The poorest Irish have a standard of living almost 63% higher than the poorest in the UK”

33 comments

  3. Interesting that Ireland is not only a better standard of living than the UK at all levels, but also nearly all rich nations. Doesn’t fit in with the failed state narrative that those on the far-left and far-right like to portray us as.

    Also interesting to note how steep the shift upwards as at the low level. For all the moaning about FFG, the standard of living has increased sharply for those at the bottom and stayed the same for those at the top.

  4. It’s remarkable how people are not more aware of this and how it takes a UK journalist to point this out.

    This should be McWilliams bread and butter but he’s actually a spoofer.

    The narrative among the journalists, Trotskyite Academic/Politicians, Poverty Industry vested interests is that Ireland is a uniquely shit place.

  9. It’s amusing that so many people want to vote for Sinn Fein because they think things couldn’t get worse. They have no idea what real poverty looks like. They are oblivious to how far we could fall in terms of standards of living.

  10. This shouldn’t be that surprising. We’re relatively generous with social transfers and taxation is quite progressive, generally speaking

    I would say that this doesn’t take into account the fact that in Europe a lot more services are universal and socialised whereas here we pay for it… I’d be curious how the numbers would look with that all taken into account

  13. My mam had to move over to the UK to look after a relative who eventually passed away earlier this year. Shes had to stay over there while going through probate. In order to qualify for any sort of payment she has to look for work so she’s getting their version of jobseekers which pays a whopping ÂŁ83 p/w.

  14. The median household income in the UK in 2020 was ÂŁ30,500.

    Median, not average, so not too skewed by the few people making lots of money.

    Household. 50% of households, including 2 income households, make less than 30k a year before tax.

    Salaries in the UK are through the floor. It’s a really weird country to live in at the moment, where most of the people most abused by the system are also the government’s staunchest supporters.

  17. Ireland has huge wealth transfer. Crazy when you consider our most right wing party has been in government for a decade and the most right wing thing they’ve done on the taxation transfer front is reduce the top rate of tax by 1%. In the same time they’ve made huge tax cuts and increased welfare for the less well off. Where’s left from here?

    It’s all fine and dandy while the economy is doing well. Plenty of high earners and corporation taxes are keeping this setup going. What if we have a tech slowdown? Or worse a tech crash? IMO this is the biggest risk for the next (SF) government. If they can’t keep the economy going like the current government they might not have the money to transfer to the less well off. If that starts to happen things could go to pot very quickly. If they try to tax their way out of trouble it could deflate the economy further; if they cut back wealth transfer it would hurt their base and cause social unrest.

  18. I keep saying it but our greatest future geopolitical threat is social instability in Britain, specifically England. It’s not just a north/south thing either as there are areas around London that are poverty traps.

  19. I’d well believe it.

    People are going to freeze to death in the UK this winter. ÂŁ70 on the dole is gonna be a choice of heating or food.

  20. Doesn’t surprise me. Ireland is a social democracy with progressive taxation and generous social welfar me. The UK isn’t, even though they have the NHS

  21. I have family living in Surrey and go over to see them once or twice a year. When I first went over in 1997 I thought the UK was a much better place to live, higher standard of living so much more to do etc

    Now it’s the absolute opposite. At some point over the last 30 years we have surpassed them in quality of life in just about every way I can think of. Even my family over there agrees and are thinking about moving home. Everything from crime, food, social welfare, utility bills, health, education etc seems to be at a lower standard.

    I was last there in August this year. My uncle’s elderly neighbour had a suspected heart attack while I was there and was waiting three hours for an ambulance. Apparently the NHS are under savage pressure with ambulances. My Uncle was telling me the local police no longer do beat patrols or community based policing and it’s more common to see them zoom around in BMWs tooled up as armed response. There’s problems with gangs and stabbings, thieves on mopeds, robberies. My Aunt told me she got a call from her energy supplier warning her that her annual bill could be in the region of ÂŁ6000. They’ve already had very large price increases over there. Way more than we have so far. Now they are stuck with a prime minister they didn’t even elect who could be even worse than Johnson. Brexit continues to cause them problems. Social welfare is crap. It really seems to be on a downward spiral over there.

  22. The thing that I’m always taken back by anytime I’m in the UK is the level of deprevation. Particularly North of England. Makes the “worst” parts of Ireland look decent

  24. Bet I’ll get downvoted for this, bust surprised that nobody has noticed that this chart also shows that the majority of Irish people (admittedly a slight majority, but a majority nonetheless) would be financially better off in the US. Yes, that’s after accounting for healthcare costs (because that’ll be the first comment).

  28. Blair may be a war criminal but the poorest people were much better cared for when he was PM, in my city of Bradford most of the community initiatives that help the inner cities were founded under new Labour, in the last decade most social services are dying on their arse and we’re seeing kids in their early teens getting groomed by drug trafficking gangs near every day in the news, a decade of Tory rule has legit made parts of the country unsafe

  29. Constantly comparing ourselves to the UK and patting ourselves on the back when we’re simultaneously right next to them and extremely well aware – having quite famously walked out of their glorious old Evil Empire of Evil over a century ago – that they’re utterly dysfunctional gets old fast. Now compare us to an actually cool country.

  30. As a Brit living in Ireland I can definitely see this. Minimum wage in England your going to struggle a lot more than minimum wage in Ireland. Also Ireland has far more generous benefits

  32. Was surprised by this going off my own experience, but then again I left Ireland 20 years ago so no doubt much has improved as things got worse here. The regional divide plays a huge role in this, its hard to appreciate the north/south divide unless you have travelled here for a while; the south of England and a few swathes Scotland have an incredible standard of living, probably some of the best places to live in Europe. The north of England, Wales, N.I etc on the other hand are among western Europe’s poorest areas, you’d see things there that are shocking for a first world country.

  33. Ya England is fucked bro, I’m Irish blooded, born in England but we moved back to Ireland after 2 years of my birth. Place was such a shithole for anyone who wasn’t already well off that she knew I wouldn’t have a future.

    She was right, my siblings (on my fathers side, he got around) are all fucked right now, they’re nice people but they’re what most people would consider scumbags and it’s not even they’re fault, the system fucked em. Couldn’t even afford proper treatment for the mental health issues some of them clearly deal with.

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