A tax suggestion for the recession

Ken writes:
Why do we have a tiered system of income tax in Ireland instead of a flat tax? Because it is felt that those who can afford to contribute more to the upkeep of society should contribute more. It is quite deliberately a form of redistribution of wealth. The rightness or wrongness of this aim [...]

Another way to be a bad parent

Dot writes: oh great: turns out we shouldn’t be letting Hugh eat ham or salami, because it puts him at risk of bowel cancer. Unfortunately, Hugh loves ham and salami in all varieties – he will go to the fridge and take out slices of chorizo to snack on. (Yes, we need a fridge lock. [...]

A penny drops about mortgage rates

ken writes:
On the wireless this morning commentators were discussing the recent decision by the Permanent TSB building society (or is it a bank?) to raise interest rates on their mortgage loans by 0.5%. This has been criticised by the Irish unions who say financial institutions benefitting from the Irish government’s blanket debt guarantee owe it [...]

Insensitivity

Dot writes: on Wednesday night both Ken and I woke in the small hours and noticed that the rain sounded very heavy and there was even a bit of thunder. Then we went back to sleep, and when we got up for the day Ken cycled off to UCD and I spent the day mostly [...]

boom, bust and the dark winter

Ken writes:
From the Irish Times:
While we complain about how tough times are now, things are still an awful lot better for most of us than at any point during the 100 years documented in Cold Meat . Could we cope with the deprivations of the war years or before? “We’d find it a shock, certainly,” [...]

Gay Marriage

Ken writes:
Peter Tatchell was on Matt Cooper today along with someone from Fianna Fail when they discussed the subject of same sex unions. Having just come back from the happy occasion of Ben and Meri’s wedding I had some thoughts about it.
I’m basically in favour of extending the institution of marriage to same sex couples, [...]

Health debate

Dot writes: The Biopsy Report has an interesting post on the debate over access to health-care – should people whose problems can be attributed to ‘lifestyle choices’ (e.g. smoking) be bumped down the queue? The majority of the commenters say no and at first reaction I am with them, but I think this blogger puts [...]

Let’s hear it for more tax!

Ken writes:
Public commentators in Ireland, like the greatly admired Matt Cooper, in today’s Irish Sunday Times, and on the radio, like Today FM’s Sunday Business show, contend that the public sector unions are out of touch with reality, because they are protesting the imposition of a pension levy on workers in the public sector and [...]

Reasons to march

Ken writes:
I didn’t have time on Saturday to compose a proper justification for going on the protest march, but I feel one is necessary, because such things are liable to be assigned to just one set of (usually simple and selfish) motives and I think our motives were more complicated.
The premise from which a proper [...]

Today, we march

Ken writes:
I’m dragging us out to the workers’ protest march in Dublin today. Dot is coming along but with reservations. We both have them. We’re convinced that if the country really is in such dire financial straits as they say, then a pension contribution/levy is a sensible means to reduce the Government’s outgoings (I [...]