The Property Collapse Shows the Value of Independent Free Thinking

In Ireland the second half of the Celtic Tiger was based nearly solely on the property bubble. This continued Ireland's unprecedented period of sustained economic growth. However when this property bubble burst, the Irish economy went to into a recession which caused high unemployment and mass emigration. Since all bubbles burst, why were so many people caught by surprise when the market crashed?

According to Charlie Fell (2011) in his column for the Irish Times 'All bubbles and busts are a product of human nature, though the Irish experience has been traced to “groupthink” – a faulty decision-making process that leads to a low probability of successful outcomes'.This idea developed from the earlier 1970s to examine why groups consisting of bright intelligent people often made irrational decisions. Common patterns in groupthink include illusions of invulnerability, discouragement of dissenting opinion and illusion of unanimity

These conditions can be seen from analyzing the Irish experience. Individuals seem to believe that the prices of houses would continue to rise for the foreseeable future. It was as if an investment in property was a risk free investment. Although there has never been a property bubble that did not collapse and there was warning signs, people continued to invest. ‘Shur isn’t everyone else investing in property’. So of Irelands most intellectual people became to heavily involved in the risk of the property market.

Our Taoiseach in 2007 Bertie Ahern told a group of reporters that anyone who criticized the Irish economy should commit 'suicide'. This directly relates to a discouragement of criticism.

According to Fell (2011) Diverse opinions based on sound analysis are to be valued rather than frowned upon. To quote Gen George Patton: “If everyone is thinking alike, then someone isn’t thinking.”