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Column The pain of debt is not quick – it is a ceiling that lowers inch by crucifying inch

What is debt, and why do we all buy into this debt culture? Jillian Godsil discusses her own financial problems and the unsustainable status quo of modern Ireland.

THIS WEEK, the first case of personal insolvency went through in a court in Monaghan. The man’s name in question was not released but he achieved a write down of some 70 percent of his debts.

However, in time, this same man will be named and shamed on a public register for all to view, not just in a private credit rating as previously. Naturally, his case raised a huge amount of interest with some sides welcoming the new laws, and others stating that he borrowed the money and he should go down with the debt. A few enlightened souls suggested that this business man would now be able to start again and provide future employment, which is better than having him stagnate.

However, what is missing from this picture are the vast numbers of people, myself included, who are too broke to even enter the Insolvency Service. The business man at the centre of the first case must have been earning enough still to be in a position to offer his creditors some return, otherwise they would not done a deal, even at such a large write-down.

There are many people who simply do not have enough money to be able to offer anything above their income. In fact, they are living below government guidelines of what expenses they should be given.

I, along with many others, am living below the poverty line

It was a bit of a shock to discover that I, along with many other people, am living below the poverty line. But, then, why am I surprised? I have fuel courtesy of a charitable donation – otherwise the children and I would wear not just extra jumpers but duvets while watching TV; we do not eat out, we shop once a month in the discount grocery stores; we do not go on holidays, and there had better not be a need for extra money on Monday as I just don’t have it.

Debt does not come like a sword slashing in the night: it is a ceiling that lowers inch by crucifying inch. Parents and adults try and shoulder the ceiling but it is stronger than them. Sadly, suicide has been seen as the only way out by some – and, of course, we all know it that is a devastating reaction to a temporary problem.

This video tries to look at just what debt is, and why we all buy into this culture. It looks at those who abuse it – riding on the top and unwilling to see the real suffering at the coalface. And it tries to give hope too; we do not get out of this life alive, but please god we live it to the full – regardless of our debt.

And I am in good company as this week too – the Pope released his Evangelii Gadium, or Joy of the Gospel, where he attacks capitalism as a form of tyranny. I think it is time we thought outside the box.

Here are my thoughts as I wonder about debt…


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Jillian Godsil is a writer living south of Dublin. She is also a freelance broadcaster and journalist. In 2013 she wrote four books. Next year she will write just one.  She lives with her two teenage girls, dog, cat and two horses in a tiny village. For more, see jilliangodsil.com.

Read: Most of borrower’s debt written off in first deal under new insolvency regime

Read: Additional consumer protections for debt management firms published

Read: 85 per cent in debt deals are families with children

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52 Comments
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    Mute Michael
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    Dec 1st 2013, 7:58 PM

    Two years ago I was in so much dept I looked at my life insurance to see if suicide was covered, as long as I had the policy over 12 months it was….. I thought about it for a while and ultimately realised it was a short term solution to a long term problem! I love my children, ultimately instead I took up a job offer abroad away from my wife and kids, I’m paying my bills and my family are doing ok, every night I cry myself too sleep dreaming of my family and thinking FG/labour Fcuk them all my family will survive their lies and incompetence…..

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    Mute Luke Sullivan
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    Dec 1st 2013, 8:14 PM

    You and I had a discussion on another topic recently – ESB.

    Thanks for your honesty. Keep posting Michael. You’re far from alone and yours is perhaps the most honest post I’ve seen to date on this issue on the journal.

    I’d love to see you writing an article, or letter, to the journal on your experiences. We need more people coming forward in print.

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    Mute Michael
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    Dec 1st 2013, 8:29 PM

    Luke, thanks for the reply, however that you will never see as I’m very private person. But this site allows you to vent your frustrations. As I’m a few hours ahead of you that’s it from me for today, thanks.

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    Mute Joan Featherstone
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    Dec 1st 2013, 9:07 PM

    Michael that was my family three years ago, keep the faith it’s a very very difficult time and hard to be apart, hopefully things will improve for you.

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    Mute Luke Sullivan
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    Dec 1st 2013, 10:26 PM

    ” however that you will never see as I’m very private person”

    You can be as private as you like and I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that one particular point of yours doesn’t hold up to scrutiny Michael.

    Again, if you feel like it, and you can gather the momentum through anger, frustration, pride, sense of loss, sense of betrayal, desperation – a myriad of all and everything – and many things I can’t account for and don’t want to pretend I can – by patronising you – though it’s the last thing I’d want to do in truth Michael. I’d still love it if you could give it a shot.

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    Mute Shanti Om
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    Dec 1st 2013, 11:05 PM

    Hey Michael – hoping you can find something back here soon so you can be with your family. It’s not right that you should have to be so far away..

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    Mute Jed I. Knight
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    Dec 1st 2013, 11:26 PM

    Michael I’m so sorry you’ve had to do this and I know damn well nothing I say can really make you feel any better tonight but rest assured you have done what you had to do for your family. Your wife and children will know of the sacrifices YOU’VE made for them, when all of you come out the other side of this it will be despite our government, not because of them. Your kids will say, my dad did that for us.
    We are in a position now where we can’t afford education, health, housing, heat, pensions, water will follow soon, the most basic things are being denied, and this is to those who are working. Even today they government announced, shamelessly, “the Taoiseach’s office now has a designated spin doctor working with Health and the HSE on communications”. In other words, they don’t want any more hospital CEO’s speaking out about the effect the cutbacks are having, they’ve shut them up with a smear campaign about their salary top up’s, this spin doctor will release the PR on that to the media.

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    Mute Luke Sullivan
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    Dec 1st 2013, 11:29 PM

    Michael. even Shanti is on your case :)

    You can’t say no to one so reasonable :)

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    Mute Luke Sullivan
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    Dec 1st 2013, 11:38 PM

    I agree Jed I. I don’t see how anyone could disagree with your post as it’s accurate.

    Yet, sometimes, we can all overdose on that element and not need reminding as that in itself can be a constant. Sometimes it’s nice simply to identify with the human element rather than the political.

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    Mute David Dolan
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 3:52 AM

    Thank you Michael for sharing your story. It perfectly describes my feelings on this debt induced social injustice.

    The government makes it virtually impossible to avoid being in debt. This then enslaves us to their every whim.

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    Mute Jed I. Knight
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 7:39 AM

    @ Luke I know what you’re saying and what you mean, but I suppose sometimes I get so frustrated looking around me at what our country has become and what’s happened to ordinary decent people. I was talking to a friend the other day, he had studied for a degree and found that it had a knock on effect of his kids seeing him study at night, it was natural, so they were of an age to be studying too. He inadvertently led by example.
    I have a relative, he has two masters degrees, and can’t get work in this country but has to travel to the UK and return home every second or third weekend. I know he’s not one odd these days and like Michael, who I’m guessing is further away, are also leading an example to their children. I can’t begin to imagine the pain and sacrifice men, and probably women too, like these are making for the sake of their families. I’ve seen a little glimpse of it with my relatives kids and I know they were very aware of what their father did for them, his eldest son also went on to work abroad too and I wondered if his father’s sacrifice made this decision easier. All are doing well.

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    Mute Martin Stapleton
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    Dec 1st 2013, 7:55 PM

    It’s a very dark and lonely place for those dealing with debt day in day out. No words, commentary or advice is of any comfort when every waking moment is consumed with the pressures that a debt collector can lay on the shoulders of a helpless son, daughter, parent or employer. Every day seems hopeless, everyday seems the same, every phone call makes you shiver, every letter sends panic into every vein and for what? Friends can become real or fake but your true friends come to your side and help you through the fog. H

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    Mute Luke Sullivan
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    Dec 1st 2013, 8:10 PM

    “However, what is missing from this picture are the vast numbers of people, myself included, who are too broke to even enter the Insolvency Service”

    You got that right. Truth is in this kleptocracy, even now, bankruptcy is only for the rich. And they still won’t declare bankruptcy here, they’ll go foreign.

    Good article Jillian. I was wondering how long it would take for someone to write something worth reading on this issue since its become enacted. You were first out of the blocks, and I appreciate that very much.

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    Mute Itto Ogami
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    Dec 1st 2013, 10:09 PM

    I agree,bankruptcy laws pretty much a rich mans ‘get out of jail’card.just look at mcfeely,supposedly ‘bankrupt’,but when push came to shove was able to magic up sizeable amount to avoid jail time.as always in ireland,the wealthy write their own rules!

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    Mute Tom Daly
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 12:48 PM

    Even better news,is that bankruptcy has been reduced from €1,450 to €750 ,since last week ..Uptil last week ,people couldn’t even afford to go into bankruptcy!

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    Mute Kevin Dobson
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    Dec 1st 2013, 8:16 PM

    Nobody likes to see others suffering under the weight of debt. But there was ridiculous borrowing going on during the Celtic Tiger. Lots of keeping up with the Jones’ and not enough planning for the inevitable rainy day. Debt didn’t just materialise. People signed up to it of their own free will. Too many now want to obfuscate personal responsibility for that. As if a gun was put to their heads to borrow the money in the first place. I’ve sympathy of course for people who were unlucky, losing their jobs etc. But I don’t see why I should pay with my taxes for the greedy and those who made mistakes while I was boringly prudent.

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    Mute Luke Sullivan
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    Dec 1st 2013, 8:21 PM

    yet, do you not see the hypocrisy Kevin, as a FGer, in this sentence of yours “But I don’t see why I should pay with my taxes for the greedy and those who made mistakes while I was boringly prudent” No alarm bells?

    either way, despite myself, and I’m likely in 1% of the journal readership when I say this, I like your posts very often. I think you make sense from time to time, and when you don’t make sense I can at least see the logic behind it though I disagree.

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    Mute Kevin Dobson
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    Dec 1st 2013, 8:52 PM

    Luke- I don’t associate FG at all with the debt this country faces or the burden on the tax payer. They weren’t at the helm when it was accumulating, they didn’t sign the deal that made it ours, they inherited the problem and had to try and fix it from a place of incredible weakness given our absolute dependence on our creditors. So I see no hypocrisy there. As a taxpayer I don’t see why I should pay for Anglo Irish or AIB but that’s where we are. That ship had sailed. I’ll never vote FF because of it, but then I never would have anyway. At least the banks were rightly demonised. There are private defaulters masquerading as heroes now…”I showed the banks”, like that Shepherds Pie clown in Clonmel, while we taxpayers ultimately foot the bill because they got greedy.

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    Mute gerbreen
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 6:59 AM

    When were the banks demonised?

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    Mute Tom Daly
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 12:42 PM

    So,you let them suffer on ,Kevin,is that it? Yes,there was ridiculous borrowing ,from all sides of the equation.You only have to look at your Junior Minister ,to proof that.Whilst,his borrowings might have been with a foreign bank,those borrowings will more than likely cost the Dutch taxpayer,whom are also innocent of his extravagance ..

    Just like your taxes,my taxes will also be used to help those people and that I’m only too happy to do..

    As the good old saying goes:”It is what it is!”

    If the banks start doing better deals with their customers and look for solutions that will keep a lot of families in their homes and at the same time ,these people can spend in the local economy,that can only be a good thing..

    Banks and people were both equally responsible for the loans ..We also know that these same banks have carried out fraud on a huge scale ,just like some people have ..

    As my loan(s) is with a foreign bank ,I won’t be costing the Irish taxpayer a cent,you’ll be glad to know..

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    Mute Tom Daly
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 12:50 PM

    *prove

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    Mute Donal O Neil
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    Dec 3rd 2013, 3:08 PM

    At 10.20 am this morning !

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    Mute Niallers
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    Dec 1st 2013, 8:10 PM

    Anybody who votes FG,FF or Labour at the next election should be ashamed of themselves.

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    Mute Michael
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    Dec 1st 2013, 8:20 PM

    You forgot to include SF, they just say what people want to hear ultimately they haven’t got a clue, we need new parties not made up of the old mobs or some dead TD son or daughter new blood with new thinking, continue the way we are and the entire next generation might as well get their passports now and leave.

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    Mute Lar Moran
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    Dec 1st 2013, 8:36 PM

    Ordinary people in debt need to understand one thing. The government of any kind will not react to individual actions. They will only react to trends. If more people used the UK bankruptcy route we would soon see a credible solution from Leinster House.

    Currently they have resolved or attempted to rescue their buddies in the banks, developers and legal circles. However the majority of debt laden people that are not in positions of power have been ignored.

    Those who profited most most from the boom are the ones who should be paying the most. However they are the ones who can afford the UK option and are now largely rubbing their hands waiting for the next opportunity to fleece us.

    37
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    Mute Kardia Skepsi
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    Dec 1st 2013, 7:52 PM

    We buy into this debt culture with borrowed money.

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    Mute B
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    Dec 1st 2013, 8:14 PM

    Jillian was once the Queen of Wicklow and now she’s the Queen of Aldi and Lidl.
    And she also lives with a man called Anto in Rialto… how times have changed.

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    Mute Luke Sullivan
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    Dec 1st 2013, 9:16 PM

    What’s that supposed to mean B? Do you know something I don’t, or is it simply good old fashioned kick them when they’re down begrudgery?

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    Mute B
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 12:26 PM

    Jillian was one of the Celtic Tiger snobs partying away and now she wants to cry…

    Having said that, I hope things work out well for the accidental activist.

    Reeling In The Interwebz Years, 14 Jan 2012: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8973421/Ireland-at-the-end-of-the-road.html *

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    Mute Anti_Social_Network
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 12:59 PM

    that house is now going for 150k

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    Mute GatheringYourMoney13
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 12:17 AM

    Ha Ha
    The corpse kicking
    “no one held a gun to their heads”
    and
    “they signed on the dotted line”
    brigades are out in full force on this sabbath day
    Trying to defend the indefensible corrupt/criminal bankers/regulators who bust this country.

    No Kevin Dobson.
    That ship hasn’t sailed.
    You will find that 99.99999% of these financially distressed families are not contesting that they borrowed the money.
    In fact you will find that want to and intend to pay every penny back if they were given realistic terms.
    Yes these distressed borrowers owe the banks money.
    However it does not give the bank’s and the government, to literally give them no way out except suicide.
    The blood of 100′s of suicides are on the bankers and their government stoogeens hands.

    You guys are great at saying
    “no one held a gun to their heads”
    and
    “they signed on the dotted line”
    But to what end?
    A few thousand more suicides??
    Do you want these penniless families who have suffered and starved (now for 3-4-5-6 years) executed or exterminated?
    Please spell out your solutions.
    You Shower Of Corrupt/Criminal Bank and Regulator Cheerleaders.

    Explain Ireland’s insolvency legislation to Insolvency Experts and practitioners from civilized countries with your biased gib and see the reaction you’ll get.

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    Mute GatheringYourMoney13
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 12:30 AM

    This is Ireland.
    A few short years ago when members of the clergy were abusing innocent Irish children ,
    they did have their facilitators, enablers and cheerleaders in government and in the general public.

    This time around it’s financial abuse.
    Financial abuse carried out by a governbank inbreed/crossbreed.
    Yet the cackling facilitators, enablers and cheerleaders are still there to support the vile abuse.

    GOMBEENS!!!!

    21
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    Mute GatheringYourMoney13
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 12:55 AM

    You can just imagine this scenario.

    “Ireland 2015″.
    “ECB rate rises”
    “Wage cuts, increased taxes and charges etc needed to bailout corrupt/criminal zombie banks forces an additional 200,000 Irish families into mortgage arrears”
    “10′s of thousands of Irish families now living in temporary accommodation”
    “Another half a million young/middle aged Irish natives emigrate”
    “Bank penned Insolvency legislation written of as a embarrassing failure”
    “Only a hundred insolvency arrangements completed for the entire year of 2014″
    “General election due shortly”

    What is the solution????
    Go to the grave sides of young distressed fathers who took their own lives (after being harassed and hounded by corrupt/criminal swinish bankers) and shout
    No one put a gun to their heads?
    You signed on the dotted line?
    “Wow”
    “Epic”

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    Mute Luke Sullivan
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 1:27 AM

    Slow down. Change your name from gatheringyourmoney2013, it’s too long.

    I’ve seen you post many times yet couldn’t remember your name when I wanted to find, or quote you. Know what I mean?

    Also I wouldn’t use the suicide reference as the suicide rate as an economic argument its actually been relatively stable over the last 20 years believe it or not.

    Though I agree it has caused many a death, I wouldn’t use it as it can be challenged too easily.

    Good luck, and again I’d ask you to change your name to something more recognisable, instantly recognisable unfortunately – it is as you know, a short attention span, consumer world.

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    Mute GatheringYourMoney13
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 8:03 AM

    Thanks Luke.
    Sorry about the length of my name.
    It seems to get a bit longer each time I get bumped from the journal.
    As regards suicides, I am just speaking from local occurrences normally related to financial torment,
    most of which are not reported as suicides.
    I think an audit on all our banks should be carried out.
    An audit that takes into account suicides on a per bank basis.
    Some one that I know in deep financial long term distress,
    went into one of our “pillar banks” to discuss their mortgage recently,
    the mature bank official quoted “It’s like a noose around your neck” at least 10 times during the conversation.
    I have personally heard a senior manager from a western european bank, operating in Ireland for decades,
    basically boasting of the numbers of suicides amongst their customer base.
    He has since been promoted.

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    Mute Stephen Cullen
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    Dec 1st 2013, 7:57 PM

    How much do you earn? What do you class as poverty? I’d love to know.

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    Mute Luke Sullivan
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    Dec 1st 2013, 8:17 PM

    Likewise, I’d love to know what you consider poverty? What’s your bread line?

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    Mute Kevin Dobson
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    Dec 1st 2013, 8:24 PM

    It’s a legitimate question. Poverty as I knew it in the 80′s was not having enough food to feed the kids. Somewhere along the line it became having to move from your plush D4 house, to something more modest. It’s not the same thing at all.

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    Mute Luke Sullivan
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    Dec 1st 2013, 8:27 PM

    Poverty in the 1980′s Kevin was bad for may. But it wasn’t poverty compared to those that grew up in the 1940′s or 50′s some would argue I’d imagine.

    All in all I agree with your point – but I’d still like to here what Stephen has to say.

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    Mute Mitch Cumstein
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 12:25 AM

    If anything the first few insolvency cases are a real eye opener. A couple on 100k with buy to lets getting 233k written off and entering the agreed process is one. A judge granting some high and mighty developers wife 10k a month. This is waiting to explode. There must be thousands of people thousands in worse financial predicaments than these people. These are just the ones who could afford the fees etc. There is a dam here with these fees but it will burst.

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    Mute john clarke
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 10:50 AM

    I listened to 10 minutes of this video before I got bored.

    First things first, if I you find yourself in unsustainable debt I feel sorry for you and your family’s plight. That does not mean however that I agree with what you say. The first point that you need to understand is that you are not a victim of the Celtic Tiger you were part of it. You believe that it was formed by talent. Talented Irish people who you believe created a wonderful economy. Sorry, but not they were not talented, they were deluded and you sound like you are deluded too. Ireland has had its independence for over 90 years the Celtic Tigers amounted to less than 10 of those years. The generation who created the Tiger were supposedly the best educated generation of Irish people since independence. What Talent they possessed was subsumed by greed, and greed became the great driving force of the Tiger years.

    The tax policies that you refer to were accepted by the majority of the people, no imposed, not dictated to them but voted for and accepted by them. The people chose them when they chose them the politicians who created them. They chose them because they offered the best chance of the advancement of personal wealth. If they were warned of the consequences such warnings were ignored. The €100k wedding cakes to which you refer were the epitome of the excess that defined the lives of those reached the zenith of the boom. Yet many people in that time not only admired them for their excess but aspired to that excess. The media, fat on the revenue created by property adverting, treated the doyens of the property boom as superstars and reported on their lives through their gossip columns. The Irish people sucked it up and chased the dream. A dream that they failed to realised was only realisable for the privileged few not the masses of the people.

    Banks threw money at people you say. I wonder who forced the people to catch it ? I worked in retail banking in the early years of the boom, in that time when banks changed from places of prudence and conservatism to glitzy shops who sold borrowing as a consumer good to a gullible public. That the banks policies were wrong is beyond doubt. That public sentiment demanded those sort of policies is also beyond doubt. My employer succumbed to that demand late in the day. The endless stream of customers and would be customers who walked in asking ‘how much can you lend?’ rather than ‘how much will it cost?’ eventually wore down the decision makers at the top. They joined the flood of lenders who threw prudence out the window and spent their foreign owners money with the gay abandon of the rest.

    Despite all of the temptation the majority of the Irish public did not climb aboard the train to economic disaster. Some people refused to up grade their property and watched their neighbours leave to live in the newer, bigger, brighter estate on the other side of town. Some newly employed decided that they would rent rather than buy the one bed roomed apartment in the city centre. Some decided to save for their single annual holiday rather than take out a new credit card to buy the second trip to Spain. Some people decided that they did not need to own the Spanish apartment and kept the mortgage reducing instead of seeking equity release. There were many reasons why many people made different choices in their lifestyle.

    The choices made in those brief Celtic Tiger years were not forced upon anyone however much we might like to wish to believe it. Those choices were exactly that – choices. The effects of those choices are what drives our lives now. We must live by the consequences of those choices. In my years in banking I saw many businesses prosper and saw some fail. I witnessed different people live vastly different lifestyles on similar salaries. The one commonality however was that they all stood or fell on the basis of the decisions that they made. Those who prospered often acclaimed their own ingenuity while those who failed often blamed the circumstances around them.

    At the outset I said that I only listened to the first 10 minutes of the video, when it reached the bank guarantee and the bankers pensions I lost the will to listen. This country elected people who looked after themselves because as you quoted earlier they believed ” that the rising tide lifted all boats.” The consequences of electing greedy people who looked after their own interests is that when the tide went out they left with it while we are high and dry. My part in the Celtic Tiger has left me “retired” 12 years earlier that I would ever have intended on a reduced pension trying to pay for three kids in college. My life savings will be wiped out by that so my actual retirement will not be as comfortable as it could have been or indeed as I thought it would. Thankfully my debts are not enormous but my lifestyle has changed because of a vastly reduced income.

    As I said at the outset I sympathise with your plight and perhaps in those last 20 minutes that I did not listen to, you outlined how your own poor decision making brought you to where you now are. Sorry I could not listen to more but honestly I find the apparent detachment of own responsibility too much to take seriously in those first 10 minutes.

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    Mute Katie Did Next
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 6:45 AM

    Well Jillian about two years ago I wrote to you after one of the other articles. Its not alright you had better options. You choosing to be a poster girl for bankruptcy or slavery is rubbish. Shame on you and anyone else who supports this corrupt BS by blindly agreeing to it.

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    Mute Tom Hara
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    Dec 1st 2013, 10:32 PM

    You know what was even worse though… all these local bank managers going around with guns forcing people to take yet another loan so they could keep up with their neighbours! !

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    Mute Luke Sullivan
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    Dec 1st 2013, 11:33 PM

    Again Tom – this is my 5th or 6th post to you tonight. Yet at no point have you displayed any understanding of the human condition. None. Zilch.

    In your head, you are above temptation and criticism too.

    It must be a lonely place to be in the ‘I’m always right’ perch.

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    Mute Kevin Dobson
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 12:04 AM

    Luke- to be fair, there’s a big, thick line between having a certain sympathy for those who got caught up in the frenzy and being willing to pay for their excesses.

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    Mute Leon Taylor
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 9:57 AM

    Is this column by the same author who was trying to sell her house to us in a column a few months back? Also is there something wrong with living in a tiny village?

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    Mute Coddler O Toole
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 11:46 AM

    Around 97% of the money in circulation in the world today is created by the commercial banks when they issue loans. In issuing credit, banks simultaneously create brand new electronic deposits in our bank accounts. Quite simply, loans create deposits (new money). The banks bring this new money into existence by pressing keys on a computer keyboard, nothing more.
    For most people, the biggest purchase of their lives will be the family home and so the mortgage will be the largest debt they ever undertake. A bank can create a €200,000 mortgage in a couple of seconds. Over a term of 25 years at an interest rate of 4 to 5%, you will pay somewhere between €110k and €150k in interest payments to the bank on top of the principal.
    This means that a person on an average annual wage of €35k will work for 3 to 5 years and hand every single cent they earn in that time to the bank to repay interest on the money which the bank created from nothing in a matter of seconds.
    This is the enormous power that has been granted to the private banks which they have used to massively exploit the rest of us through the debt mechanism. It’s time to take these profit gouging entities into democratic public ownership and operate the banking utility for the general good of society.

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    Mute Catherine Mill
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    Dec 1st 2013, 10:52 PM
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    Mute Kenneth
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 8:35 AM

    The simple thing with debt is if you don’t like it then don’t get into debt. Stop whinging to us about your personal mistakes in life

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    Mute Tom Daly
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 12:42 PM

    You really are a special kind of mistake !

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    Mute Konjac noodles
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 4:50 PM

    One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust law. Martin Luther King

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    Mute Anti_Social_Network
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 11:43 AM

    Debt is not a horrible thing. Debt abuse is a horrible thing. Who to blame? We know its complex – government banks and people are all complicit.
    The pursuit of material things led and leads people to lose focus.
    Nobody ‘needs’ a 1.5million house.
    This woman has nearly been destroyed judging by the video by trying to be like everyone else.
    To be a success has been translated by the value of your house.

    Impossible to get rid of the goons running our democracies. People need to reject the pursuit of shiny material things, and to rely on family and friends. The banks will soon shrink away.

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