Poverty in Ireland in the 21st Century

Here's a fact: 15.7% of Ireland’s population live below the poverty line. Put another way, over three quarters of a million or 760,000 people in Ireland live below the poverty line. No group is immune. Children under 16 years of age account for 23.9% of all those in poverty. Students and school children under 18 years account for 18.4% of all those in poverty. Workers account for 14.3%. The unemployed account for 13.5%. Those who care in the home account for 13.1%. Those unable to work due to illness or disability account for 9%. Retired persons account for 5.9%. One in five children are at risk of poverty. This is not fiction. This is now. In Ireland.

 Top 10 reasons people are living in poverty

1. There are 790,000 people living in poverty: According to the Irish National Anti-Poverty Strategy, people living in poverty in Ireland are unable to maintain a standard of living acceptable by Irish society due to their lack of resources.

 2. Only 18 percent of adults in poverty hold jobs: Despite working, these people do not earn salaries that allow them to cover basic costs of living for themselves and their families. They are called ‘the working poor’ by Social Justice Ireland.

3.  There is a large income gap in Ireland: Social Justice Ireland found that the bottom 10 percent of Irish households only received 3 percent of the country’s total disposable income, while the top 10 percent of households received 24 percent of the income.

4.  There are regional differences in poverty: Poverty in the more developed southern and eastern regions of Ireland is 50 percent less per capita than in the rural border, midlands and west regions of the country.

5.  Disadvantaged populations are more likely to be in poverty: Sick or disabled people, and children younger than 18, are more likely to be at risk of poverty or in consistent poverty than healthy adults.

6. Single parent households are three times as likely to be in poverty: Compared to two-parent households, families with only a single parent are three times as likely to be in consistent poverty and twice as likely to be at risk of poverty.

7.  Rent prices are increasing: Rent prices in Ireland are rising at six times the rate of European rates. When housing prices rise, the prices of other goods rise as well, causing poor families to stretch their resources to cover basic life necessities.

8.  Moree than 8,500 people were homeless in Ireland in December 2017: This number includes more than 3,000 children and represents a 17 percent increase in the number of homeless families since December 2016.

9. Despite the poverty, economic growth is occurring: The Irish economy has moved past its recovery phase following the recession and into a time of growth. In 2017, 55,000 jobs were created, and in 2018, 4 percent growth of the economy is projected.

10  Specific policies are necessary to reduce poverty: To combat poverty in Ireland, specific government policies to address the areas of structural inequality are necessary. For example, creating a minimum living wage so all workers can afford a basic standard of life.

 Even though there are still many steps needed to overcome poverty in Ireland, the Irish people are highly resilient.

 

 

COVID‑19 is merely a harbinger of worse plagues to come.

Nature Fights Back

We can't expect to go on destroying our world without any consequences.More than half of earths species have been wiped out.We are daily destroying earths natural defenses, Rain-forests, ozone and polluting rivers and seas.We have put profit ahead of all other aspects of life.We have left 1% of our population control 90% of our worlds wealth and resources.We have deliberately kept countries and people in dire poverty in order for wealthier countries to thrive.The wealthy with the backing of governments deliberately keep the less well off under control by manipulating prices and rates.

Viruses have no value on wealth and position they attack everyone the same, however, its mainly poor, the feeble and non-whites that bear the brunt of its devastation.Those less well off don't have access to medical treatment that is reserved for the private and wealthy patients.We are all in this together.

We are heading into the greatest recession of all time and nobody knows the final outcome.One thing for sure it won't affect the wealthy.It will be up to the workers to pick up the pieces and begin again.Like all wars the ordinary person goes out to fight while the wealthy stay at home and profit from it.

Meanwhile, the Pandemic continues to spread rapidly.  

In recent decades, epidemics of SARS, MERS, Ebola, H1N1 flu, Zika, and monkey-pox showed the havoc that new and re-emergent pathogens could wreak.It takes just one transmissible virus to start a pandemic.Sometime in late 2019, the wrong virus left a bat and ended up, perhaps via an intermediate host, in a human—and another, and another. Eventually it found its way to the Huanan seafood market,
and jumped into dozens of new hosts in an explosive super-spreading event.
 
Our species has relentlessly expanded into previously wild spaces. Through intensive agriculture,
habitat destruction, and rising temperatures, we have uprooted the planet’s animals,
forcing them into new and narrower ranges that are on our own doorsteps. Humanity has squeezed the world’s wildlife in a crushing grip—and viruses have come bursting out.

In the age of cheap air travel, an outbreak that begins on one continent can easily reach the others.
SARS already demonstrated that in 2003, and more than twice as many people now travel by plane every year. To avert a pandemic, affected nations must alert their neighbors quickly. In 2003, China covered up the early spread of SARS, allowing the new disease to gain a foothold, and in 2020, history repeated itself.Travel bans make intuitive sense, because travel obviously enables the spread
 of a virus. But in practice, travel bans are woefully inefficient at restricting either travel or viruses.
They prompt people to seek indirect routes via third-party countries, or to deliberately hide their symptoms.And they can create a harmful false confidence, so countries “rely on bans to the exclusion of the things they actually need to do—testing, tracing, building up the health system.

It is hard to stare directly at the biggest problems of our age. Pandemics, climate change, the sixth extinction of wildlife, food and water shortages—their scope is planetary, and their stakes are overwhelming. We have no choice, though, but to grapple with them.  

 

 

  

 Winds of Change

The Secret Evolution

The world is engulfed in so many crisis at the moment does anyone know what is really going on?

Behind closed doors those in the "Golden Circle"are plotting the end of civilization as we know it.

The next 10 years will show many changes and most not for the good of all.

Some,  will  do very well while most will be devastated and will not realize what has happened until it is too late.

This Covid  Pandemic has giving governments the chance to experiment with people's tolerance and willingness to follow their instructions. They got people used to government control over how much they need to survive, slowly decreasing payments to see how far they can go. They have kept our pubs (so called "Wet Pubs") closed others serving food allowed to continue at restricted levels. They have plunged countries into huge volumes of debt. Rich countries use debt to control and pilfer the resources of less well off and poorer nations, a ploy they have used successfully for years. They preached that it is safer to remain indoors and avoid crowds which controls the movement of people. They control people through media released news that most will treat as accurate. They will only release their plans a little at a time to keep people under the illusion that they are acting only on the behalf of the country as a whole.

So, what is really happening?

We had the "Industrial Revolution" which brought changes to the way people worked and survived.It has now ran its course and the next stage of human evolution has arrived. We have now entered the "Digital Age". In the next 10 years or even less there will be huge changes in the way people will survive. Highly efficient computers, AI (Artificial Intelligence) and advances in Robotics will change everything. These artificial aids were introduced as a ploy to make people's lives easier and more efficient. But, what really is happening is that they will replace most forms of labor as we know it.

Already they are pilling billions into driver-less vehicles - which eventually will put millions of drivers out of work. They will have driver-less trucks delivering country and eventually world - wide, twenty four hours a day. That's only one instance there will be many more. People working in retail already feel the affects of online shopping which is increasing year by year. When they eventually go out of business the knock-on affect will be devastating. Landlords will lose their commercial lettings payments which will force them to increase rents and make it impossible for most people to afford.House prices will soar and so will repossessions and evictions. Banks are already shedding staff and replacing them with technology. They don't want to see customers anymore. They want all transactions performed electronically. Your Gas and Electric bills will be paid (most are already) by Direct Debit, everything else with Credit Cards. 

Every transaction people make will be recorded digitally. They will introduce Digital Passports where every bit of information about you will be stored. Next it will be Digital Money and Virtual Credit Cards (already in use) where everything you buy or invest in will be recorded. 

 I could go on and on but I think by now you are getting the picture.

Get ready now or be left behind.

 The Terminator and Judgement Day may not too far fetched