1. How many hectares of agricultural land is there left in the World today?  And how many tonnes of food can they produce?

2. What are the World population trends over the last few hundred years?

3. Ireland´s boom was on the back of a high tech industry, which we are no longer competitive in, and therefore there will be no building or advancement in any way until we are competitive again.

As an example, the boss of a high tech company that employs 2,000 people has the following options:

Ireland 2,000 people x Average 40K p.a. = €80,000,000
Abroad 2,000 people x Average 10K p.a. = €20,000,000
Annual saving on labour alone = €60,000,000

There was a time when the Polish, Indians etc. weren´t educated well enough in English and modern tech systems, but that day is over, and I know of two girls working here in Lanzarote as doctor´s receptionists & secretaries for some doctors in the United States.  When you go to the surgery in the States you are greeted by these Secretaries *on a screen* – from Lanzarote!

And now to the *Options* I suggest we have:

1. We control imports, and therefore stop these cheaper manufacturing companies exporting their produce. 

2. We become as competitive as them, and work for the same salaries, which will in turn drop the price of everything we buy, be it food, houses, holidays, cars, etc.

3.  We try to come up with new manufacturing ideas and produce products nobody else is manufacturing.

The young people today will have to pull off a massive stroke of genius if they want to hold on to the living standards they have had until recently, or else simply settle for an awful lot less than they were used to.

My own two sons and all their friends finishing college this year are going out into a very different world to the one they grew up in.  It´s been changing so fast in the last couple of years, I don´t think any of them fully understand it.

It´s one thing to start out your career when everything is still going down and will continue to do so for a good few years yet.  Then you are in a situation where your expectations are constantly changing downwards, and that is very demoralising.  There is nothing wrong with starting at the bottom, and even better when everything is climbing, but there is also nothing worse than watching everything going down around you.

The positive side to all of this is that any of these young fellows starting off in life will either accept a much lower standard of income, which will mean cycling to work instead of driving, not going out socialising, not going on foreign holidays etc., etc., or those who will find a way to get ahead but using a different way of thinking completely, will be fine.

My fear is for those who cannot accept the world as it is changing and will not or cannot do anything about it, but I also know that those that do survive by either accepting the change or doing something about it will be far stronger people than those of us who survived the 80s recession, and will live much better lives after we get to the bottom of this cycle.

Just as sure as the highs of the late 90s and early years of this decade were never higher, its my opinion the lows over hte next few years will be worse than anything seen in the 80s.

There are always fantastic opportunities in recession times, but it´s a hell of a lot more difficult to find them.  Most of the serious wealth was created in recessions, but you have to think in a completely different way during a recession.

I have loads and loads of grat ideas which would work during recessions, but I am too busy and happy making sure that Charlie´s Bar is, and stays, the best bar in Lanzarote, and keeping the hide & skin business in Ireland competitive, to have time to do much else.  And funny as it may seem, for a “clown” who left school at 14 years of age, most of my ideas are based around technology, simplicity and hard work.  I would love to see somebody else making some of these ideas work.  Sometimes all you have to do is look at the exact opposite of what others are doing!

As regards Charlie´s Bar and its competitiveness in recession times, I have seen people in Ireland paying €30 per head to watch a lot worse acts than us at Charlies.  I feel we would be offering really good value by charging €10 entry on the door and then we could sell drink cheaper – but that simply wouldn´t work.  We are all very conscious at Charlies of making sure we offer people value for money.  We work extremely hard to make sure we are the best, and we all live fantastic, but simple lives.  We are very lucky that we love what we do, because you simply couldn´t do it if you didn´t…

So far in 2009 and looking forwards into the year, Skin & Hide spent 3 days a week in January learning & rehearsing Damien Dempsey´s songs, and it was well worth it!  Now they are straight into the same for Sharon Shannon in two weeks´ time.  This is, of course, as well as playing 6 nights a week.  Then we will have one or two meetings after Sharon´s gigs and we will thrash around ideas between us all for making & arranging approx. 10 new songs.  We will rehearse them once a week through March and April.  We are lucky to have Jon Kenny over for the last week of April.  Then we close for the middle two weeks in May for annual holidays.  From 1st June through to the third week of September, we will have no rehearsals and will play 7 nights a week at Charlies, and one early wedding gig as well.  Also in September, a great band from Cork “Bog the Donkey” will give Skin & Hide a week off, and then Skin & Hide will play again 6 nights a week through October and November, and we will put another couple of new songs together during those months. 

2010 will be much the same, except I am working on one or two extra interesting projects, which we might just pull off with a bit of luck.

Hard work, competitiveness, a belief in what you are doing and a lack of greed will pull any business through any recession.  I HOPE!!!

Cheers.
Murphy