The Irish Do Hunger Like No Others!

From the Independent: Families in modern Ireland skip food to pay the mortgage.

FAMILIES in modern Ireland are going without food to meet the demand of mortgage debt.

The arrival of the second wave of the economic crisis, giving rise for the first time in many decades to the spectre of hunger, has caused shock across the country.

The decision of homeowners to choose hunger over a fear of eviction helps expose as irrelevant the issue of "moral hazard", the defence of policymakers who resist calls for debt forgiveness.

In a letter to the Irish Times on Friday, MP Mac Domhnaill -- possibly a pseudonym -- an unemployed man from Tralee, wrote of the "anxiety and pain" the economic crisis had wreaked on his family.

The letter writer, who has chosen to use his dole payment to meet a €780 monthly repayment, told of how he had nothing to feed his children except bread and cereal.

One presumes that "mortgage" spells nothing like "potato" but the end result seems to be the same.

Incidentally, the word "mortgage" originates from French (via Latin) meaning "death pledge" which in this case seems to be taken quite literally.

Dude, hand the keys back, and walk away. What are they going to do?

Ironically, the same could be said for the entire nation of Ireland. Just default. What are they going to do?

Oh well, one would think that at rock-bottom, they would "get it".

Of course, it's not serious yet. For that, the Irish would have to stop drinking. Then, we'd be sure.