Please switch off the lights ...

I READ with considerable interest Matt Cooper’s column (May 14) concerning the state we find ourselves in (pun intended) and how we may one day extricate ourselves from it.

My family and I are, or perhaps should be, poster figures for the boom era. My wife and I both are in our 30s and work in managerial roles for multinational North American companies. My wife is Turkish by birth and we have a one-year-old daughter. After this point our familial hand no longer fits the demographic glove so carefully woven for it by the men in the sharp suits over the past few years.

We do not live in a duplex in north Leitrim that cost us a third of a million euro but has no public lighting. Our (small) car is now in its eighth year and there are no plans to replace it. Our television, DVD player, (digital video camera and stroller were all bought second hand from any number of free websites over the years.