Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

TROUBLED TIMES can bring out the best or the worst in us. Which it is to be still hangs in the balance. The first responses to the current crisis were not encouraging: the Government reached for old and failed policies; some of those with the most secure incomes were the most vociferous in declaring not an inch; and we sank instantly into a pit of national negativity and competitive victimhood. We have been pointing fingers, naming the guilty, blaming bankers and demanding that the rich and those who benefited from the boom must pay for this mess.

There are a few truths that need to be remembered. We all benefited from the boom: one measure of the extent to which we did benefit is the hole in taxes and the cuts now facing services for which it no longer pays. No bankers (or even estate agents) forced us to take out loans or demanded that we invest/speculate in property or become part-time landlords. Like all bubbles, the property bubble was based on the madness of crowds and we are the crowds.