Putting things into perspective

I often find it surprising how quickly people forget the past. Not that long ago life was quite different. My postman, for instance, did not drive a BMW. Porsches were for rich, intelligent, and successful people – not estate agents. I can still remember how awestruck I was when, as a little boy, I saw my first Ferrari. Today conspicuous consumption, or at least the signs of past conspicuous consumption, is everywhere. Today’s little Daniels, I imagine, barely bat an eyelid when a Bentley passes by.

For most of my childhood I received pocket money of 50 pence a week. One shiny little coin. Several weeks of hard saving would pass by before little Daniel could even afford a matchbox car. My first job, as a paperboy, required getting up at 6am every day, even before school, to deliver newspapers for an hour. Had I not been volunteering it probably would have classified as slave labour. My only solace was the beer and cigarettes it would afford me at the end of the week. That said, I didn’t have much time to enjoy them, as I usually spent most of my weekend catching up on lost sleep.

a fruit of my hard saved pocket money

My somewhat exaggerated self-pity pales into insignificance compared to my fathers childhood. Born in the 1950’s, into a poor area of London, unbelievably he did not have electricity in his house until he was 11. Bath time for my father was a weekly event, situated outside in the garden, even in the middle of the winter, with bath water shared with the rest of the family. Quite unimaginable given they lived just a few miles from central London. Unsurprisingly, given their reliance on candles and gas lights, fires were a continual hazard and not before long their house burnt to the ground.

When you consider that, a mere 40 odd years ago, there were people living in developed cities like this, it helps to put things into perspective. Despite the continual doom in the media, life isn’t that bad. Yes people are losing their jobs, and yes I feel bad for them, but it isn’t the end of the world. Yet. Unemployment might be increasing rapidly, but don’t forget it is starting from a very low base. In the UK, for instance, it is still substantially less than when Labour came into power back in 1997.

UK unemployment rate, source: DataInsight

Ireland, much like the UK, has also been taking its fair share of criticism lately. According to the Telegraph – “the Celtic Tiger is dead, and its cubs are thinking of leaving”. Well, for all the troubles Ireland is in at the moment, it is still measurably better off than even a few years ago. As you can see below, Ireland’s real GDP has doubled in the last 10 years. I doubt even the most pessimistic Cassandra expects Ireland’s GDP to fall 50%. Even if it did, it’s not like Ireland 10 years ago was an uninhabitable wasteland full of starving children and mass unemployment.

Ireland Real GDP, source: DataInsight

So life goes on. We still have many innovations - the internet, mobile phones, and cheap flights to name just a few –that we take for granted and that barely even existed 10 years ago. I still have my friends, a loving family, and a wonderful girlfriend. The UK is not about to sink. Ireland is not dead. Friends who lose their jobs will find new ones. Bad companies will get acquired or replaced by good ones. Undeniably life for some people will be hard, but I don’t foresee people in London going back to bathing once a week and living without electricity.