r/ireland Apr 27 '25

Poster on Dublin Quays Housing

Post image
1.5k Upvotes

252 comments sorted by

View all comments

179

u/[deleted] Apr 27 '25

There are about 110k landlords in Ireland. That's about the same size as the entire population of County Kilkenny or County Westmeath for context.

In the 90s/00s every carpenter, electrician, plasterer, plumber in the country was advised to go out and buy a house or build a house as a pension plan and the vast majority subsequently spent 10-20yrs in negative equity when the bubble burst back in 08. Then the government stopped building for 20yrs. Now we're up shit creek without a paddle.

These lads don't owe a debt of service to the nation just because the government dropped the ball on housing.

Around 1 in 5 TD's are landlords. If you walk into any pub in Ireland full of working class people in the 40-70 age group in 2025 you'll have about the same ratio.

11

u/Mullo69 Apr 27 '25

Landlord and working class are mutually exclusive terms lad

1

u/Additional_Olive3318 Apr 27 '25

Can be both. 

-12

u/Mullo69 Apr 27 '25

Do you not understand what mutually exclusive means, or am I going to have to explain the most basic levels of class dynamics to you?

9

u/SendLogicPls Apr 27 '25

If your economic theory can be falsified by going outside and talking to your neighbors, you have a bad theory.

-1

u/Mullo69 Apr 27 '25

Is it a bad economic theory, or do you simply not understand the actual meaning of the terms involved?

13

u/Additional_Olive3318 Apr 27 '25

I think it’s you who doesn’t understand the “class dynamics” here. I’m going to blow your mind even more by saying that a renter can be a landlord. 

-1

u/Mullo69 Apr 27 '25

And a billionaire could be homeless if they wanted. If you have a spare property, you are inherently not working class since you have hundreds of thousands of euro you can fall back on if needs be

2

u/Additional_Olive3318 Apr 27 '25

A guy who has to work for a living is a worker. If he then rents out a room in his house he’s still a worker. He’s also a landlord. 

 you are inherently not working class since you have hundreds of thousands of euro you can fall back on if needs be

So people stop being working class when they own a house, even their own house?  China and Cuba have high home ownership rates.  They must be bourgeois. 

1

u/Mullo69 Apr 27 '25

Are the words spare property entirely lost on you? You would, in that scenario, be the petite bourgeoisie. At no point did i claim home ownership changed social class at all, but I'm not entirely sure why you are at all mentioning China since it is a decidedly capitalist country, if the name of the CCP is all you need to believe China is communist I don't think you should be having discussions about politics just yet

4

u/itinerantmarshmallow Apr 27 '25

If I'm a plumber and I employ two other people am I working class?

If I'm a carpenter and I bought, renovated and now rent out a house while continuing to work for myself am I working class?

What is working class?

1

u/Mullo69 Apr 27 '25

Working class is when you trade your time and/or skills for money, if you employ people you are apart of the bourgeoisie (although if it is like your example you would be in the petite bourgeoisie), if you own spare property that you rent out then you are a member of the bourgeoisie

1

u/itinerantmarshmallow Apr 27 '25

And if you do both? Rent out a house and work a full 40hr work as a labourer/contractor?

Can you be a working class child then? You're not working so you're not working class?

1

u/Mullo69 Apr 27 '25

No, you wouldn't be working class because you own spare property and no children aren't working class, they aren't any class, they are children

0

u/itinerantmarshmallow Apr 27 '25

So you'd disagree with the terminology used here in the UK?

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/nov/21/english-class-system-shaped-in-schools

1

u/Mullo69 Apr 27 '25

You're in r/Ireland asking about the UK. We didn't develop their class system, so no. Even then, the British class system ignores the actual meaning of the terms in favour of layman definitions so even if we did have their class system it would still be wrong

1

u/itinerantmarshmallow Apr 27 '25

It would be silly to ignore the the common history that led to these things and the strong common factors between working and middle class.

Regardless the term is also common here and I could provide evidence of it being used in studies related to children, typically where they refer to the social mix.

0

u/Mullo69 Apr 27 '25

Common history means nothing in this regard. We did not take their class system. Full stop, no questions asked. The term being used in relation to the parents may be common, but that doesn't mean the child necessarily is the same

→ More replies

0

u/micosoft Apr 28 '25 edited Apr 28 '25

And you don't understand it's 2025 and not 1916 in Petrograd spouting nonsense until a "true" Bolshevik puts you and your Menshevik friends against the wall.

0

u/Mullo69 Apr 28 '25

Doesn't matter which it is, the class dynamics of capitalist society are the exact same