You can’t turn on the tv or read the papers these days without being bombarded by the doom and gloom of the world recession, and how everyone is tightening their belts and having to cut back considerably on their previously lavish standards of living. It’s like the entire population of Ireland has over a period of just a few months, suddenly adopted the mentality of a 1980’s like depression.
But really if you think about it, for most people, its not that bad at all… Actually, for many it’s bloody brilliant!
Ok so yes, unemployment in this country has now topped 300,000. But that is still less than 8% of the population which leaves 92% of us who are relatively safe in our jobs. Forgetting about the fact that there may be a slight chance you may loose your job, for the majority of people, things are not really that different.
Actually, there are a lot of good things about an economic slowdown. Prices are falling through the floor so (tac increases aside) in reality you are getting considerably more for your money each month. For Example:
- Oil Prices: It usually costs me very close to €60 to fill my car – yesterday I filled it for just a tad over €40. From a peak of nearly €146, it is now under €50. This not only means cheaper petrol for your car, but it means lots of other things get cheaper too – flights being the obvious one.
- Interest Rates: If you are on a tracker mortgage it’s happy days – you just got a 0.75% reduction in your mortgage. The lucky people in the UK have a base rate of 1.5%, the lowest it has been in the history of the central bank.
- Shopping: The retail sector is being hit harder than most overall (yet some of the big chains are actually reporting very healthy profits) but most are lowering prices to try to increase turnover. Many of the Sales actually started Before Christmas this year, actually enabling you to cut down on the cost of Christmas
- Foreign Exchange: The Dollar has been sliding for quite some time, but now Sterling is following suit – it is at record low’s right now, so if you are traveling to the UK, or if you are shopping online and buying goods in Sterling, there are some bloody fantastic deals to be had!
- The Service Industry: It was not too long ago that if you needed a handyman of some sort, electrician, bricky, plumber – they were next to impossible to get hold of, and ferociously expensive. Now that things have slowed down, not only is it easier to get them, but you can actually play themselves off each other to get the best price for your job. Very often their Eastern European counterparts are willing to work for considerably less money, and lets face it they do much better work.
Personally, I don’t ft exactly into this category, as I work in sales so my earlings are partly commission based. We have noticed a slowdown in business, projects being put on hold and budgets being reviewed, so deals are not coming in as we would have expected this time last year, so my earlings have taken a hit.
Still, all in all, lets be positive about it – because of many of the points above, there are some aspects of the recession that a pretty dam good!
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Maybe I’m being over-sensitive here, but this post strikes me as being incredibly smug.
Possibly, but how so exactly Damien?
It would definitely be smugness if I was saying that the recession has not affected me at all – but unfortunately I cannot say this is the case as I am definitely feeling it. The saviour is that with the bad sometimes comes the good, tougher times but cheaper prices…
I suppose the bit about shopping annoyed me, as many shops are in serious trouble and I got the impression you were being a bit flippant about it. What really got to me, however, was what you said about the service industry. I come from a background of tradesmen (me dad’ s a carpenter) and I personally know many people – good, talented people who don’t deserve it – who have been hugely affected by the fallout of their industry, to the extent of taking their own lives. To read “you can actually play themselves off each other” irked me quite a bit.
But I get the point of the post: the reasons to stay positive with this recession. It’s kinda why I wrote this post myself.
http://theunemployedblog.wordpress.com/2009/01/10/economists-need-to-shut-the-fuck-up/
Yeah exactly. There are enough commentators on the downsides of this mess we are in, I feel no need to add to it. Just trying to highlight a few of the small upsides. Of course its not good for the person on the other end, but one of the things about being a consumer in a free market is the ability to do this – and get the best value for yourself. Most of the time when one person wins, another looses.
People in general are selfish and want what’s best for them, and not others. In theory we should all be paying the sometimes inflated prices in Ireland to keep money in our own economy, stimulate growth and keep jobs – but most would rather spend less of their own hard earned money and go to Ikea and import cars from the UK.
I wish I could say I put my country first and buy as much here as possible, but I don’t – I put myself first – well, for large purchases like TV’s etc anyway where the saving is worth the hassle.
Cool blog by the way Damien, I’ll have a proper read when I have more time.
I think that’s fair enough. Overall I did agree with most of the points you made. I kinda like like your blog too. Keep it up.
Awesome post, nice blog btw.