Quick summary of Ireland’s first 21st century decade
If you’re looking for a concise summary of what happened to Ireland in the first decade of the 21st Century and what awaits us in the next decade, Morgan Kelly provides it in his paper The Irish Credit Bubble.
In summary, the nation’s opportunity for long term sustainability was squandered for short-term gain and the citizenry have been left chained to a debt that will not be paid off in their lifetime, if ever. Through a combination of incompetence, ignorance (usually willful), delusion, short-term thinking, group-think, cute-hoorism, and plain old-fashioned thievery, the potential that briefly showed at the end of the nineties has been lost for another generation.
With a little bit of restraint, an appreciation of the public interest and the common good, and a few lessons in civics (and basic economics) it could have been so different.
Mark Waters marked time at 3:17 pm on December 24th, 2009 | Add a comment .
