The End

How did the neoliberals sell the citizen the concept of private health insurance? It is for me the biggest trick of all. I know deep down how it worked. It was because the people were frightened. If people are frightened like sheep they will run off the cliff. You see if you underfund something and make it damned uncomfortable for folk, they will be be fearful of it. Create long waiting lists poor facilities and wards that are crowded. That is how it is done.

Once you have private health insurance then you get private hospitals of course. Once again this serves the frightened. Irish society has been divided since the foundation of the state. We have a small underclass, and a large working class. In modern times we have a growing middle-class. This in reality is manufactured or should I say was manufactured by lending and access to credit. There are of course other factors also such as citizens investing in education.

Yet as the state evolved so did its divisions. Thus the concept of private medicine. Basically a state that operates a two tiered health service is admitting that it has ideologically failed its citizens. The government is refusing ideologically to treat it citizens on an equitable basis. To do this the state would have to demand much higher income tax, and divide the premium to care for its people. But the ideological choice was to create mayhem in the public health service, whilst the private sector prospered.

Even now mid-recession the advertisments for private health cover are prevelant. We have stupid and poorly conceived adverts telling us that without VHI or Laya healthcare you are screwed if you get ill. Often these adverts are targeted towards young mothers with small children. The message is clear if you dont have a good plan you are not a good Mum?

Recently I had cause to visit one of our flagship private Dublin hospitals with an elderly relative. I was amazed, this place was like a hotel. Beautifully done airy with lots of space. The wards were super modern and the nursing staff friendly and efficent. I commented on this to a good friend whom has worked at the coalface in the public system for over twenty five years. He told me that the public system was ready to burst at the seams. There is a permanent shortage of beds, and of nursing staff and supporting care workers.

I reflected on my observation that the private sector was awash with nurses who appeared to have alot of time on their hands. The system was peaceful and calm. So how did this happen. Why is the state funded system in such disarray? Most consultants work between the two systems, so the level of patient care is not in question. What is questionable however is the privacy and comfort of patients. Also the length of time it takes to get a diagnosis through the public system.

There is something rotten with an ideology that divides its citizens on the grounds of ability to pay. It makes a mockery of the idea of citizenism and statehood. This particular private hospital is a shrine to neoliberalism and the middle-class greed and fear as induced by the celtic tiger.
I await the citizens roar to disturb what is a very silent place.

Citizenism

It is the worst of times one can say so with impunity. There are times when a person could feel they have woken from a bad dream. I try to engage my business honestly each day. As a writer of fiction I can run and hide in my stories. I can wallow in the imperfections of my characters. Sometimes I even seek solace with them—marvelling at their heroics or their restrained emotions.

Yet it extremely difficult to get away from the news. The spin—the billion euro radio, where small people rattle off sums with an air of superiority. It is like they are saying ‘I mean billions like, I actually said billions not millions!’ The spin continues, and life but not as we knew it goes on.

Politics is a funny business. Politicians are very funny individuals especially within the framework of what we would like to term our democracy. FG for example has
around 35,000 members. This from a population of 4.5 million. Labour would have far less than this. Yet we charged them to battle for our economy free us citizens from bank debt—and create a universal health plan. None of these things has happened. Mainly for ideological reasons in FG. For example the government chose to pay unsecured bondholders.

If you read up on FG they are referred to as right of centre—or Christian democrats whatever that means? But both FG and FF their ideological brothers have stripped this state, and namely you and I the citizen of our natural resources. So when they say that the country is broke and that we must tighten our belts, they are in fact lying. This country is not broke? It struggles because the citizen has no access to his and her assets. They have destroyed our fishing industry which is larger in area than our land mass itself. They have given away our oil and gas and other valuable resources to their friends in high places.

There are many other areas where we as citizens have been robbed. There is a huge potential in forestry and agricultural food processing. But the state sits back and does nought, threatening people with disabilities and bus passes. You see fellow citizens we don’t have a state any longer. We have a government that is unrepresentative of the citizen. It is choked by the outdated and undemocratic whip system. It is served by radio and television and newspapers that serve its interests and propaganda.

One can argue in these blogs for a miraculous conversion to socialism or indeed social justice. But the spin doctors pour boiling water on any ideologies save for neoliberal. Does anyone remember the series of silly speeches made by Enda Kenny? The man was demented—he spoke at length about job creation, and how the entrepreneur was standing by to save the day. I wrote at the time that I couldn’t wait for Enda to part the Irish sea and I would watch in awe as the entrepreneurial hordes marched on us with their jobs. They didn’t and Enda was lying as usual.

This government is anti state. They are bereft of policy. Only state intervention will create the jobs we need in sufficient numbers to refloat our economy. But how can a state intervene if we don’t have a state, but only government. Using the natural resources I have listed above and investing in indigenous projects is the way to job creation. The government I presume deep down know this so what is holding them back. The IMF—or the ECB—I seriously doubt it. What is holding them back is their fascist like adherence to a failed ideology. There is no room for citizenship or state within the confines of neoliberal thinking. So how can a government so slavishly ruled by this philosophy do the right thing by the very citizens they have no respect for?

There will be another general election but it may be a few years away yet. They bank on the notion that their ideology is in vogue. The opposition is more of the same well FF anyhow. The social democrats in the Labour party are proven worms, spineless and traitors to their fellow citizens. So we are left with capitalism and the unrealistic unworkable, against human nature socialism. Well how about a good dose of Irish citizenism—something new and very radical.

Why we need Austerity!

There seems to be some confusion in Irish politics. Indeed the electorate in the main are poorly informed about politics in general. We rely on Government sponsored radio and television. Our newspapers are owned and run by very wealthy people who have a vested interest in maintaining the type of society in which we exist.

The confusion as I see it is about choice and the way we form our political opinions. People don’t dare to question the failed system that his led us to the brink of ruin, and we imagine this system will somehow pull the rabbit from the hat and save us. But it won’t because it can’t? Capitalism doesn’t work for the majority of citizens. By its very nature capitalism is selective about those it rewards.

If one is to examine its history it is like the worse excesses of soviet communism, capitalism is dominated by a tiny minority. But these people hold and control the purse strings. So independent states like Ireland have to trade their sovereignty in order to fund its public services. This loss of sovereignty is not just fiscal—but it also erodes our sense of nationhood. The result is catastrophic—soon this contagion will destroy the very fabric of our communities.

The word Austerity has been misused in relation to all of this. Austerity is badly needed after all of the greed and the credit bubble. We as citizens are responsible for the creation of the Celtic tiger—the silly property deals and the mortgage explosion. Each one of us bought into this ideologically driven sham.
Austerity is badly needed—but my problem is with the brand of austerity currently in vogue,it is concentrated exclusively on the poor and disadvantaged.

The well off can absorb austerity with far more comfort than the old and the sick. Yet this Government ideologically have chosen to exclusively punish the poor for the failures in the capitalism system. However what worries me most is the level of compliance shown by our citizens. When voters go to the polls in the next general election where will they cast their vote?

Well we have our FG—suits who claim that AIB bank are so vital to our economic future—that we must pay one billion to unsecured bondholders? There is the stealth like FF, who are so busy trying to reposition themselves they fall over things, until they finally have to stand up and support the government. Labour are not worth a mention—as they will probably disband after the next election. We have a few worthy socialists and leftists who will scream and shout but get nowhere. Of course there is SF—the great white hope.

The problem with SF and many of the genuine people who are supporting them—is not in economic thinking or the war in North of Ireland. No, SF are capitalists too. So their solution is to buy into a system that is proven not to work. A system that is ruthlessly anti citizen. Capitalism that rewards the few but fails the majority. I hear people say that SF are left wing and have a strong sense of socialism. But they are clearly not any of those. In the next government they may get to share power but with whom? Are FF their natural allies?




SF preach a softer brand of capitalism than the suits in FG and FF—but like the labour party how much of that can they bring with them into government? Remembering that part of buying into capitalism is the trading of sovereignty and the adoration of banks. People should realise that socialism is not anti business. In fact under an imaginative socialist system I contend this Island could support 20 million people. At present we can’t support 5 million. People will say get real—and in the real world. The real world as we have it, is imposing austerity on the weak and vulnerable. We have government representatives telling us that in the real world our future lies with banks—and 1 billion payments to unsecured bondholders? The real world indeed!