Thank you for your articles and podcast. They are a refreshing alternative. On a related note, I'm not sure if it's 'lies' in the classic sense, but I stunned by the debate (or lack of) on mandatory hotel quarantine for EU and the USA. Talk about biting off the hand that feeds. Why would FDI look at right Ireland now over other European alternatives. What about all of the non nationals we employ in our FDI and domestic sectors. May of these have gone home now, and can work from home, during the lockdown (who could blame them). They have no incentive to return. If we want to go back to a butcher, baker economy then MHQ is the way to go. The public are being whipped into a frenzy by the opposition and been beaten from pillar to post. Parts of the media are equally culpable. IBEC, ISME, IDA / EI and others are eerily silent. So many young, educated foreign people make Ireland a unique and attractive place. We will be paying the price of this for many years to come. Our tax rates are already under threat and now we are shooting ourselves in the foot. Gone are the days we being an English speaking country gave us a unique advantage. In recent times, I have rarely met anyone under 40, with half an education, in the EU that does not speak English.
Thanks Gene. The MHQ is just a response to social media and populist opposition pressure. It will do serious damage. An eventual cost-benefit analysis will not look favourable in fear. Thanks Jim
I tend to agree: MHQ looks like a PR exercise rather than serious attempt to control Covid in a thoughtful and evidence-based way. The reports of the tested (negative), vaccinated health care worker being quarantined speaks to a blunt, inflexible thoughtless process.
The Irish Government do not trust the population to behave in a sensible and rational manner in the face of an emergency. This is understandable in the context of Golfgate when it was apparent that they cannot be trusted themselves. In turn the Irish population will both comply and act out in the manner of teenagers who aren't trusted to stay home alone. It's more a stupid than a vicious circle but one that needs to be addressed and I commend you for doing so here. This cycle needs to be broken and a start would be a thorough inquest into what went right and wrong in the handling of this pandemic. Also necessary because we are being warned that this will not be the last. Great read again Jim and Chris.
Thank you Michael. You've hit the nail on the head. I love your 'more a stupid than a vicious circle'. Wish I'd thought of it - I probably will! This debate is so important. Thanks again.
Chris and Jim, I love the podcast and keep up the good work. I'm not sure that I fully agree with the thinking here. It may be more true in a climate with less rain. I'm struck by how many people don't understand why we are allowed to 'meet in a public park but not in a private garden'. Surely it's partly to do with what happens if it starts to rain? Or after two glasses of wine when the sun goes in? I think we talking about the management of people's behaviour and how sometimes simple though blunt rules are more effective than more targeted or nuanced ones. I'm not a 'behavioural science' expert but perhaps it's something to do with that? There is a part of us all that can't handle the truth and if you can't see that, then maybe you can't handle it! Looking forward to more thought-provoking items.
Thanks John. I don't think we disagree about much. I suspect you are making the expert's points for them: they don't trust us to behave when it rains or when we have had a glass or two. My riposte to that is that trust often runs both ways. It's usually better to tell the whole truth. Thanks again - this is what debate is all about.
It's a dilemma, particularly in the '(dis)information age'. You're an editor and when someone dies because of a reaction to a Covid vaccine, do you publish in the health column on page 15 as a 'one in a ten million' occurrence in the interest of balanced information and sell your usual 50,000 copies, or sensationalise it on the front page and sell 150,000? I agree about trust, but wonder is it true always and everywhere? Anyone who's ever run a war (and this is a bit like a war) might have a view on that. Isn't it the essence of 'managing expectations'? Economists don't have to do it, but those successfully wielding power (even benevolently) do.
Thank you for your articles and podcast. They are a refreshing alternative. On a related note, I'm not sure if it's 'lies' in the classic sense, but I stunned by the debate (or lack of) on mandatory hotel quarantine for EU and the USA. Talk about biting off the hand that feeds. Why would FDI look at right Ireland now over other European alternatives. What about all of the non nationals we employ in our FDI and domestic sectors. May of these have gone home now, and can work from home, during the lockdown (who could blame them). They have no incentive to return. If we want to go back to a butcher, baker economy then MHQ is the way to go. The public are being whipped into a frenzy by the opposition and been beaten from pillar to post. Parts of the media are equally culpable. IBEC, ISME, IDA / EI and others are eerily silent. So many young, educated foreign people make Ireland a unique and attractive place. We will be paying the price of this for many years to come. Our tax rates are already under threat and now we are shooting ourselves in the foot. Gone are the days we being an English speaking country gave us a unique advantage. In recent times, I have rarely met anyone under 40, with half an education, in the EU that does not speak English.
Thanks Gene. The MHQ is just a response to social media and populist opposition pressure. It will do serious damage. An eventual cost-benefit analysis will not look favourable in fear. Thanks Jim
I tend to agree: MHQ looks like a PR exercise rather than serious attempt to control Covid in a thoughtful and evidence-based way. The reports of the tested (negative), vaccinated health care worker being quarantined speaks to a blunt, inflexible thoughtless process.
The Irish Government do not trust the population to behave in a sensible and rational manner in the face of an emergency. This is understandable in the context of Golfgate when it was apparent that they cannot be trusted themselves. In turn the Irish population will both comply and act out in the manner of teenagers who aren't trusted to stay home alone. It's more a stupid than a vicious circle but one that needs to be addressed and I commend you for doing so here. This cycle needs to be broken and a start would be a thorough inquest into what went right and wrong in the handling of this pandemic. Also necessary because we are being warned that this will not be the last. Great read again Jim and Chris.
Thank you Michael. You've hit the nail on the head. I love your 'more a stupid than a vicious circle'. Wish I'd thought of it - I probably will! This debate is so important. Thanks again.
"I probably will" - 😃 fill your boots, I've robbed enough from you guys and casually passed it off as my own.
Chris and Jim, I love the podcast and keep up the good work. I'm not sure that I fully agree with the thinking here. It may be more true in a climate with less rain. I'm struck by how many people don't understand why we are allowed to 'meet in a public park but not in a private garden'. Surely it's partly to do with what happens if it starts to rain? Or after two glasses of wine when the sun goes in? I think we talking about the management of people's behaviour and how sometimes simple though blunt rules are more effective than more targeted or nuanced ones. I'm not a 'behavioural science' expert but perhaps it's something to do with that? There is a part of us all that can't handle the truth and if you can't see that, then maybe you can't handle it! Looking forward to more thought-provoking items.
Thanks John. I don't think we disagree about much. I suspect you are making the expert's points for them: they don't trust us to behave when it rains or when we have had a glass or two. My riposte to that is that trust often runs both ways. It's usually better to tell the whole truth. Thanks again - this is what debate is all about.
It's a dilemma, particularly in the '(dis)information age'. You're an editor and when someone dies because of a reaction to a Covid vaccine, do you publish in the health column on page 15 as a 'one in a ten million' occurrence in the interest of balanced information and sell your usual 50,000 copies, or sensationalise it on the front page and sell 150,000? I agree about trust, but wonder is it true always and everywhere? Anyone who's ever run a war (and this is a bit like a war) might have a view on that. Isn't it the essence of 'managing expectations'? Economists don't have to do it, but those successfully wielding power (even benevolently) do.