Competitiveness is seen as a fundamental aspect of market theory and this competitiveness can only occur when there are numerous competitors, all with small market shares, competing to innovate and better their rivals. This competition forces firms to work at maximum efficiency and create a superior product to their rivals at a lower price in order to appeal to more customers. This benefits the consumer as they are offered more choice when it comes to a product which best suits their needs as well as receiving a better product at a lower price. When companies engage in what is known as “anti-competitive behaviour” they are often sanctioned by the government who wishes to protect the consumer from malicious business practices which will hurt their pockets. This same logic can be applied to party politics under a democratic electoral system...Continue reading 

13 March, 2023

Homo Sapiens have outlasted all other species based on one innate ability, the ability to mimic each other via our social capabilities. We weren’t smarter or stronger than our extinct relatives of neanderthals or homo erectus, they discovered fire and tools long before us with their superior brains, we were simply better able to copy each other and that is why we are here and they are not. In his book “Human Kind”, Rutger Bregman cites Joseph Henrich, American anthropologist, on this. Bregman describes how the copycats are far superior not because they are able to evolve individually better, but because we are able to evolve as a collective and learn from the one genius in who discovers fishing as opposed to our extinct brethren who were only able to learn it for themselves...Continue reading

6 January, 2023

Public transportation is something which isn’t prioritised enough when it comes to finding solutions to a lot of the issues which we face on a day to day basis. Transport is something which the majority of people require to get to work, school or wherever else they have to go throughout their day. In the greater Dublin area public transport is readily available to people for their use yet people still opt to use cars rather than tram systems, trains or buses. The CSO indicates that around half of people 18 and over in Ireland have never used a bus in their lives. This is a significant problem environmentally and for a whole host of other reasons which we have the infrastructure to fix if we made public transport more appealing...Continue reading 

11 June, 2022

After eventually getting around to reading James Connelly’s 1910 book, Labour in Irish History, I began to think about this Catholic elite which he speaks about. The general consensus on Irish history is that the Protestant invaders oppressed the native Irish Catholics for centuries under the feudal system and it was impossible for someone who stayed true to their catholic heritage to have any social mobility within Irish society. Connelly however, flipped this on its head and argued that it was not the persecution of the Catholics which was the primary reason for the subjugation of these poor tenant farmers, it was however the class system which was the true oppressor...Continue reading

2 June, 2022

In recent days there has been much debate in Ireland by government officials, the media, the public, and the defence forces about the type of aid which is suitable for Ireland to send to assist in the defensive effort by Ukraine against their Russian aggressors. While Ireland has already begun sending non-lethal aid such as medical supply’s, body armour, fuel, and other nonviolent supply’s, many believe that weapons, such as anti-tank missiles which the Irish defence force has in it’s arsenal, should be added to that list...Continue reading 

2 March, 2022

When talking about the minimum wage throughout history it is something which has raised much contention in political conversation. Minimum wage began as a monetary baseline, or floor, of sorts for full time and part time workers in order to prevent hyper exploitation to occur in the workplace. Over time it has evolved into what it is now, a valuable tool which can be used by governments to ensure a sufficient quality of life for all workers and their family's. However, many believe that this does not go far enough in the modern era and has to adapt and evolve in order to keep up with our rapidly changing society...Continue reading  

15 January, 2022

With the steep rise of China as a whole in recent decades it is very easy to see a world in which America is no longer that hegemonic superpower that it once was. However, America has always had it’s troubles keeping the position of “top dog” on the global hierarchy. Even if we look back to 1947 with the beginning of what we know as the cold war, we can see that America has been insecure for a while now, and I mean that in an economic, political, and psychological way in the sense that over time they began to realise that they might not be top of the food chain for much longer and they will do anything they can to maintain that position...Continue reading

16 December, 2021

I recently watched a documentary presented by former UK prisons Minister and Thatcherite, Ann Widdecombe, where she visited Halden prison in Norway in order to compare and contrast this one to the 135 which she has allegedly visited during her just over 3 years as Minister during the late 90’s. In the documentary she took a guided tour of the prison in order to see all the facilities, interview the guards and inmates and to understand what she was doing wrong in her brief time in power in this sector. However, in typical Tory fashion whenever she saw something unconventional, progressive, or that made a step towards treating prisoners like human beings, she would shake her head aggressively and begin tutting in the way that any woman with her haircut does...Continue reading

15 November, 2021

13 November, 2021