Why No Revolution?

So after the Celtic Tiger the Irish economy has crashed. The government, the banks and the property tycoons have brought our country to it’s knees. Those out of work have reached nearly half a million. Thousands have been made redundant. Hundreds have lost their homes. And the government have the cheek to tell us the recession is over!

So what are the army doing? What has there been no revolution? Why have half the government ministers who led us into this mess, along with the bankers and property developers not been manacled and thrown into jail? Not to punish anybody but to make a clear statement for the future that people who wilfully cause catastrophes like this will not walk away free, pocketing the money they made (including massive handouts and pensions) and laughing at the rest of us.

I have quite happily chucked the idea into the mix that the government, bankers and property developers are the ones to blame. But are they? Some will say that the Western World was heading that way. The good times simply could not continue. But Canada for one doesn’t appear to be in the same mess and although I’m not sure why, it does appear that their financial regulation systems picked up on early troubles in the US markets and did something about similar potential threats in their own areas. It seems in Ireland we did not. What in hell was the financial regulator doing? He seems to have allowed the banks to lend 100% mortgages to people. The banks were allowed to loan massive amounts of money to single businessmen. One of these guys even moved his loans over to another financial institution while his own bank was being audited in order that the auditors would see nothing amiss. These guys are supposed to know what they are doing, but even the dogs in the streets could see that the bubble was just getting bigger and bigger and had to blow at some point. One result is that today when I hear a financial package being advertised with the usual blurb that it is regulated by the financial regulator, I just laugh. In fact, I’d venture the opinion that I don’t think economists really know what they are talking about. They seem to disagree with each other all the time and they sure as hell all can’t be right! We’ve seen the results.

Did the property developers not see that the market could not sustain the continual growth? Did they assume there would be buyers for all the property they were throwing up all over the place? They borrowed massive amounts from the banks who were all too willing to lend in the hope that the bust would never come or at best come only after they were long gone. What were they thinking?

But worst of all the government, who after all are where the buck is supposed to stop, never saw this coming. Or if they did, they buried their heads in the sand. So these guys who were voted in were not fit for purpose. I don’t mind a small mistake or two. After all we are only human. But this couldn’t be called a mistake. This was a catastrophic meltdown! For years the government mismanaged and misruled. They put their friends in positions of power. They regarded the ordinary man on the street as a fool. They paraded around as if they were kings ordained by God on high to rule.

And do you know the worst of it? They are still in power and they are still allowing the same old thing to happen time and time again. They are allowing semi-state bodies, such as FAS and the HSE to continue to mismanage and waste public money. The civil service is a crying disgrace. One hand simply doesn’t know what the other hand is doing. The inefficiency is palpable. It is scary. What else is going to crawl out of the woodwork?

But there’s also us. You and me. Can we be blamed for this mess? To a certain extent, I have to say yes. We seemed to lose the run of ourselves. Celtic Tiger roared and we all got rich (well, relatively speaking). There were few unemployed. Most had their own homes, cars, mod cons, you name it. Most went off on their sunshine holiday (no longer once a year, but twice!). Many even bought property abroad. Oh yes, it was a good time to be alive. Let the good times roll! Okay, I acknowledge, to our shame, there existed far too many poor people, but that’s another subject.

Then the whole edifice came crashing down around our feet. Many found that the house they called home and which was mortgaged up to the hilt, lost 30% or more of it’s value, plunging them into negative equity. Many lost their jobs and then because they couldn’t keep up their mortgage repayments lost their homes too. Those financial idiots who loaned massive amounts of money with a great big smile on their faces, now took the houses back and chucked people out on the street. Our own fault? Come on, if you offer a man 100% mortgages and get rich schemes (property abroad etc.), you can’t expect him to be a economist and see through the deadly candy he was lapping up. Not only did the lending institutions (regulated by the financial regulator, remember!) lend so much money, the government didn’t try to stop them. The same government voted in by the people to do a good job of governing and looking after the state. And that means making sure that people are behaving with a modicum of sense. After all, they are supposed to have all the experts anybody could ever need to advise them.

So I think we can safely lay the major blame for the mess at the feet of the government first and foremost. After that come the financial people and the property developers. I suspect after that would follow the semi-state agencies who squandered public money through inefficiency and bad management. At the bottom of the heap comes the rest of us.

But let’s take a brief diversion and consider the real cause of the problem. I think this can be summed up in one word: greed. What in hell does anybody want with a loan of around €100 million? And this was what one particular banker had. Bankers couldn’t earn enough money. Property developers couldn’t develop enough property. Government ministers couldn’t get enough power and all that goes with it.

The current government, Fianna Fáil, has been in power for the last 10 years non stop. In fact they have been in power since 1987 except for a gap of about 3 years. That is far too long for one party. They get lazy and corrupt. They get power crazy. They don’t keep their eye on the ball. And we can see that too. During the Celtic Tiger years when our economy was booming, why did the government not save for the rainy day? Surely they knew the boom years could not last or were they stupid enough to think that it would last till long after they were dead and gone, and even then, did they never think of their children and grandchildren who would be left to pick up the tab? And what about all their financial advisers? Were they not advising them? And if so, were they not listening? It was criminal the way these guys let the country run out of control. And of course it’s never they who will pay. No, it’s the ordinary guy on the street.

Can a change of government do the trick? Who do we have? The Greens are a joke. They are propping up an incompetent government in order to get their environmental policies through. This is a joke. The environment can’t be changed by us. The sun is causing the climate changes and there’s little we can do about it. So forget about them. Fianna Gael are a clone of Fianna Fáil and I can’t see them doing much better. So we’re left with Labour. Is a Labour government, if they got into office in the morning capable of doing any better than what we have. I for one definitely think so.

However, I’m not a cheer leader for Labour (or any other party) and I really think the best thing is to stop voting along party lines and vote for people (of whatever party) who look like they could do a decent and honest job. Then once your candidate gets elected, watch him or her and if they do well, vote them in again. If not, vote them out. Probably a bit of pie in the sky, but once politicians begin to realise the only reason they’ll earn votes is if they earn them, we might find a change of attitude and they will climb down from their ivory towers and began to treat the ordinary citizens of this country with a bit of respect. And realise that they are in power to do a specific job and not to pull the wool over everybody’s else’s eyes or to rip the rest of us off.

The government needs to stand up and take responsibility, and I haven’t seen many of them do that. They should take responsibility, admit they blew it and start to fix it. But not by taking away children’s allowance, attacking the pensioners again, taking money from easy targets. No, they need to get creative about this. What about asking the rich bond holders and corporate people who have the money to take the biggest hits? What about taking away some of the massive handouts all those bankers walked away with? What about removing that ridiculous tax free status for rich artists? What about clamping down on all those tax exiles? What about following Britain and removing children’s allowance from those who don’t really need it? And I’m sure there are plenty of other ways to fix this mess rather than the way they are currently going about it. The government have paid millions out to consultants to get advice, well it’s about time they paid consultants to give them some good advice for a change. I’m sure it’s there.

So, why has there been no revolution? I guess because it’s not the way to go. Revolution only puts in power probably worse people than we already have. And while I insist we badly need a change of government, let’s do it the democratic way. And if the Greens and Fianna Fáil really had the good of the country at heart, they would step aside and let the people decide. And for God’s sake, let’s make good decisions this time.