5 ms·

This attitude is ill informed. Ireland is richer than it has ever been. Poverty and housing difficulties have nothing to do with reducing emissions. Ireland p

by jahnu 7mo ago

This attitude is ill informed. Ireland is richer than it has ever been. Poverty and housing difficulties have nothing to do with reducing emissions. Ireland partly got rich by being a massive CO2 polluter per capita. Now we are rich it’s only fair we lead in transitioning to renewables. Renewables are cheaper now than most forms of energy production. Grids need investment. I despair at these short sighted and fairly wrong on the facts views.

throw567643u8 7mo ago
[flagged]
- thunfischtoast 7mo ago
  > they know windpower and solar are not viable long term Why?
  - bryanlarsen 7mo ago
    Steelman: in the 2000's and 2010's China did not know if wind power and solar were viable in the long term. They put a lot of money in wind & solar, but also lots of alternatives: nuclear, coal, hydro, geothermal. By 2020 it was obvious that wind & solar were viable long term, so investments in nuclear et al dried up. But they weren't convinced that batteries were viable long term, so they built a lot of coal peakers for night power. By 2025 it became obvious that batteries were more viable and cheaper than coal peakers, so they've started to build battery storage at a vast scale. So steelman is that the OP's viewpoint is ~10 years out of date.
  - lowdownbutter 7mo ago
    They know that sometimes it's not windy, and they know about night.
    - john_strinlai 7mo ago
      >They know that sometimes it's not windy, and they know about night. they also know about batteries
    - rootusrootus 7mo ago
      Fortunately they also know about batteries.
- s_dev 7mo ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_China >"China is the world's top electricity producer from renewable energy sources. China's renewable energy capacity is growing faster than its fossil fuels and nuclear power capacity.[1] China installed over 373 GW of renewables in 2024, reaching a total installed renewable capacity of 1,878 GW by the end of the year. The country aims to have 80% of its total energy mix come from non-fossil fuel sources by 2060, and achieve a combined 1,200 GW of solar and wind capacity by 2030.[1] >Although China currently has the world's largest installed capacity of hydro, solar and wind power, its energy needs are so large that some fossil fuel sources are still used." Seems more renewables came online than non-renewables, perhaps your take is outdated?
  - TremendousJudge 7mo ago
    https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/coal-consumption-by-country-terawatt-hours-twh?tab=line&country=CHN~OWID_WRL&mapSelect=~CHN https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/coal-consumption-by-count... China is the world's top consumer of coal, and accounts for more than 50% of the world's total consumption of coal.
    - deleted 7mo ago
      [deleted]
    - pjc50 7mo ago
      People keep forgetting in all the China-posting that China is a country of 1.4 billion people, approximately 256 times the size of the Irish population, and therefore it's not really surprising when it tops a "top consumption" or "top production" list of any kind. (second most populous after India) Alternatively, if all Ireland was a city in China, it would not be in the list of top 50 cities by population.
      - throwaway290 7mo ago
        India has bigger population than China. India is building 41 coal plant, China is building 289. India approved 5 more plants, China approved 405. China is building more coal power than all other countries combined including India. This thread is crazy. guys just look at numbers first...
- ForHackernews 7mo ago
  China leads the world in solar energy, by a wide margin. Yes, they have hedged their bets somewhat with coal, but you cannot claim with a straight face that China believes renewable energy is nonviable. https://apnews.com/article/china-climate-solar-wind-carbon-emissions-ab119c39f226cfbeb2f5c1449747cae9 https://apnews.com/article/china-climate-solar-wind-carbon-e...
- jahnu 7mo ago
  > they know windpower and solar are not viable long term That’s why they are installing it all over their country at the fastest pace of any country by far? That’s why they probably hit peak oil consumption? The coal thing is complicated in China. They are replacing many old coal stations, local governments are fearful of being caught short in a cold winter which has happened. Rate of coal consumption increases is slowing. Peak coal may have happened last year. https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-why-china-is-still-building-new-coal-and-when-it-might-stop/ https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-why-china-is-still-bu... Hopefully this new info might help change your views.
  - deleted 7mo ago
    [deleted]
- IE6 7mo ago
  China has a significant investment in solar and wind power - is that just to convince us it's a good idea to buy it?
  - throwaway290 7mo ago
    if solar and wind is subsidized by europe or usa, selling solar and wind to them is great. taxpayer money goes east, everybody is happy, meanwhile china is constructing more coal plants than all the other countries combined https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/number-of-coal-power-plants-by-country https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/number-of...
    - realityking 7mo ago
      Yes the share of electricity produced by coal plants is going down: https://ember-energy.org/countries-and-regions/china/ https://ember-energy.org/countries-and-regions/china/ So it appears they’re building more renewable capacity than coal capacity.
      - throwaway290 7mo ago
        Your graph shows only increasing emissions from coal. by the way also it shows increasing CO2 emissions from solar and wind. it doesn't make any sense
        realityking 7mo ago
        Look at the graph labelled “ Share of generation (%)” to see the (relative) decline of coal.
- triceratops 7mo ago
  > Web search how many Chinese coal plants came online in the last six months. I did and it was actually very few. In 2024 88% of new electricity in China came from solar and wind. https://www.eia.gov/international/analysis/country/chn https://www.eia.gov/international/analysis/country/chn You should try doing some research instead of lying.
- blensor 7mo ago
  I did not expect HN to become this geopolitical. And are you sure about your claim? Every time I hear anything about China and Solar the core of it is that solar in China is growing more than anywhere else on the planet ( 40% increase in 2025 and creating ~11% of China's energy already ) And that there is no sign of that trend slowing down anytime soon. And why would it. Solar panels are dirt cheap and they have more than enough space for it. China is also really strong in the battery space, so they have everything they need to ditch oil/coal eventually
  - pjc50 7mo ago
    > I did not expect HN to become this geopolitical. Everything is geopolitical now. Expect the hawks to look at the "success" of Iran and move on to bombing China soon.
  - pstuart 7mo ago
    There's plenty to criticize about China, but as far as energy production goes they are a leader and have demonstrated what can be done when the country is aligned (albeit by force in this case) to provide cheap and clean energy to power their economy. The US, under the current admin, is literally the opposite of that.
  - phil21 7mo ago
    They also are building more coal, gas, and nuclear than anyone else at epic yearly increases. That they have the internal political means to get large infrastructure projects done is laudible - they can actually build transmission lines that make unreliable energy sources like solar and wind feasible. In the US that is effectively impossible due to the NIMBY legal situation. That they lead in battery production is going to be pretty interesting to watch. I admit I was skeptical that current battery tech could be scaled up enough to make it financially doable, but China is very close to making me wrong on the topic. If they can be the first to truly seasonal storage that works without hand-waving games like pretending you can "just use another source" when you run out of storage I'll be very impressed. They seem to understand that you need to back unreliable sources with reliable sources - and have the political means to build a coal plant that will sit idle 95% of the time. No other country is close - it's parlor tricks at the moment. China seems to understand how energy works, and that you need a reliable grid to run an industrial economy. They are very much being pragmatic in how they are building out everything they possibly can. The West has forgotten this.
- deleted 7mo ago
  [deleted]
- throwaway27448 7mo ago
  [flagged]
- Peanuts99 7mo ago
  They're also closing down coal plants faster than anyone else and actually faster than planned because of the price of solar. Check your facts.
  - dionian 7mo ago
    https://www.forbes.com/sites/katharinabuchholz/2026/02/27/chinas-new-coal-power-installations-reach-18-year-high/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/katharinabuchholz/2026/02/27/ch...
    - decimalenough 7mo ago
      Believe it or not, you're both correct! China is closing more (old, inefficient, polluting) coal plants than anybody else, and opening newer ones than anybody else.
- jodrellblank 7mo ago
  > "This argument that we have to self destruct to have the moral highground" That's not the argument they made. > "they know windpower and solar are not viable long term" Thanks for the nonsensical, unsupported, right-wing talking points, throwaway account. Great contribution. > "Web search how many Chinese coal plants came online in the last six months." I web searched and found that "China installed a record 315 GW (AC) of new solar capacity in 2025". The entire UK national grid is currently providing 35GW of power from all sources combined. That's 1/9th of the power China deployed in just solar panels just last year. And China deployed 119GW of wind turbines in the same year as well. https://www.pv-magazine.com/2026/01/28/china-adds-315-gw-of-solar-in-2025/ https://www.pv-magazine.com/2026/01/28/china-adds-315-gw-of-...
  - lovich 7mo ago
    It’s a 50 day old account making, as you pointed out, factually incorrect claims. Just assume it’s a clanker or propagandist and flag it imo
Spooky23 7mo ago
If this stuff is cheaper, why are prices going up?
- julkali 7mo ago
  because you start internalizing costs
- jahnu 7mo ago
  A very fair question and the answer is complicated. Production costs and transmission costs are separate. Also demand changes the market rate. And even if renewables are cheaper to produce in a market usually the highest price regardless of source sets the price. This is to incentivise the cheapest production methods to be invested in. It’s a massive topic and I encourage everyone to go and dive into it. It’s endlessly fascinating and also one of the really positive stories in the world right now which can help balance your emotions in a sometimes depressing world. At least for me it does.
  - bryanlarsen 7mo ago
    > This is to incentivise the cheapest production methods to be invested in. It's also just a rule of economics. The price is set at the cost of the most expensive production necessary to meet demand. So if solar could fulfill 100% of energy demand, price would be the cost of solar, and any other more expensive generation would either lose money, shut down or idle. But if we shut down or idle those today we wouldn't have enough electricity, so the price rises until the more expensive plants can stay open and demand is met.
    - zahlman 7mo ago
      ... So then why isn't the solar to replace the more expensive plants getting built?
      - bryanlarsen 7mo ago
        Snarky response deleted. That rule is a rule of free markets. Electricity is not a free market, so it only partially applies. Texas is closer to a free market, and unsurprisingly it is adopting solar faster than most.
deleted 7mo ago
[deleted]
paganel 7mo ago
[flagged]
disgruntledphd2 7mo ago
> Ireland partly got rich by being a massive CO2 polluter per capita. Now we are rich it’s only fair we lead in transitioning to renewables. Renewables are cheaper now than most forms of energy production. Grids need investment. Sorry, what? While I agree with you about reducing emissions, most of our transition from poor to rich(er) was driven by capital light businesses. To be fair, the pharma companies did come here because we refused to regulate spillovers up to EU standards, but that's less than half of the story. tl;dr loads of golf courses, english speaking population, smart industrial plannng and tax dodging was really how it happened.
- bluescrn 7mo ago
  > Now we are rich it’s only fair we lead in transitioning to renewables Unfortunately it's not the people/generation who reaped the rewards from cheap energy and polluting who are now being made to feel the pain of the transition.
- jahnu 7mo ago
  None of those things were possible without the fossil fuel based energy underlying everything. Every single wealthy country used energy from fossil fuels to escape poverty. Some to a greater degree than others but that’s the basic reality. Now we have a way out of fossil fuels and we must take it or things will get even worse than they are already going to get anyway. And I did say it was only part of the story, albeit essential.
  - cjblomqvist 7mo ago
    Iceland (geothermal) and Sweden (hydro + nuclear) comes knocking.
wesammikhail 7mo ago
> This attitude is ill informed. > Renewables are cheaper now than most forms of energy production. Grids need investment. > Now we are rich it’s only fair we lead in transitioning to renewables. > I despair at these short sighted and fairly wrong on the facts views. The level of arrogance is unmatched while being both factually wrong AND self-contradictory. Absolute cinema!
- fleroviumna 7mo ago
  [dead]
bluescrn 7mo ago
> Ireland is richer than it has ever been. Isn't that more about big tech companies using Ireland as a tax dodge, rather than a sign of average people doing well? For less-well-off people, energy costs in the UK are a huge issue, they're more than twice what they were pre-Covid. Energy bills are second only to housing costs when it comes to the cost of living crisis. Although grocery price inflation/shrinkflation has been pretty shocking too.
- jahnu 7mo ago
  Sorry I missed your question. While being a tax haven was part of Ireland’s strategy, given we have little natural resources for export or refining for heavy industries, we also have a well educated workforce which spoke English as a first language and were once cheaper than British workers and also, enthusiastically part of the EU. So we built up a service industry and high tech and high value industries like pharmaceutical and IT. We no longer are the (in my view once somewhat shameful) tax haven we were but now are low tax in a much more fair way (probably could be better but all countries are working the system). Opinions differ. But Ireland is genuinely wealthy and productive. We have serious problems with inequality and a stupid housing problem in the bigger cities. Nevertheless, compared to most of the world and compared to the Ireland of my youth it’s a great if imperfect place where you can have a great quality of life.
selfmodruntime 7mo ago
„Ireland“ is rich because companies have their office there. „The Irish“ are not rich. Talk about ill informed.
- jahnu 7mo ago
  Yes Ireland is rich. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/median-income-by-country https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/median-in...
  - selfmodruntime 7mo ago
    Not according to your own source
    - jahnu 7mo ago
      It’s literally the 19th richest country in that source. Unless you have more to offer than contradiction I have nothing more for you. Have a good one!
fleroviumna 7mo ago
[dead]

by jahnu 7mo ago

throw567643u8 7mo ago

[flagged]

thunfischtoast 7mo ago
> they know windpower and solar are not viable long term Why?
- bryanlarsen 7mo ago
  Steelman: in the 2000's and 2010's China did not know if wind power and solar were viable in the long term. They put a lot of money in wind & solar, but also lots of alternatives: nuclear, coal, hydro, geothermal. By 2020 it was obvious that wind & solar were viable long term, so investments in nuclear et al dried up. But they weren't convinced that batteries were viable long term, so they built a lot of coal peakers for night power. By 2025 it became obvious that batteries were more viable and cheaper than coal peakers, so they've started to build battery storage at a vast scale. So steelman is that the OP's viewpoint is ~10 years out of date.
- lowdownbutter 7mo ago
  They know that sometimes it's not windy, and they know about night.
  - john_strinlai 7mo ago
    >They know that sometimes it's not windy, and they know about night. they also know about batteries
  - rootusrootus 7mo ago
    Fortunately they also know about batteries.
s_dev 7mo ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_China >"China is the world's top electricity producer from renewable energy sources. China's renewable energy capacity is growing faster than its fossil fuels and nuclear power capacity.[1] China installed over 373 GW of renewables in 2024, reaching a total installed renewable capacity of 1,878 GW by the end of the year. The country aims to have 80% of its total energy mix come from non-fossil fuel sources by 2060, and achieve a combined 1,200 GW of solar and wind capacity by 2030.[1] >Although China currently has the world's largest installed capacity of hydro, solar and wind power, its energy needs are so large that some fossil fuel sources are still used." Seems more renewables came online than non-renewables, perhaps your take is outdated?
- TremendousJudge 7mo ago
  https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/coal-consumption-by-country-terawatt-hours-twh?tab=line&country=CHN~OWID_WRL&mapSelect=~CHN https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/coal-consumption-by-count... China is the world's top consumer of coal, and accounts for more than 50% of the world's total consumption of coal.
  - deleted 7mo ago
    [deleted]
  - pjc50 7mo ago
    People keep forgetting in all the China-posting that China is a country of 1.4 billion people, approximately 256 times the size of the Irish population, and therefore it's not really surprising when it tops a "top consumption" or "top production" list of any kind. (second most populous after India) Alternatively, if all Ireland was a city in China, it would not be in the list of top 50 cities by population.
    - throwaway290 7mo ago
      India has bigger population than China. India is building 41 coal plant, China is building 289. India approved 5 more plants, China approved 405. China is building more coal power than all other countries combined including India. This thread is crazy. guys just look at numbers first...
ForHackernews 7mo ago
China leads the world in solar energy, by a wide margin. Yes, they have hedged their bets somewhat with coal, but you cannot claim with a straight face that China believes renewable energy is nonviable. https://apnews.com/article/china-climate-solar-wind-carbon-emissions-ab119c39f226cfbeb2f5c1449747cae9 https://apnews.com/article/china-climate-solar-wind-carbon-e...
jahnu 7mo ago
> they know windpower and solar are not viable long term That’s why they are installing it all over their country at the fastest pace of any country by far? That’s why they probably hit peak oil consumption? The coal thing is complicated in China. They are replacing many old coal stations, local governments are fearful of being caught short in a cold winter which has happened. Rate of coal consumption increases is slowing. Peak coal may have happened last year. https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-why-china-is-still-building-new-coal-and-when-it-might-stop/ https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-why-china-is-still-bu... Hopefully this new info might help change your views.
- deleted 7mo ago
  [deleted]
IE6 7mo ago
China has a significant investment in solar and wind power - is that just to convince us it's a good idea to buy it?
- throwaway290 7mo ago
  if solar and wind is subsidized by europe or usa, selling solar and wind to them is great. taxpayer money goes east, everybody is happy, meanwhile china is constructing more coal plants than all the other countries combined https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/number-of-coal-power-plants-by-country https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/number-of...
  - realityking 7mo ago
    Yes the share of electricity produced by coal plants is going down: https://ember-energy.org/countries-and-regions/china/ https://ember-energy.org/countries-and-regions/china/ So it appears they’re building more renewable capacity than coal capacity.
    - throwaway290 7mo ago
      Your graph shows only increasing emissions from coal. by the way also it shows increasing CO2 emissions from solar and wind. it doesn't make any sense
      - realityking 7mo ago
        Look at the graph labelled “ Share of generation (%)” to see the (relative) decline of coal.
triceratops 7mo ago
> Web search how many Chinese coal plants came online in the last six months. I did and it was actually very few. In 2024 88% of new electricity in China came from solar and wind. https://www.eia.gov/international/analysis/country/chn https://www.eia.gov/international/analysis/country/chn You should try doing some research instead of lying.
blensor 7mo ago
I did not expect HN to become this geopolitical. And are you sure about your claim? Every time I hear anything about China and Solar the core of it is that solar in China is growing more than anywhere else on the planet ( 40% increase in 2025 and creating ~11% of China's energy already ) And that there is no sign of that trend slowing down anytime soon. And why would it. Solar panels are dirt cheap and they have more than enough space for it. China is also really strong in the battery space, so they have everything they need to ditch oil/coal eventually
- pjc50 7mo ago
  > I did not expect HN to become this geopolitical. Everything is geopolitical now. Expect the hawks to look at the "success" of Iran and move on to bombing China soon.
- pstuart 7mo ago
  There's plenty to criticize about China, but as far as energy production goes they are a leader and have demonstrated what can be done when the country is aligned (albeit by force in this case) to provide cheap and clean energy to power their economy. The US, under the current admin, is literally the opposite of that.
- phil21 7mo ago
  They also are building more coal, gas, and nuclear than anyone else at epic yearly increases. That they have the internal political means to get large infrastructure projects done is laudible - they can actually build transmission lines that make unreliable energy sources like solar and wind feasible. In the US that is effectively impossible due to the NIMBY legal situation. That they lead in battery production is going to be pretty interesting to watch. I admit I was skeptical that current battery tech could be scaled up enough to make it financially doable, but China is very close to making me wrong on the topic. If they can be the first to truly seasonal storage that works without hand-waving games like pretending you can "just use another source" when you run out of storage I'll be very impressed. They seem to understand that you need to back unreliable sources with reliable sources - and have the political means to build a coal plant that will sit idle 95% of the time. No other country is close - it's parlor tricks at the moment. China seems to understand how energy works, and that you need a reliable grid to run an industrial economy. They are very much being pragmatic in how they are building out everything they possibly can. The West has forgotten this.
deleted 7mo ago
[deleted]
throwaway27448 7mo ago
[flagged]
Peanuts99 7mo ago
They're also closing down coal plants faster than anyone else and actually faster than planned because of the price of solar. Check your facts.
- dionian 7mo ago
  https://www.forbes.com/sites/katharinabuchholz/2026/02/27/chinas-new-coal-power-installations-reach-18-year-high/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/katharinabuchholz/2026/02/27/ch...
  - decimalenough 7mo ago
    Believe it or not, you're both correct! China is closing more (old, inefficient, polluting) coal plants than anybody else, and opening newer ones than anybody else.
jodrellblank 7mo ago
> "This argument that we have to self destruct to have the moral highground" That's not the argument they made. > "they know windpower and solar are not viable long term" Thanks for the nonsensical, unsupported, right-wing talking points, throwaway account. Great contribution. > "Web search how many Chinese coal plants came online in the last six months." I web searched and found that "China installed a record 315 GW (AC) of new solar capacity in 2025". The entire UK national grid is currently providing 35GW of power from all sources combined. That's 1/9th of the power China deployed in just solar panels just last year. And China deployed 119GW of wind turbines in the same year as well. https://www.pv-magazine.com/2026/01/28/china-adds-315-gw-of-solar-in-2025/ https://www.pv-magazine.com/2026/01/28/china-adds-315-gw-of-...
- lovich 7mo ago
  It’s a 50 day old account making, as you pointed out, factually incorrect claims. Just assume it’s a clanker or propagandist and flag it imo

Spooky23 7mo ago

If this stuff is cheaper, why are prices going up?

julkali 7mo ago
because you start internalizing costs
jahnu 7mo ago
A very fair question and the answer is complicated. Production costs and transmission costs are separate. Also demand changes the market rate. And even if renewables are cheaper to produce in a market usually the highest price regardless of source sets the price. This is to incentivise the cheapest production methods to be invested in. It’s a massive topic and I encourage everyone to go and dive into it. It’s endlessly fascinating and also one of the really positive stories in the world right now which can help balance your emotions in a sometimes depressing world. At least for me it does.
- bryanlarsen 7mo ago
  > This is to incentivise the cheapest production methods to be invested in. It's also just a rule of economics. The price is set at the cost of the most expensive production necessary to meet demand. So if solar could fulfill 100% of energy demand, price would be the cost of solar, and any other more expensive generation would either lose money, shut down or idle. But if we shut down or idle those today we wouldn't have enough electricity, so the price rises until the more expensive plants can stay open and demand is met.
  - zahlman 7mo ago
    ... So then why isn't the solar to replace the more expensive plants getting built?
    - bryanlarsen 7mo ago
      Snarky response deleted. That rule is a rule of free markets. Electricity is not a free market, so it only partially applies. Texas is closer to a free market, and unsurprisingly it is adopting solar faster than most.

deleted 7mo ago

[deleted]

paganel 7mo ago

[flagged]

disgruntledphd2 7mo ago

> Ireland partly got rich by being a massive CO2 polluter per capita. Now we are rich it’s only fair we lead in transitioning to renewables. Renewables are cheaper now than most forms of energy production. Grids need investment. Sorry, what? While I agree with you about reducing emissions, most of our transition from poor to rich(er) was driven by capital light businesses. To be fair, the pharma companies did come here because we refused to regulate spillovers up to EU standards, but that's less than half of the story. tl;dr loads of golf courses, english speaking population, smart industrial plannng and tax dodging was really how it happened.

bluescrn 7mo ago
> Now we are rich it’s only fair we lead in transitioning to renewables Unfortunately it's not the people/generation who reaped the rewards from cheap energy and polluting who are now being made to feel the pain of the transition.
jahnu 7mo ago
None of those things were possible without the fossil fuel based energy underlying everything. Every single wealthy country used energy from fossil fuels to escape poverty. Some to a greater degree than others but that’s the basic reality. Now we have a way out of fossil fuels and we must take it or things will get even worse than they are already going to get anyway. And I did say it was only part of the story, albeit essential.
- cjblomqvist 7mo ago
  Iceland (geothermal) and Sweden (hydro + nuclear) comes knocking.

wesammikhail 7mo ago

> This attitude is ill informed. > Renewables are cheaper now than most forms of energy production. Grids need investment. > Now we are rich it’s only fair we lead in transitioning to renewables. > I despair at these short sighted and fairly wrong on the facts views. The level of arrogance is unmatched while being both factually wrong AND self-contradictory. Absolute cinema!

fleroviumna 7mo ago
[dead]

bluescrn 7mo ago

> Ireland is richer than it has ever been. Isn't that more about big tech companies using Ireland as a tax dodge, rather than a sign of average people doing well? For less-well-off people, energy costs in the UK are a huge issue, they're more than twice what they were pre-Covid. Energy bills are second only to housing costs when it comes to the cost of living crisis. Although grocery price inflation/shrinkflation has been pretty shocking too.

jahnu 7mo ago
Sorry I missed your question. While being a tax haven was part of Ireland’s strategy, given we have little natural resources for export or refining for heavy industries, we also have a well educated workforce which spoke English as a first language and were once cheaper than British workers and also, enthusiastically part of the EU. So we built up a service industry and high tech and high value industries like pharmaceutical and IT. We no longer are the (in my view once somewhat shameful) tax haven we were but now are low tax in a much more fair way (probably could be better but all countries are working the system). Opinions differ. But Ireland is genuinely wealthy and productive. We have serious problems with inequality and a stupid housing problem in the bigger cities. Nevertheless, compared to most of the world and compared to the Ireland of my youth it’s a great if imperfect place where you can have a great quality of life.

selfmodruntime 7mo ago

„Ireland“ is rich because companies have their office there. „The Irish“ are not rich. Talk about ill informed.

jahnu 7mo ago
Yes Ireland is rich. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/median-income-by-country https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/median-in...
- selfmodruntime 7mo ago
  Not according to your own source
  - jahnu 7mo ago
    It’s literally the 19th richest country in that source. Unless you have more to offer than contradiction I have nothing more for you. Have a good one!

fleroviumna 7mo ago

[dead]