Romantic Ireland's Dead and Gone
Too much has already been blogged and blathered about Ireland's explosion of wealth for me to feel much like adding mundanities. (((((The American says: I like my Irish poor and simple ((((And agrarian! (((Just like Dev, man ((And the exchange rate favorable (And the greens well-kept.))))) Here's a link to an interesting article nonetheless. Ireland was recently voted 3rd best palce to live on the planet, because of the mix of wealth, landscape, and traditional values. They must not be meaning Temple Bar, you know?
It is also known as Rip Off Ireland, I find mostly due to the price of a pint. Just the staples.
| WHAT need you, being come to sense, | |
| But fumble in a greasy till | |
| And add the halfpence to the pence | |
| And prayer to shivering prayer, until | |
| You have dried the marrow from the bone |
Well, actually, we've scrapped the praying bit . . .
posted by Borderliner at 11:28 AM
2 Comments:
Out of a bit of morbid curiosity, what were places #1 and 2?
I thought this article was great. Having just returned from Ireland it was easy for me to see the explosion in the development of the country, but I know there are opportunity costs to development that are not quickly recognizable and quantifiable. I remember being in the village I worked in in Ghana when electricity arrived. A hundred years passed overnight. The village was forever changed, and I could see the differences in the people's attention span in a few short months. The drive for goods that could be powered by electricity shouldered out other pursuits that were infinitely kinder on the society as a whole. The need for cash, not barter, changed the timbre of the local economy, too. This is a very loose parallel, but I studied the impact of the economic free zones, like Shannon, on the local economies while pursuing an economics degree at UCC. The increased wealth in the local areas brought on increased crime and decreased charitable giving. The recent development is like toothpaste out of the tube and can't be put back, but it would behoove the Irish to study the impact of booming development on society and the environment. There'll probably be more latch-key kids without supervision because the need for two incomes will make itself apparent as price inflation outstrips wage inflation, fueled by a housing boom bringing on onerous long-term debt.
I'll be interested to see what happens.
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