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Y'know what really grinds my gears?

Started by Link Prime, 12 April, 2014, 01:47:44 PM

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TordelBack

That's a sad end to the story, Jayzus. Shower of bastards.

JayzusB.Christ

Cheers lads.  Yep, they're feckers. I take a tiny bit of consolation in knowing they didn't manage to get most of the parts before it was found.
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

TordelBack

#1292
Gear grindin' topic:  What's the deal with campsites in Ireland? 

I've been mooching about looking for holiday options for the summer, and the prices of campsites seem totally out of step with Europe.  Just one example: a colleague of mine from the far south of the island who was working over in Rush (north Co. Dublin seaside town, nice enough part of the world) for a few weeks, so what with it being June he and his missus decided to take the tent and make a partial holiday of it.  Cost him €50 a night for the pitch, no electricity, no bar/pool/kitchen, and showers cost €2 a throw. And you have to move the tent every 3 days "to protect the grass", which is the biggest load of crap I've ever heard. 

Meanwhile, I'm looking at 5-person static bungalow tents on the south coast of Brittany in July, swimming pool, sauna, site bar, beach access, kitchen, fridge, all the showers and 'leccy you like, for €30 a night. More than twice the fun for nearly half the price.

The answer, you'll not be surprised to learn, is the housing crisis.  Half the campers in the Rush site were working construction in the area (for months), and it turns out that €350 a week under canvas and a bit of personal freedom is way more appealing and affordable than endless commutes or sharing rooms with bastards in expensive shitholes. So yet another group of landlords exploiting our intractable accommodation misery.



JayzusB.Christ

That's incredibly depressing. We can't keep on like this
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

The Legendary Shark


I live on a campsite and people in crisis wash up here all the time.

[move]~~~^~~~~~~~[/move]




Professor Bear

My evil capitalism idea of a few years ago was to take advantage of the housing crisis to start a small business installing utilities in the back of vans because - well, there's a market for it.
Without massive investment in social housing, it's clear that in the next couple of decades, a significant number of working people - and not just the working poor - will be living in cars like something out of a Harry Harrison novel.

Hawkmumbler

Man Met in their infinite, lucid wisdom concocted a scheme a few years back to fit old concrete industrial pipes with amenities, running water, electric, insulation, etc. to support the housing crisis. Each 6ft by 24 ft "housing" would cost £20,000.

In 1994 my parents got a two bedroom terrace for less than that price.

Professor Bear

There are lots of practical - mostly depressing - solutions to the symptoms of housing shortages, but the actual problem is that under capitalism, scarcity is deliberate.

TordelBack

This, unfortunately, is the rub.  20-25% of Irish TDs, including a third of the Cabinet, are landlords.  Parties and individuals are heavily influenced, funded by and involved in the construction industry. >120,000 Irish people are landlords.  Many farmers see suitable land as their only route to a pension fund - as many middle-class middle-aged people see their houses the same way. And as we discovered in 2009-11, the country's tax-take depends largely on taxes and levies on new builds and transfers, whereas public housing would (superficially) be a drain on revenues to be met by Angry Voters Who Paid Full Price for Their Gaff.

It's in none of those people's interest to increase the supply of state-subsidised or even basic affordable housing.  The fewer they are, the more rent and houses cost, the better off the upper level of Irish society become, and the more desperate - and I suspect compliant to the quirks of the ever-worsening jobs market - the rest of us get. 

Or you could just keep it simple and blame asylum seekers. You know, the ones who live on €38.80 a week in a chalet in an abandoned holiday park. Jammy bastards.

Professor Bear

There are more empty houses than there are homeless people.  Mathematically speaking, there shouldn't really be a housing problem.

JOE SOAP

Quote from: TordelBack on 09 June, 2019, 06:21:02 PM
This, unfortunately, is the rub.  20-25% of Irish TDs, including a third of the Cabinet, are landlords.  Parties and individuals are heavily influenced, funded by and involved in the construction industry. >120,000 Irish people are landlords.  Many farmers see suitable land as their only route to a pension fund - as many middle-class middle-aged people see their houses the same way. And as we discovered in 2009-11, the country's tax-take depends largely on taxes and levies on new builds and transfers, whereas public housing would (superficially) be a drain on revenues to be met by Angry Voters Who Paid Full Price for Their Gaff.

It's in none of those people's interest to increase the supply of state-subsidised or even basic affordable housing.  The fewer they are, the more rent and houses cost, the better off the upper level of Irish society become, and the more desperate - and I suspect compliant to the quirks of the ever-worsening jobs market - the rest of us get. 

Or you could just keep it simple and blame asylum seekers. You know, the ones who live on €38.80 a week in a chalet in an abandoned holiday park. Jammy bastards.


Nail on frakking head.



paddykafka

Tordel's is right on the money.

But no need to worry anymore. Everything will be fine now, because of the exciting new development. mentioned in the link below.

https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/opinion-co-living-will-push-up-the-price-of-land-and-make-building-residential-homes-unviable-4669463-Jun2019/



Theblazeuk

 :eh:

Yeah fecking well excited to live in a flat share forever.

JayzusB.Christ

I'm very very lucky to have got out of the renting situation in Dublin, and that's only because my dad had enough capital to secure a loan for my boat (which I'm paying off myself, but it's a whole lot cheaper than rent).

It's infuriating, though, to see my friends and my students being ruthlessly and legally exploited by greedy landlords and self-serving politicians, of which, as TB points out, there is a very substantial Venn diagram intersection.

More and more people seem to be swallowing that divide-and-conquer pill of blaming the foreigners.  People who really should know better, too:. Two good friends of mine seem very concerned about immigrants pushing up rent.  One of them has his mortgage paid by his parents and is engaged to a Venezuelan, while the other is an immigrant himself in Korea.  As usual, it's the OTHER foreigners they have a problem with.
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

Definitely Not Mister Pops

Irish people demonising  foreigners sound incredibly foolish when you take into account the population of this island hasn't yet recovered to mid 19th century levels
You may quote me on that.