Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
WHAT DO YOU do when a friend pays tribute to a deceased loved one by uploading a photo, or when your cousin complains of a bad day on her Facebook status?
Sometimes, it just feels weird to click “like” (someone’s aunt just died; you’re giving that a thumbs up?), so Facebook is toying with the idea of adding a “sympathise” button.
A developer recently introduced the idea for the button at a Facebook hackathon. The idea is to give users a way to acknowledge things without “liking” them, and apparently, everyone present at the event seemed really excited about the idea.
Here’s how it would work:
But don’t start scanning your timelines for the button just yet. A Facebook engineer named Dan Muriello told The Huffington Post his colleague’s creation was “well-received by fellow Facebookers, but isn’t making its way to the site (for now)”.
- Caroline Moss
My disposable income is the lowest it’s been in years. I had more during the recession.
@Harry Trafford: good4u
@Harry Trafford: you’re not alone, its smoke and mirrors to try convince people that everythings going grand when in reality no one has a pot to piss in after all the taxes and stealth taxes.
@Thomas Maher: I earned more ten years ago than I do now. Loads of workers are on zero hour contracts with little or no rights with regard to sick pay/holiday pay. Where can I apply for a job that gives me over 50k in disposable income?
@Frank Cauldhame: I’d love to know where they get these figures! Cost of living in ireland does not meet the wages earnt by the average person. Everything seems to be climbing price wise yet the wages stay the same and taxes increase
@Harry Trafford: me too. 2 people working full time & have absolutely nothing to show for it.
@shellakybooky: And its only going to get worse, most of us will be worse off than those who lived in the Dickensian era. We’ll be sending our children out as chimney sweeps !
@Harry Trafford: That is what you call propaganda? Unless the CSO are using the greedy millionaires income here that is screwing the numbers up on everyone. Add everyones disposable income together like billionaires with those nearly living on the street and then divide using the number of people. So you get a socialist figure based on an outcome using an imperialist classist system?
@Frank Cauldhame: Good money to be made as a chimney sweeper,I believe that for less than a 20 minute job,they can charge you in & around €50-€60′s.
When they say disposable income, do they mean after all bills etc paid? If so then who are these people who have over 20k of it per year, and can I please get a job wherever you’re working!!
@Everyone’sgonecrazy:
It’s just after tax, whatever is left over for you to spend or save as desired.
@Everyone’sgonecrazy: yes before rent and creches. So when you factor in the increased cost of living people are of course poorer than before.
@SC: @TimPot ah ok thank you!
Where do they get their figures from ? I’m retired on oap which I payed for when I was working and those that I know of who are in employment do not have anything like the amount of disposable income but then I dont know anyone in public service….
@Peter donnelly: They are very cute to quote the average figure. If they quoted the median, it would come in approx 25 percent lower. The top 1 percent earn over 373k per year vs 27.5k per year for the bottom 90 percent. When taxes are taken out, the 90 percent average drops to less than 25.8k takehome.
https://www.thejournal.ie/top-1-in-ireland-1940955-Feb2015/
@DaMoons: they also quote the median figure and it is just slightly lower…
People in Ireland are very well off now
@Peter donnelly: I guess in your imagination “the public service” is full of fat cats. You don’t know a single nurse, teacher or postman?
@Peter donnelly: That is what you call propaganda? Unless the CSO are using the greedy millionaires income here that is screwing the numbers up on everyone. Add everyones disposable income together like billionaires with those nearly living on the street and then divide using the number of people. So you get a socialist figure based on an outcome using an imperialist classist system?
My annual wage is way less than €51K p.a. There are people on huge wages in this country who are skewing these statistics.
That my friends in plain English is Walter Mitty material . Not a chance !
For who?
Nothing to do with disposable income but I heard this joke today. A man was rooting around in a cave when he found a genie lamp,rubbing it gleefully, a genie appeared. ” I can grant you three wishes but everything I give you, your ex wife gets double” he said. “Fine, I want a beautiful mansion” he said. “Done ” said the genie “But your wife gets two mansions”. “I want a million pounds”, “Done, but your wife gets two million”. The man looked wistful, “I want you to scare me half to death”……
@Honeybee: Very good, any more???
Yeah, what’s the median? There are a select few paying themselves and their friends and family members 6-7 figure salaries, meanwhile a carer gets 219 a week – more than the 205 the disabled person for whom they care gets!
@Felicity Rawson: says in the article the median is €22k
A far more meaningful figure. Half of households have 22k or less disposable income.
The average figure of 55k being so far above the median just shows there are a small number of exceptionally high income households to drag the figure so high.
@Felicity Rawson: my mum full time Carrer for my Dad, gets nothing for it as means tested.
Seriously unfair, plenty other carers in same boat.
@john doe: the median is 22k per person not household. The mean per person is 23K..
Not much in the difference..
@Tim McCormack29: thanks
WHAT,!!!!!!!!
A huge amount of people living in poverty. A slight decrease and Minister whatsherface is patting herself on the back. She conveniently doesn’t acknowledge that a huge amount of people are still living in poverty. That’s FFG for you. Stats are important, not the Irish people.
Households with multiple adults is throwing the average out.
Where on earth have they come up with this figure not a hope
@Charlie Jameson: relax Charlie they are sending a Christmas Card to every house in the country to cheer them up…they are just waiting for the printer
Laughable.
@Darren Sheridan:
What’s laughable Darren is the constant stream of moaners and groaners on this site complaining about getting salaries in the lower end of the scale ,circa 25000 to 30000 euros, despite holding lower level employment in roles such as retail, labouring, hairdressing, food production etc. They feel they should be entitled to the same rewards as their peers who made better lifestyle choices in life and applied themselves to their studies in their formative years. Reality needs to set in here , big time.
@Colonel Grant: don’t fall off your horse their lad, but I know plenty with degrees and masters who are struggling to get any sorta work and if they do apply for roles with say a 50k salary ur expected to have unrealistic experience to match……this myth there are plenty jobs out there is all well and good till you go applying and realise employers are setting the bar so high in lots of roles so high it’s a joke. And hey in all fairness I’d hold a carer, fireman, nurse etc in higher regard for wages than some slimy politician who’s paying his family to scratch too out of the taxpayers purse. Plenty in this country haven’t word anywhere near hard fall into the well paid jobs they have, all it takes is a back scratch here, a pucker up for a cheek there and boom you get a great job
My china savings pig is empty, even the rubber stopper underneath him is missing, rats to Regina Doherty.
Don’t know what planet she is living on
Average rent in Dublin 2500 a month = 30k per year…51k disposable income is income after rent so every single person in Dublin is earning 50k minimum apparently Iol…even North Korea wouldn’t get away with this kind of propaganda. Were children eating their dinner off cardboard a fantasy image lately. FG are so far detached from reality it’s unreal… Ireland is a wealthy country but not so wealthy that they will get away with stuff like this…not a hope are they getting a majority.
Fake news
@Mausheen: Electioneering…
Everyone moaning, believe it or not there are actually many people living in Ireland that live very comfortably on what they earn, not everyone lives week to week…
This is bull. ‘Average’ being manipulated.
@Kath Noonan: It’s like how great the GDP growth is but they don’t tell you that the biggest thing that adds to it is debt especially mortgage debt.
It’s Household disposable income, not personal. Many houses have more than one earner. Also disposable income is anything after taxes. You still need to pay mortgage/rent and bills from your disposable income. Not as far fetched as you might think.
@steven Daly: it’s beyond far fetched; it’s complete fiction. even with two people on average industrial wage would only make just over that before taxes, let alone bills.
You only need 1 good insurance claim to give you a leg up, even for one yr.
Just making up figures for the craic!
Statisticians crunch the numbers. Politicians play the numbers. The homeless and precarious make up the real numbers.
I am clearly below average so.
Where do they get these figures from ????
Average wages is less than 30,000
Taxes taxes taxes….once you take out taxes and essential bills do people really have that much “dispoaible” income? I doubt it very much.
The result of churning out graduates, everyone has the same degree! Granted some did masters and are now finding themselves priced out of the market! Anyone doing a traditional apprenticeship now will be quids in for life! You will always need a plumber/carpenter/electrician.. but they obviously didn’t focus on those jobs in school!
Have a look at all the bags people carry out of the shopping centres any day from now on. Couldn’t move in the shopping centres today with Black Friday sales. There are plenty of people out there with lots to spend and no it’s not all credit. There is plenty of mo ey out there.
Obviously homeless exists and some people do live in poverty, but everyone seems to moaning… believe it or not there are actually many people who live comfortably on what they earn… not everyone lives week to week
Bo[[ocks it is.
Is this a joke? Does the CSO only do certain rich areas in Dublin and apply that nationwide?
“By comparison, the CSO data also shows that average annual household disposable income was €51,458 – an increase of 6.2% from 2017. ”
In what daydream did they pick these numbers from, does the CSO do this a lot before elections??? That’s a good one “disposable income was €51,458″…
Where did they get that figure – as l have no disposable income anywhere near that figure.
Gas they always report on this average but never the medium, averages dont work for stuff like this as you have the top earners making the averages look like everyone in ireland is minted!!!!
CEO comedian’s
Disposable income is income after tax, but before rent, food, heat, light, transport.
That’s roughly 26k net per person in a 2 income family, in Dublin 26k wouldn’t cover your rent …. so 51k disposable income sounds super but in reality it’s barely a living wage
There are lies, damned lies, and then there’s statistics
have your say