The incredible sadness of austerity

nitro

nitro

"...During the same period, from 2003 to 2011, Ireland lost 4,408 young men and women to suicide. Let me say that again. The US – with a population of 300 million – lost 4,484 men and women in combat in the war in Iraq. During the same period – with a population of just 4.6 million – Ireland has lost 4,408 men and women to suicide against the backdrop of our national banking and financial crisis...."

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/letters/2011/1222/1224309377489.html

This is horrible, and I suspect that the Irish are beginning to realize that they need to comfort their own during hardship. When people don't think they are in it alone, and there is no shame to their situation, these things don't happen.

Eventually people will turn their anger outward.
 
Quote from nitro:

"...Eventually people will turn their anger outward.
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Especially when everyone finally accepts the fact that there is NO FIX.

1. Too many people on the planet. Not a decent job for all of them.

2. Too many jobs outsourced to Chindia for low labor costs.
 
This thread needs a new title: "The incredible sadness of overspending, paternalistic nations."

Whether it ends in austerity, default or hyperinflation is a moot point.
 
Quote from Scataphagos:

Especially when everyone finally accepts the fact that there is NO FIX.

1. Too many people on the planet. Not a decent job for all of them.

2. Too many jobs outsourced to Chindia for low labor costs.
More...

there are jobs for every one just not under the current organization of society.There is no limit on the number of jobs or wealth that can be created. just Malthusian garbage
 
The reason is not only economics.
Its bad economics combined with the lowest amount of SUN / uvb radiation on Earth.

Ireland, Scotland, Norway have the lowest uvb exposure also due to clouds, which almost always cover the sky.

See list of countries by suicide rate:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate

1 Lithuania 61.3 10.4 34.1 2009
2 South Korea[3] (more info) 41.4 21.0 31.2 2010
3 Guyana 39.0 13.4 26.4 2006
4 Kazakhstan 43.0 9.4 25.6 2008
5 Belarus[4][5] N/A N/A 25.3 2010
6 Japan (more info)[6][7] 36.5 14.3 24.6 2010
7 Hungary[8] 40.0 10.6 24.6 2009
8 Russia[9] N/A N/A 23.5 2010
9 Latvia 40.0 8.2 22.9 2009
10 Slovenia 34.6 9.4 21.9 2009
11 Sri Lanka[10] N/A N/A 21.6 1996
12 Ukraine 37.8 7.0 21.2 2009
13 Serbia and Montenegro 28.4 11.1 19.5 2006
14 Finland 29.0 10.0 19.3 2009
15 Estonia 20.6 7.3 18.1 2008


On the other end of spectrum: Egypt, Iran, Jamaica, Guatemala, Greece, Mexico, Turkey are among the lowest in this ranking.
These are countries with lots of SUN and they are poor.

The SUN gives us two hyper improtant things: vitamin D and melanin.
The sun has huge influence on pineal gland, the seat of human soul.
 
<IMG SRC=http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?&id=DEBTTLIEA188A&scale=Left&range=Max&cosd=1998-01-01&coed=2009-01-01&line_color=%230000ff&link_values=false&line_style=Solid&mark_type=NONE&mw=4&lw=1&ost=-99999&oet=99999&mma=0&fml=a&fq=Annual&fam=avg&fgst=lin&transformation=lin&vintage_date=2011-12-30&revision_date=2011-12-30>

Where's all that supposed runaway govt spending and nanny state? That bump up in the chart is when they took on the bank debt, ya know, from the private sector.

This private sector sure does know how to get itself in trouble -- see Nasdaq bubble, housing bubble, Nikkei Bubble, 1920's, the Panic's 1800's-early 1900's....but o'lawdy don't blame the free market, it always has to be gubbamint's fault.
 
The recent Irish economic roller coaster was very interesting.

I remember visiting relatives in Galway back in the late 70's and was struck with how desolate the country was. The cities were pretty run-down and full of old people. The countryside contained vast depopulated areas with abandoned houses and overgrown farms.

In the 80's and 90's I knew some young Irish living here in the US who were really economic refugees. Ireland was a broken-down backward nation with an otherwise literate, intelligent population. They'd left at the first opportunity upon becoming adults to seek their fortunes in the world.

Sometime during the 90's Irish began returning to Ireland flush with coffers of money earned during the big tech runup. They started buying up huge, abandoned (and dirt cheap) estates and land. In a relatively short amount of time Ireland had turned into an Irish California (where many repatriated Irish had come from). Smog, traffic jams, expensive real estate, the works.

All this happened in the span of 30 years.
 
Quote from Covertibility:

<IMG SRC=http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?&id=DEBTTLIEA188A&scale=Left&range=Max&cosd=1998-01-01&coed=2009-01-01&line_color=%230000ff&link_values=false&line_style=Solid&mark_type=NONE&mw=4&lw=1&ost=-99999&oet=99999&mma=0&fml=a&fq=Annual&fam=avg&fgst=lin&transformation=lin&vintage_date=2011-12-30&revision_date=2011-12-30>

Where's all that supposed runaway govt spending and nanny state? That bump up in the chart is when they took on the bank debt, ya know, from the private sector.

This private sector sure does know how to get itself in trouble -- see Nasdaq bubble, housing bubble, Nikkei Bubble, 1920's, the Panic's 1800's-early 1900's....but o'lawdy don't blame the free market, it always has to be gubbamint's fault.
More...

No--it wasn't the free markets fault. Ireland was able to finance their deficits at artificially low interest rates. As in the U.S., there was an implicit assumption that someone would bail them out if things got bad. As a result, the familiar story of "private" profits and "socialized" losses happened. Call it crony capitalism, fascism or corporatism. It's certainly not a free market when everyone thinks an ultimate put will hold the system together.

I'll grant that Ireland's problems were due to bankers more than the welfare state, but other PIIGS (especially Greece) certainly ran unsustainable deficits to support their welfare states.
 
Quote from nitro:

"...During the same period, from 2003 to 2011, Ireland lost 4,408 young men and women to suicide. Let me say that again. The US – with a population of 300 million – lost 4,484 men and women in combat in the war in Iraq. During the same period – with a population of just 4.6 million – Ireland has lost 4,408 men and women to suicide against the backdrop of our national banking and financial crisis...."
More...

The notion of suicide in general shouldn't be lamented. According to some population dynamics scientists, the planet already has about double the number of people it can support in a healthy fashion.... not enough birth control around the world.
 
The 2 larger countries in PIIGS

<IMG SRC=http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/data/DEBTTLESA188A_Max_630_378.png>

<IMG SRC=http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/fredgraph.png?&id=DEBTTLITA188A&scale=Left&range=Max&cosd=1995-01-01&coed=2009-01-01&line_color=%230000ff&link_values=false&line_style=Solid&mark_type=NONE&mw=4&lw=1&ost=-99999&oet=99999&mma=0&fml=a&fq=Annual&fam=avg&fgst=lin&transformation=lin&vintage_date=2011-12-30&revision_date=2011-12-30>

I've seen Greece's economy compared to that of the size of Miami. Portugal, I don't care. These are small turds.

I don't see in the charts the so called runaway spending of the welfare states of Ireland, Italy and Spain.

And yes, the markets are always the cause of speculative booms and busts. The government doesn't issue a list of Winners of the New World or that the market has reached a permanent plateau and it's safe to keep on shoveling that money in.

Blaming the govt for low rates as a cause for the housing boom is like a gunman who shoots up a church blaming walmart for selling him the bullets. If the private sector can't control itself, then regulations need to be imposed or strengthened.
 
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