Irish Politics

Williams may be an economist but I have no idea where building a city the size of watferford every year for decades comes from. Literally, the entire shortfall is 250k~ (nationwide). That's not going to grow to 250k~ within a five year period if we assume 250k~ houses were completed in that period. It would shrink. I'd like to see his work here because it sounds mental to me. Ireland's population just is not going to grow anywhere near that rate.

There are only 2 million houses in the state. At his word, we'd need double the number of houses the state has in its entirety over a ten year period. He's clearly wrong. There aren't even enough people to put in those houses when you consider couples with and without children who are occupying.

But there is a dire need for 250-300k houses. And right now, too.
 
I've been hearing the same shit for 30 years that if we just get more people renting our housing situation would be so much better. It doesn't work and never will. Pogue above says its a chicken and egg situation but its not. The chicken is here, we have a sizable population renting. They're desperate to get out of it because renting in Ireland is desperately shit.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Here it is out from behind a paywall.
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Good article. Written by a filthy communist. The Marx reference and then this "More than anything, the pace of development has to accelerate and this implies smashing the system that upholds individual “rights” over communal needs."

So in short. It is not changing.

Yep. I for one welcome our new Marxist Economist Journos.

Who wrote it? The formatting is all over the place on my phone.
 
David McWillliams.

Good article. He just needs to show his work on that "one waterford every year for decades claim" because it sounds and looks completely mental to me given state demographics and trends.
 
caid said:
I've been hearing the same shit for 30 years that if we just get more people renting our housing situation would be so much better. It doesn't work and never will. Pogue above says its a chicken and egg situation but its not. The chicken is here, we have a sizable population renting. They're desperate to get out of it because renting in Ireland is desperately shit.
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The reason the rental sector doesn't work is the same reason we decreased social housing and it's noted in the article, we structurally uphold individual “rights” over communal needs.

By rights here, he means individual right to property and profit.
 
"Some people put the development of property prices down to cultural factors such as Irish people wanting to own their own homes with gardens, because we have a historical attachment to land and a legacy fear of eviction. Karl Marx was certainly interested in the central role of landlord-tenant relations in the Irish psyche when he wrote: “The domination over Ireland at present amounts to collecting rent for the English aristocracy.” But Irish cultural exceptionalism doesn’t explain why we see such strikingly similar failings in the UK, the US and other anglophone countries."
Pogue Mahone said:
Interesting article by an economist about housing in Ireland. He differentiates between anglophone countries and the rest. Our attachment to home ownership and reluctance to live in apartments seems to be part of the issue.

The scale of the challenge we face is mind blowing.
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Doesn't really support your initial point?
Or maybe it does if its a comment on wider anglophone countries?
 
The largest problem I see is "asset". The idea that one's house - if one only owns one house - is an asset is a huge problem. For the working class, it is attractive because how else do you accumulate wealth when you are born into structural inequality? Yet, it leads to major - major - problems. One shock, or many, to the housing system and you have negative equity situations where you now own an anti-asset.

The states, qua neoliberalism, encouraging people (the banks really) to see their houses as a mini-bank is a massive problem to me. I'm in favor of a model where all have a mandatory entitlement, via the social sector, to one house. If you want to go to the private market, you vacate that house and it goes back to the state. But you ought not be allowed to buy social housing. It would resemble, in theory (and practice due to critical mass of private housing where most won't need what I am proposing) a monopoly board except instead of going entirely bankrupt when shit hits the fan you have one house which is stuck (built in) to your protfolio. And this is necessary. Anything which moves a model like that on is worth pursuing.

Capitalism and wealth accumulation qua "house prices". A fecking disease. Understandable but entirely insane. It differs for socio-economic backgrounds, and there is lots of nuance to it, but it's a massive fecking problem. "This is something you can leverage... [meanwhile, if it goes tits up you are effectively homeless]... and the banks will make a killing on it".
 
It's back to the original point of letting the markets fix the housing issue. fecking insane.
 
neverdie said:
The largest problem I see is "asset". The idea that one's house - if one only owns one house - is an asset is a huge problem. For the working class, it is attractive because how else do you accumulate wealth when you are born into structural inequality? Yet, it leads to major - major - problems. One shock, or many, to the housing system and you have negative equity situations where you now own an anti-asset.

The states, qua neoliberalism, encouraging people (the banks really) to see their houses as a mini-bank is a massive problem to me. I'm in favor of a model where all have a mandatory entitlement, via the social sector, to one house. If you want to go to the private market, you vacate that house and it goes back to the state. But you ought not be allowed to buy social housing. It would resemble, in theory (and practice due to critical mass of private housing where most won't need what I am proposing) a monopoly board except instead of going entirely bankrupt when shit hits the fan you have one house which is stuck (built in) to your protfolio. And this is necessary. Anything which moves a model like that on is worth pursuing.

Capitalism and wealth accumulation qua "house prices". A fecking disease. Understandable but entirely insane. It differs for socio-economic backgrounds, and there is lots of nuance to it, but it's a massive fecking problem. "This is something you can leverage... [meanwhile, if it goes tits up you are effectively homeless]... and the banks will make a killing on it".
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Aye, perpetuated by phrases like 'property ladder'.


What McWilliams alludes to will discommode the decision makers so it won't happen as they are the stakeholders in Ireland Inc and are all owners of multiple properties and are landlords.
 
Housing being basically the only feasible way to invest a lump sum of money in Ireland definitely does not help. Young couples competing with people who have hundreds of thousands in cash and want to buy a property to rent and see increase in value is not a good scenario. The cash buyer will always win out.
 
I'd say there are a few people not too happy about their vote for Eoin Hayes at this moment in time.
 
Keeps coming back to something I decided ages ago (after meeting some politicians) They are ALL absolute fecking melts. So lock them in a room together and it’s inevitable they’ll start behaving like dick-heads. They are profoundly abnormal people. It is not a career a normal person would choose.
 
They're such a shower of dickheads. Ceann Comhairle failing miserably right off the bat allowing this group to form.
 
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