitch but the wealthy class taking advantage of the crisis to permanently drive wage levels down, to break up public and national resources and privatise them, and remove rights to social supports - back to the 19th century.

The first in-depth examination of the impact of austerity policies on people in the five EU countries worst affected by the economic crisis concludes that the policy of prioritising austerity is not working.
Ireland, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain are the focus of the Caritas Europa study, entitled "The Impact of the European Crisis", published today.
Using EU statistics, the report highlights historically high levels of unemployment in Europe, with more than 10% of the labour force out of work.
Among them is an entire generation of young people, with one in two unemployed in Greece and Spain.
It points to children being at a greater risk of poverty or social exclusion than the rest of the population in 21 of the 25 member states.
The study strongly challenges current official suggestions that the worst of the economic crisis is over.

[C. Flower]

60,000 people dropped their private health insurance last year.

There has been a 35% increase in the numbers having their gas disconnected.