Archive for the ‘Income and poverty’ Category
Wednesday, May 3rd, 2006
News today that tax receipts in Ireland are up. So much so good for government finances. However, as Joan Burton points out:Today's Exchequer Returns confirm yet again that Value Added Tax has become the largest element in the government's tax coffers, continuing to outpace Income Tax Receipts by ...
Posted in Income and poverty | Comments Off
Sunday, March 5th, 2006
Over at Tuppenceworth Fergal Crehan has a thoughtful piece that raises a point I've seen discussed, also, at Irish Indymedia regarding responses to the riot in Dublin last week - that is, the dismissive and Daily Mail-style hatred for the 'underclass.' I say Daily Mail because their
Middle-England blend of ...
Posted in Income and poverty, Prisons and crime, Society and culture | Comments Off
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006
Regular readers will know that I often like to dip into official statistics as a means of monitoring changes in society and economy, something I picked up during my time working in telecoms. My most recent foray has been taking a look at new figures (PDF) for the trade balance ...
Posted in Income and poverty | Comments Off
Tuesday, August 30th, 2005
A useful article on the Business Week site gives the latest figures for poverty in the United States, with some intereesting additional information.
The numbers in poverty increased in 2004 to 37 million, bringing the rate up to 12.7%. The authors note that It marks the fourth straight increase in the ...
Posted in Income and poverty | Comments Off
Thursday, July 14th, 2005
Tomorrow's Irish Times has an intriguing front page article about a government plan to convert many private beds in public hospitals to public use. (For those not familiar with the Irish health system, it is as complex and convoluted as it sounds.) The plan is to sell land on the ...
Posted in Income and poverty | Comments Off
Wednesday, July 6th, 2005
Bernie Goldbach has a piece on his blog about poverty - or what he sees as the lack of it - in Ireland, citing my recent response to Friedman as one of his sources at the end.
There seem to be three main planks to his argument. First, commonly quoted statistics ...
Posted in Income and poverty | 1 Comment »
Friday, July 1st, 2005
Thomas Friedman's column in the New York Times today argues that France and Germany should follow the economic policies of Ireland, apparently basing this on a recent trip to Dublin. He makes the Irish system sound like an unmitigated success, based on our decreasing worker protections.
While there may be some ...
Posted in Income and poverty | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, June 29th, 2005
In today's Daily Illini there's another installment in their series on binge-drinking among students. Right on the front page of the newspaper there's a quote from a student:Paramedics tested Siah's blood alcohol content and said that he needed to go to the hospital for alcohol poisoning. Before they could get ...
Posted in Income and poverty | 1 Comment »
Thursday, June 23rd, 2005
The EU Parliament has finally voted to reform the salary scale and expenses system for MEPs. Up to now MEPs have had salaries equivalent to those of national representatives in their countries, which has meant extremely wide variances in pay levels. In order, in part, to alleviate this MEPs have ...
Posted in Income and poverty | Comments Off
Thursday, June 23rd, 2005
For those of us with only a passing understanding of the EU's agricultural subsidies the current furore over sugar subsidies is confusing. The EU has announced plans for a radical 'reform' of these subsidies, reducing them substantially.
Where it becomes complicated is that the changes are expected not only to wipe ...
Posted in Income and poverty | Comments Off
