3-tier economy sees boom envy amid €50 pizza Dublin excess
FIFTY EUROS! That’s what a pizza can set you back in Dublin now as Ireland moves into a Nordic model of living (and spending). For a pizza to cost €50 it would want to have a fillet steak and cooked lobster on top in my books, but this flattened ball of dough has neither.
An article about boom envy in the Sunday Independent caught my eyes on Sunday afternoon. The old man was visiting so in keeping with tradition a fry feast was cooked so it was later than usual by the time I extricated myself from the house.
The article highlighted how people feel like they are missing out as their standard of living hasn’t increased, while half the country are apparently shopping online till they drop and holding soirées to beat the band.
With the economy expected to stay in growth mode for a further two years at least, the flaitulach, boom days are here to stay apparently.
But all is now as it appears and the reality remains that we are living in a two, if not three tier country, economically speaking. RTE Radio One listeners, among us, may have heard the story of the college student commuting to Dublin daily as she can’t afford the €14,000 rent. While the tills have been ringing all Black Friday weekend long – into Cyber Monday, many are struggling and struggling badly.
The Sindo article said experts are warning that the failure to feel recovery is souring the mood of spenders, but financial pressure is having a far deeper, more damaging affect on society.
Many people don’t like Leo Varadkar and his coterie of minister followers but it’s hard to argue with the economic figures, which are positively Caravaggioesque.
Brexit has thrown up a lot of questions about what Ireland is, most obviously on the geography front. Passing a globe in a furniture shop recently The Little Fella enquired about the whereabouts of Ireland. Not missing a beat, his big sister declared: ‘it’s the little teddy-bear’. The geographical location in bodily terms of the south east is something a school-going youth could conjecture about, (yes I am of that mentality at times). The latest CSO figures comparing September 2017 and last September, highlight how the south east is still struggling to secure new job growth. In the 12 months to September, just 600 new jobs were created in Waterford, Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford and South Tipperary.
This is a fraction of the jobs created in Dublin (32,900), south west (15,100), Mid- lands (7,900), mid east (7,300).
It’s safe to a €50 pizza joint wouldn’t last a wet week in Clonmel or Enniscorthy, to name just two of scores of towns and villages in the south east, where jobs are few and often badly paid.
Many people who were stung by the excesses of the Celtic Tiger and who are leveraged with high mortgages and childcare costs, are in no way feeling the boom.
But, as with everything in life, envy will not get us anywhere. Judging others gets us nowhere, but we are fully entitled to judge a Government intent on moving everything and everyone to centralised hubs, starting (and seemingly) ending in Dublin and our cities, at the expense of our towns and villages. A special case needs to be made for the south east as we tick down to the General Election.