Irish Election are pleased to announce our collection of Irish 
SECOND OPINIONS
Read more about: Uncategorized
Has anyone out there opinions on Second Opinions?
Why do we, the Clients or Patients or whatever, have to pay for Second Opinions?
If a Solicitor, or a Doctor or whomsoever has no answers to a question - that they should be able to answer - why shouldn’t they pay for the Second Opinion?
After all, it is their failure of knowledge.
By the same token, why should we, the Taxpayers, pay for Consultants because our Elected Representatives, who should have the answers, cannot or don’t?
Such is the root of Waste.
It is like wrapping paper — most of it is totally unnecessary (like the word totally!).
Errr… if they don’t have an answer then surely you are still loooking for a first opinion?
What is this article trying to say exactly? All of the articles by SOS are terrible pieces of writing - by far the worse on this site. They say nothing, just ask questions without any sort of explanation of why they are being asked. More insight please.
I am sure Dan understands what Iam saying, but he has a point, particularly with regard to politicians.
My issue is with Waste, surely a serious Election Issue?
I am unsure what point Mr. Cosgrove is trying to make, so I shall ignore it.
If he is unable to understand the points I am making about the upcoming Irish elections, he might seek a Second Opinion?
The point I’m making is that I think your post are badly written and you should elaborate on what it is you’re writing - like the other posters!
Tom,
I think that you were trying to say “your post IS badly written?
It was meant to be “posts” actually! I like your approach - it’s provocative - but there’s very little meat on the bones - if you were to elaborate on what you think, you’d have some great articles.
Well, Tom,
That’s mighty nice of you.
I’m not exactly sure how you like your meat.
You suggest that I should write like all the other bloggers, but surely that defeats the purpose?
If one is to have individual opinions, and an opinion is all that one can offer. one cannot write to some sort of blogging formula.
Or, perhaps I have missed some subtle point? Some hidden message?
My purpose is to try & concentrate on Issues that are wholly pertinent to the upcoming Irish Elections.
I may have deviated once, when I offered an opinion - that The Tipping Point in the Irish Housing Market seemed, in my opinion, to have arrived.
But even that had a particular relevance, to the extent that ordinary voters are being affected by this Governmant’s inability to control the price of Land — and Fine Gael seem reluctant to re-visit Kenny 1963 (ibid).
It is rumoured that politicians, of all hues, read these blogs - or, at least their paid lackeys & consultants read them & filter back matters of interest.
So one tries to offer viewpoints; Opinions; pose questions…
I don’t aspire to the Nobel Prize for Literature, merely to try & stimulate thought.
Always remembering that Socrates was vilified for attempting to teach the young how to think & reason.
But that was some time ago & we must try to keep up with the times that are in it.
Pose questions and make viewpoints known, certainly - but in an article with seven paragraphs, not a seven line list of bullet points. Take each point and expand on it - what information you have seen and events that have occurred that would have brought you to holding that view. I know you have thought and reason behind what you post - but you don’t show that in the article - you merely post the result - and I think that’s a shame.
Hopefully that makes sense.
Thank you for the lesson.
We all have our own special way of expressing opinions. Some lead to an expansion of the viewpoint(s), others are stillborn.
Some are short & to the point, others are windy & repetitive - like party political broadcasts.
They are all part of the tapestry of communication.
In the meantime, I will seek out some of your blogs & try to learn from the Master.
I may have deviated once, when I offered an opinion - that The Tipping Point in the Irish Housing Market seemed, in my opinion, to have arrived.
So, SOS, are you still selling your flat, and are you going to trade up, or pocket the cash and wait. If the second applies, for what will you be waiting, a crash, perhaps, and, if so, do you have a Plan B?
Frank,
I think you may have meant “am I going to trade DOWN” and pocket the cash?
My flat is still on the market & I have no idea how it will work out. We are now in the “Silly Season” and everyone is hoping that September will bring glad tidings of great joy.
I am not convinced & would take any reasonable offer.
Recent auctions seem to suggest that sellers have not yet got the message & one reads “Withdrawn - on offer at €Xmillion” usually 10% more than the AMV.
Good luck to them.
There seems to be a conspiracy out there to “puff” the market.
The Government are terrified of a “hard landing” - particularly Bertie, who has neither a Plan A or a Plan B. In reality, he has no Plans. He just wants a “Get out of jail free”card. To this end he has instructed Brian Cowen to blow the lot. They don’t seem to think there is a need to put something aside for a rainy day.
Last year’s budget was a disgrace and the probability is that the next one will be even more imprudent. This is not Cowen’s style and gives one a hint of The Bert’s desperation.
The Clearing Banks are awash with money & are prepared to say & do anything to get it off the books. Hence the 100% Mortgage Loans; the interest-only Loans; the Loans for motor-cars, holidays & a raft of non-essentials.
Developers; Estate Agents; Solicitors and other commission agents, who feed from the trough of housebuyers misery, have an obvious interest in keeping the “Bubble” topped up with irresponsible propaganda.
My Plan A is to go to France, which still respects the old-fashioned values of family life; leisure; and the slower pace that we once had in Ireland - now being sacrificed on the altar of greed.
My Plan B has to be patience, frustrating as it might be. I saw this situation developing two years ago & I am amazed that it has been postponed for so long. At that time, the greed was not as obvious and I was content to live here & pay the extortionate prices demanded for almost everything.
I now read that the already fat ESB, with its grasping workforce, featherbedded by their Public Service Unions, with the blessing of The Bert, are threatening us with a 10% increase.
Why is it necessary for the Utilities to pay a dividend to the Government? It is effectively a stealth tax.
I won’t go on. It make me too angry.
I know what tom is saying the posts can be difficult to follow. But the above comment is excellent. and also well written.
It is funny how few people realise that “Why is it necessary for the Utilities to pay a dividend to the Government? It is effectively a stealth tax.”
SOS,
Perceptions of the cost of living will differ from one person to another, as will what each considers a reasonable standard of living.
France certainly has its attractions, if you are not one of the vast pool of unemployed, underemployed, featherbedded, or hypochondriac.
If you are in a position to be trading DOWN rather than UP, I say choose where and how you live for reasons other than how much wealth you can hoard, especially as it is less easy to preserve the value of that wealth if it is invested in cash or equities.
Your comments suggest you are as much a part of the bubble mentality as those you criticise, looking to get out at the top of the market and bank your gains. I can see no reason in the short, medium or long term to reduce the amount of real property one holds, other than to reduce one’s overheads or to withdraw equity, and there are more tax-efficient ways of doing the latter than by trading down, I believe.
I agree with Simon above re your various writing styles. You’ll have to recognize that Tom is a Socialist, and as such he may believe that people and their outputs should be standardised. He himself, if my memory serves me well, is studying to be some manner of lawyer, no doubt one of a very standard standard
Frank,
Contrary to what you say, I am not trying to get out at the top of the market. I am prepared to take any rasonable offer. I would have left Ireland two years ago, when it became obvious that the market was overheating, but I enjoyed living here.
I don’t any longer.
I thought I had made that clear when replying to your questions about Plan B.
I am unsure what a Socialist might be. The Bert had a Pauline conversion on the road to his 5-Star hotel in Inchydorney. He is now a paid-up Socialist - until his next conversion!
Personally, I have serious problems with all ISTS & their ISM organisations.
I tend to take my inspiration from animals. They don’t seem to have the problems of the ists.
I see that my attempt to highlight Waste has drifted into a dissertation on the quality of my writing: my Plans following a putative sale of my flat: standards of living in France & Tom’s dogma & attempts to join the “Second Opinioners” in the legal profession.
In the process, I was reminded of an article I wrote some years ago.
From 1912 until 1948, my grandmother rented a house in Bayswater in London for £3 per week. The owners lived in the South of France. The house was sold for £12 million in 2004.
I once thought that the owners had a rotten deal, but it was pointed out that they had a Caretaker - who maintained the house & gardens; washed the windows and PAID THEM for her labours.
During that period, we sat on chairs; ate at table; cut our meat with a knife; ate it with a fork and drank out of tea cups.
Then the BBC ran a programme called “Going for a Song” and suddenly the chairs & tables became Chippendale or Hepplewhite; the knives, forks & spoons became George III silver - and the tea cups; plates & saucers were revealed as Spode or Wedgewood.
The pictures on the walls, of naked nymphs & shepherds that had made us blush & laugh, were by famous painters - and everything around us was suddenly Valuable.
AND A SIMPLE WAY OF LIFE CHANGED.
We had been made Aware. What had once been utilitarian, was now a priceless antique.
And thus began the spiral of greed, driven by a sudden windfall, and culminating today in the bloated prices of houses & ordinary, utilitarian items.
A house is no longer a dwelling, it is a trading asset.
We need a dose of reality to get our values back & it is unlikely that The Bert - in his €123,000 Mercedez-Benz C250; his Helicopter & the Gulf Stream, which costs €5000 an hour to keep airborne - will provide those values.
Like all the Armchair Socialists, he wants to keep his cake & talk about his humility.
I see that my attempt to highlight Waste has drifted into a dissertation on the quality of my writing: my Plans following a putative sale of my flat: standards of living in France & Tom’s dogma & attempts to join the “Second Opinioners” in the legal profession.
We’re good blogversationalists, is the reason for that.
As the late lamented William Shakespeare once said “Lay not that flattering unction onto thyself…”
Buon luogo, congratulazioni, il mio amico!