Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual (human) rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned.
Our buddy in Ireland has survived the demonstration to bring us an account of it. It was not very successful and there was no violence. (I like the no violence part.) He gives an account of the events of that day in usual modest way. It was a good read for me.
James Pilant
Spending a few days in Dublin last week, I had a chance to sample a little of the vibe close up. The leader of Ireland’s trade union congress, David Begg, summed it up: “There’s a very angry mood in the country. Until recently, if you’d stopped somebody on the street and asked them what they really thought, they’d have said ‘If we keep our heads down for a couple of years, we can get back to where we were before’. That was fed by government fiction about green shoots of recovery. The dawning realisation is that the picture is far worse.”
So far, provisions have been made for €45bn of losses at Ireland’s leading banks – Anglo Irish, AIB, Bank of Ireland and Irish Nationwide, which amounts to €10,000 for every Irish man, woman and child. Using funds from the country’s national pension reserve, a further €10bn will be added to the bill following last month’s international rescue package. That’s not gone down well.
“It’s not a bailout package, it’s a transfer of wealth from the ordinary worker to the banks,” Colm Stephens, a university administration worker, told me. “We’re being asked to rescue the richest people in the world – the people who gambled and lost, who bet on every horse in the race.”
Every man, woman and child in Ireland is going to suffer raised taxes and cut benefits when the major beneficiaries of the boom are untaxed and unaffected by the crisis. That’s right. The banking industry is not going to be paying for the bailout, not even part of the bailout. The weight falls on the regular citizens of Ireland, their lamented and unprotected middle class.
Is that what’s going to happen here? Are we going to have cuts in Social Security benefits, Medicare and social services while the enormous financial industry pays nothing?
It is easy to see that a transaction tax or Robin Hood tax could raise hundreds of billions of dollars. Why are they who have reaped every conceivable benefit from the American taxpayer not paying a fair share?
Is the middle class the only part of the economy where taxes can be raised and benefits cut?
James Pilant
Today, our friend is getting ready to go back out in the streets. There is a demonstration today against the government loan and the austerity measures that go with it. You can get hurt doing this kind of thing. I’ve never had the opportunity to march in the street in the face of well prepared police with horses and dogs. I’m not looking forward to having such an opportunity. I’m afraid of horses when they are just standing docile. I can only imagine what they can do in the wrong hands. As for dogs, well, I’ll let your imaginations work.
Say something appropriate to your deity, your universal force, your philosophical ideas, for today is a demonstration in the face of a hostile police.
James Pilant
This is Homophilosophicus take on the Authoritarian in Irish History and the last in today’s series. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this as much as I have.
He has a thoughtful mind in a difficult place in a terrible time. The combination is painful but often results in very fine writing.
James Pilant
Homophilosophicus is angry. Big Time Rage. So, keep your computer away from combustibles and read.
James Pilant
We’re back discussing the demonstrations against the government. This is fascinating. Once again, I want to assure my good readers that I asked permission to publish all these blog posts. Single blog posts, sometimes I ask about, sometimes I don’t. But to use this many is in my mind a misuse of reblogging when done without permission.
James Pilant
The long term social effects of the crisis on the individual are discussed here.
(I received direct permission to reblog all of these posts from the period of the crisis.)
James Pilant
This is Homophilosophicus’ theme to the crisis, his take on the moral of the story.
James Pilant
This entry is eye witness to one of the demonstrations. I particularly liked this one.
James Pilant
The Irish Crisis. Homophilosophicus explains the unjust nature of the agreement saddling Ireland with debt for years to come. (I’ve reblogged this one before, but I want them all in order.)
It is very rare to see blogging on site in the middle of a crisis. This is good reading.
James Pilant
Pilant's Business Ethics Blog 
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