The lesson Ireland should have learned from Iceland is that protesting for your economic rights is worth your time. I reckon the Irish will be left at least 20,000 Euro worse off per capita as a result of saving the banks and not letting capitalism take its course. I'm assuming €13,000 of this relates to direct banking debt, and the remainder to inefficiencies and the government squandering the public sector pension fund (NPRF) on investments in worthless Irish banks.

It didn't have to be like this. In 2009 Ireland and Iceland were in roughly comparable positions, with Iceland's banks were probably slightly worse off. Iceland's government wanted to move to save the banks with public funds. So did Ireland's. In all financial crises, its a pretty good bet that the government will try to save financial powers using taxpayer money, if they can.

Iceland's population kicked up a fuss, and stopped the plans. Ireland's didn't, and the plans went ahead. Iceland immediately entered crisis, with sharp currency devaluations and threats of retaliation from the Europeans, especially the UK and Dutch, who lost a lot of money in Icelandic banks.

And so Iceland's banks were let fail, only to be reorganised by the bondholders. They scaled back their operations, but Iceland still has banks. That's how capitalism works!

In the case of depositors, small depositors were protected, as they were promised to be in the deposit protection. Larger depositors had to take a hit.

Some larger deposits were made whole by the UK and Dutch governments. Iceland was a favourite offshore banking location for Europeans, as it's banks paid a rate of interest above what European banks paid. The UK and Holland have since asked for the Icelandic government to pay them the money for saving the depositors, Iceland however has refused. Which is damn sensible of them.

So at the end of the day I figure each hours protest by the Icelandic people saved them somewhere between €10,000 and €40,000, maybe even more Which ain't bad for an hours work.

It pays to stand up for yourself.