A little off topic but Iāve neighbour there and he was telling me three aunts of his went to America in the 30s.
Two never returned home. One did in the 70s. Mad when you think about it now.
Iād be calling home from a BT phone box in those days. Someone uhmming and awwing instead of getting to the point would cost you serious coinage.
There is no real evidence of this at a macro level. If this was the case, we would be seeing this in population stats.
The ability to own a home has become as much of a challenge in most of the West as it is here.
Things were arguably better for the young who managed to stay home in Ireland post crash, if you could hold down your job. Things were an awful lot cheaper. This is why we have the strange longing by the likes of Una Mullally for this era.
That of course ignores the hundreds of thousands who had to leave.
Just a few observations. The first house I bought for the modern day equivalent of a bag of sliothars and a set of jerseys has actually in real terms trebled in value since then. Most of that growth took place up to 2006 and then prices halved over the crash and rose again.
The going rate for the job I was doing then has doubled in the interim.
House price growth on that small sample size has outstripped wage inflation by 50% over a twenty year period.
The flats I rented in the 80s were at the modern day equivalent of ā¬200 a month. That was for sharing a bedroom in a hovel off the North Circular with a butcher.
There wasnāt much to spend money on and it was easier to save.
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I think itās time to simply drop a bomb on Dublin and be done with it
āTheyāve turned Dublin into a bleedin police stateā
'Yer right. Jaāknow what dey needā¦ dey need ta cop on for demselvesā¦je geddit? ā
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12 dollars for a head of lettuce last year in Qld
11 dollars for Liz Truss.
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Iād agree strongly with @BruidheanChaorthainn that young people for the most part have it very good. However it has to be factored in that Covid absolutely fucked young people and cost them 18 months of their lives.
A lot though just donāt seem to know what they want. You see people in Oz or Dubai and they going to every sort of AFL game, F1 Race, Horse Race Meeting, or Tennis match and you know that deep down they havenāt one clue whatās going on and could barely name a tennis player never mind a racehorse yet they still go to find meaning in their lives.
It all seems very false. I suppose its grand for a year as its a bit different, but Iām not sure spending any longer at it is worth it. Lads going to these places straight from College at 23 and still their at 30 seems a bit of a waste.
And I do think there is some sense of fulfillment of being around at home being close to family, friends and reality. We are also very lucky as BC said to be an hour on a plane away from England where there is loads to do. We probably dont make enough use of it really.
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To be very Clear some people have it incredibly tough but that percentage is no higher or lower in Ireland than any other western country.
Itās a really great place to be young.
of course it could be better and we should strive to improve things.
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Thereās no amount of money that would see Me move to Dubai or Australia but if I got a two year visa for America Iād be in New York by Friday.
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Iād be interested to see what impact dual incomes chasing homes has had on house prices in the West.
We are living in an interesting phenomenon that despite consumer goods cratering in price through globalisation, house prices have gone up. Of course the land value and inefficient tax is a part of it, along with increasing standards on builds and the inability to use a core cheaper component (labour) like we get with most consumer goods but I have long thought this was a factor.
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Improved standards also a factor in house price inflation. That first house I bought was a pre oil crisis house. No insulation, no fitted kitchen, no fitted wardrobes. You bought 4 walls on the cheap and upgraded it in your own time. Now thatās all front loaded.
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Iād rather live in Melbourne than NYC.
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Everyone is different I guess.
I just know so many people in Australia itās sort of putting for me.
I remember willie Mullins coming second to Joseph o Brien in the Melbourne cup and his post race comments where I didnāt travel half way around the world to get beat a fella 60 miles up the road
From me in Ireland.
I also have much more interest in American sports than Australian ones.
My grandfather had 3 brothers and one sister, he was the youngest. The eldest got the farm, the sister married into a farm locally and the other 2 brothers went to Australia in the late 1920s and he never saw them again.
When my grandfather was in his 80s, his sister (who used to stay with us regularly over the years) called down to stay with us and during this particular visit she divulged to him that in 1930 (my grandfather would have been 18 at the time) that one of the brothers in Australia sent back a ticket for my grandfather to go to Australia but she intercepted it and burned it and never told a soul, she was in floods of tears telling him but she said she couldnāt have coped if he had left at the time.
He married into a farm in Kinvara in 1940 and made his life there.
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As the saying goes, whatās for you wonāt pass you.
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