u/Robotobot

If you were to sum up your position on economic justice in 5 points, what would those points be, in no particular order of priority?

For me:

1. Workers benefitting from developments in technology and productiviity through shorter working time so people have time for family, hobbies and other non-work aspects of their lives. As much of it as possible.

2. Prices of necessities for all people are stable, affordable and subsidised. Food, leccy bills, medical prescriptions etc. and that life events like sickness or starting a family are not career-ending or lead to financial ruin.

3. People with disabilities being able to be financially independent and have opportunities for training, employment and advancement.

4. Protection of retirement and trashing the policies and practices which have been progressively whittled away at so we can be profitable little lemmings until the day we croak.

5. That working people can have reasonable expectations to have a family, a home, a vehicle and a life that isn't based on working just to survive.

Would love to hear your points!

Edit: typos from my sausage fingers

Just watched this video and found it to be a great foray into the many ways that critical thinking has eroded. I found the therapy-speak part particularly good given that I have been in and out of the mental health system.

Before October 7th, I was very much what you would call a European Federalist type. Having gone on Erasmus, and having the opportunity to learn some more languages and everything, I really was fixed on this notion that the EU was imperfect but fundamentally well-intended and I could always be leveraged into being quiet about by the notions of European unity and cosmopolitanism and muh European project.

And to be honest, it really gave me a superiority complex. I did genuinely think that we, as a totality, were THE paragon of human rights and progress.

That extended to Israel. I was by no means a pro-Israel person prior to October 7th, but I was somewhere in between apathy and leaning more towards Israel - having fallen for the veneer of "democracy" and social "progress" that it claims to be the champion of in the Middle East. Which I think a lot of people prior to those events were.

We were still getting over the sociological effects of covid (we still are, I believe), and I think anything that signified civility and stability and social liberties, even in the cling-film-thin veneer way that Israel does (for its Zionist Jewish population), was enough to sway people like myself at the time into the "out of sight, out of mind" approach.

Nowadays, given the absolute stain on humanity that is the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians being given so much leeway, endless amounts of chances and impotent rebukes of the EU leadership that barely qualify as mild chastisement, the framing of a fucking GENOCIDE as self-defence or anti-terrorism, and this constant covering by top EU leaders for a regime which is raping and shooting children and bombing journalists and paramedics. And the EU-Israel Trade Agreement STILL HASN'T BEEN FUCKING SUSPENDED!

The only things that Israel produces are weapons, orphans, amputees, refugees and corpses. Excuse my digression, I know they're low-hanging fruit.

The essence of what I have to say is that now I can't unsee the unelected, seemingly invincible EU bureaucrats and diplomats like Kaja Kallas and Ursula von der Leyen as the skin-walking, corpo Israel-worshipping ghouls they are trotting out the same old lines and even going so far as to say "Europe stands with Israel" when multiple member states do not, at least on a cultural and societal level.

And now I also can't unsee the Germans enthusiastically providing endless amounts of weapons to Israel and running interference for Israel at the EU level and not connect it to the ravaging of our natural resources by continental trawlers (as an angling man, I do like the sea a lot), being forced into rules we (the Irish public) didn't agree to, getting skinned alive when the economy goes bad, nobody being able to afford a house where they come from, and having the EU leadership tell us that all this is fine and normal and that bugs are actually very tasty once you get used to the hardened snot-like consistency.

The can of worms for me is well and truly open to the point that said worms are spilling all over the fucking floor. And i want to put it out to others - what was the black pill for you on the EU?

Edit: typo

If you set out to buy yourself a reel that would serve you the rest of your fishing days, what is the price-range you would pay?

I am restoring and upgrading my own penn senator 113H 4/0 reels, and while they're old they have a cult following in terms of hot-rodding, a reputation for toughness, durability and ease of repair. I have been fitting carbon drag washers, replacing the reel frames and power handles, and will be upgrading the gear sleeves and bearings too. Setting them up for another lifetime of service, essentially because I know that they will be "lifetime" reels.

So I'm curious what price people are willing to pay for a "lifetime" reel purchase.

So I passed the driving test a few weeks ago, and have just been reflecting a bit on it.

A lot of the systemic problems aren't being solved exactly because people want to forget the process and how arduous it was, and in doing so inadvertently forget about the people still caught up in the system waiting for tests. And behind each person on the wait list there's months of lessons, money spent and an absolutely insane, unpredictable wait period.

Driving isn't just being able to operate a car. It's me being able to bring my aging parents to appointments. It's the parent bringing their children to school. It's the worker who would otherwise have a 2 hour each-way commute to work if public transport were even an option to them. Not having access to prompt testing and repeats is more time in adequately staffed RSA centres (upper management treat the testers like shite btw) has real-life consequences for those people.

While still fresh in your mind, please do email your TDs and raise these issues and the effects that the RSA management's incompetence and government apathy have had on you and on people getting through their driving test.