The Unequal Republic

at

richlist

rory

From top: The Sunday Independent Rich List; Dr Rory Hearne

Rejoice.

The rich have recovered.

Dr Rory Hearne writes:

We should be honest about the state of this place and change the name of our country from the Republic of Ireland to the Republic of Inequality.

Two issues that emerged in the last week showed the reality of the recovery and the inequality at the heart of it.

Firstly we found out that more families became homeless in Dublin in January than any previous month on record. 134 families, including 269 children became homeless bringing the number of homeless children in Dublin to 1,570.

Secondly, the Sunday Independent Rich List showed that the top 300 wealthiest people doubled their wealth since 2010. These 300 people alone have €87.7bn in wealth. That is a fifth of all the wealth in the country.

This shows why, for most people, the election choice between stability and chaos – keeping the recovery going or ‘going backwards’ are meaningless slogans that ignore the reality that the economic recovery has been deeply unequal.

Rising inequality in Ireland has not been given sufficient attention despite the growing global evidence that inequality is a major concern.

Another fact about wealth distribution: half of all the people in Ireland have less than 5% of the wealth in the country while the top 20% have 70% of the net wealth.

Growing income and wealth inequalities between the top of society (the 1%) and stagnating or dis-improving incomes for the rest (or the 99%) has become a major global issue. Rising inequality threatens the global economy and social cohesion.

Discussions of the Irish economy during the election should have given greater treatment to the issue of inequality. Taking indicators of inequality such as deprivation and poverty we score very poorly.

As I have highlighted here before, the number of children aged 0-6 (the most vulnerable age) suffering from deprivation in Ireland, for example, doubled from 55,000 in 2007 to 105,000 in 2014. Ireland now has the third highest deprivation rate for children aged 0-6 in the EU15 – at 25%.

This is over 8 times Norway’s level. This combined with our youth unemployment rate of 19% and 35,000 young Irish emigrating last year shows a problem of ‘intergenerational inequality’.

Another aspect is gender inequality where women are paid over 14 per cent less than men and represent 60 per cent of all low paid workers.

Then there is inequality across the country where at risk of poverty rates in the Border, Midland and Western areas are over five percentage points (at 20.5%) higher than the Southern and Eastern Region.

Inequality is clearly the human rights and economic issue of our time. It was also one of the key issues when the Irish Republic was proclaimed 100 years ago with the aspiration of guaranteeing:

“equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and…cherishing all of the children of the nation equally…”

Inequality really matters and the failure to take it seriously and take initiatives to address it, in part explains why the government’s message of ‘keep the recovery going’ has not resonated with voters.

Consistent opinion polls are showing that a majority of the public are in favour of policies that would address inequality such as greater public investment instead of tax cuts and for increasing taxes on higher incomes and wealth.

Ireland is at a defining point. The current level of economic inequality in Ireland has not happened by accident or as a force of nature – it has resulted from the type of economic policies we have pursued – and because of the political choices about who had to bear the burden of austerity and debt –and at European level regarding the response to the financial crisis.

We face a choice as to whether we want to continue along this path of an unsustainable and unequal economy.

Our economy is becoming increasingly ‘free-market’ or ‘lassiez-faire’ oriented where key aspects of our human needs and rights such as health, housing, education, childcare, water etc is marked by a social apartheid between underfunded public services and the private, ‘for-profit’ commercial, services.

The majority are left with the challenges of public services while the wealthy escape to their privilege of private health care and education. This ‘neoliberal’ economics has seen Irish economic growth marked by persistent boom and bust patterns and a marked rise in inequality and deprivation.

But a different economic and social path is possible – a more equitable and sustainable economic path. And it is one based on economic equality.

Recent research by Wilkinson and Pickett (authors of The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies do Better) has shown again that more equal countries do better in terms of their social and economic indicators, particularly in having less social problems and better weathering economic storms.

They highlight that some wealthy societies such as the Nordics (Denmark, Sweden, Norway) are able to reduce inequalities due to their “societal commitment to greater equality.”

That is something we should aspire to.

Despite what we are told there are always alternative policy choices available and our current scale of inequality is neither inevitable nor is it sustainable.

The government is asking you to vote for their recovery on Friday. The reality of that recovery is laid bare by the fact that on that very Election day 13 Families face eviction from a Hostel in Mountjoy St in Dublin. That is 13 Families and their children, all with different stories, all caught in a trap of homelessness, being dumped on to the streets.

Is that the recovery we want? Is that the Republic of Inequality we want?

If it is not, then on Friday – vote in hope for a more equal Ireland.

Not in fear of chaos. The housing and health crisis are chaos enough.

We have been obedient, subservient, silenced, foolish, gullible, naïve, abused, lied to, corrupted, shamed and suffered for long enough.

It’s time for change.

Dr Rory Hearne is a Senior Policy Analyst with TASC, the Think-Tank for Action on Social Change. His column appears here every Wednesday. Rory is an independent candidate for the Seanad NUI Colleges Panel. Follow him on Twitter: @roryhearne

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88 thoughts on “The Unequal Republic”

        1. Disasta

          Fair point. But taxes in general hurt low-middle earners and have little impact on the very wealthy.

          A house was a way wealth could be kept in a family. With property tax and the huge income tax, which is taxing something twice, that is being eroded.

          More money going up.

          1. Disasta

            “huge inheritance tax” I meant, not “huge income tax”. Which is also huge given what you get for it.

    2. DubLoony

      How many of Irish millionaires inherited their wealth?
      What if they had an idea, started a company, made it successful and became wealthy?
      Do we consider that always to be a bad thing?

      1. Neilo

        Yes, having money is bad and you must hand it all over to the Government, quick smart. You are also living on an island with a 10,000 foot high wall built all around it and no internet or telephony, so there’s no way of escaping with your cash.

      2. Harry Molloy

        The current narrative suggests that yes, it is a bad thing to aspire to being comfortable and you are a bad person for having stuff that others do not.

        We will ensure that we can take your stuff away so no one has more than anyone.

        Equality of income!! (Please ignore equality of contribution)

        1. Neilo

          Don’t be a hater, equality of income has worked like a charm in all the stable democracies that have it as policy like, ah, Cuba.

          1. Harry Molloy

            We need to move back to our agrarian roots to live in harmony and “marginalise” those collectors of wealth.

            Worked in Cambodia

  2. Clampers Outside!

    No tax paying leeches. It really is that simple. The family surviving on the average industrial wage and paying more tax than these deserves more respect.

    The richer you get the less giving one becomes. Fact.

        1. Neilo

          I know of quite a few rich types here who keep that shiz on the DL but people with bugger all money are much bigger per capita donors given their income.

          2. Clampers Outside!

            Do they pay fair tax or do they hire accountants to shuffle their money around so they pay less, which gives them the extra money to play at being a philanthropist?

            If everyone paid tax and no shuffling was allowed there’d be no debt to worry about.

            Philanthropy today is the product of a broken and unequal tax collecting system. The top don’t pay tax, and some foolish people, like yourself it would appear, see philanthropy as a replacement for paying tax. Or worse, take the view “aren’t they great” for giving.
            There were plenty of philanthropists in the States pre-1970s when the tax rate at the top was 70%, and there were plenty twenty years earlier than that when the top rate was 90% in tax.
            So, don’t give me crap about ‘philanthropists’ being so good at giving, it’s easy to give when you don’t pay tax. Thing that needs to be asked is, do they actually give, or just write off against tax.

            Do philanthropists give MORE than the amount they would have had to pay in tax if they didn’t dodge paying? That would be real philanthropy, but giving out a few bob and then getting tax credits for doing so is not real ‘philanthropy’ FFS!

            Modern philanthropists are for the most part just tax dodgers attempting to buy respect….
            [REDACTED] would be a prime example.

            This is opinion :)
            Mine.

  3. Eoin

    And these rich elites did not double their wealth through hard work, new investment or innovation. This is a global phenomenon. A massive transfer of wealth that is turning the western world into a neo feudal system, with an elite class and a working class. The middle class are being destroyed. Mario Draghi (ex Goldman Sachs) is printing money like confetti, lending it out to the worlds billionaires who then pump it into stocks, giving the impression of a recovery. But there is no recovery. And now we got bond and stock market bubbles due to the excessive money in the system. And watch for the next big rotten banking scam. Negative interest rates and a ban (starting with a tax) on cash.

    1. David

      “Negative interest rates and a ban (starting with a tax) on cash.”

      Not so sure about the first but maybe.

      The second – heading there already, just a few tweaks to go. What will you do?

      1. Clampers Outside!

        Negative interest rates were mentioned the other evening on deh Newz on the tele…. think it was Noonan’s interview.

        A ban on cash is not likely, but limiting where you can use cash is happening. Same result, different phraseology.

    2. Andy

      Wow, “negative interests and a ban on cash” as a solution to inequality?

      The main problem the left has is it has no idea how wealth is generated.

      Wealth is not generated by hoarding cash. Wealth is generated by investing. How many of those in the “richest 300 Irish people” derived their increased wealth from hoarding cash?

      Facelpalm

  4. Dόn 'The Unstoppable Force' Pídgéόní

    And I said Cressida, Cressida I said, look I don’t understand why those homeless children didn’t have the common decency to be born into a rich family or even a good middle class family. It beggars belief, it really does.

  5. perricrisptayto

    “Secondly, the Sunday Independent Rich List showed that the top 300 wealthiest people doubled their wealth since 2010. ”
    There’s Fine Gael’s so called recovery.

    Now we are faced with the spector of the return of Fianna Fail.
    When will we ever learn. Friday might be our last chance for some time.

    1. DubLoony

      How did they made their wealth?
      In this country, they usually come from solid middle class with private education e.g. O’Leary. Or they come from inherited assets like farming e.g. Quinn.

    2. :-Joe

      Haha, ye… the insanity of repeatedly electing the same InequalityIsFine(FG/FF) party would be funny if it wasn’t so F ! U ! C ! K ! 1 ! N ! G depressing to watch every five years.

      Ennnnnnnnnnd’ aaaaaAAAAAHHHH(pulls a massive, slow, incrementally increasingly louder mongo face) is not even talking to the people when he repeats his meaningless, vacuous slogans over and over and over to mind-numbing effect on the weak minded fools of this country.

      He’s just reminding the powers that be, the other international politicians, captains of industry and finance and his true masters, that everything will be fine. The long line of idiots that vote for “InequalityIsFine” are still ignorant, deluded and still kept in their place and it’s definitely business as usual with the one caveat and the subliminal message not intended for our ears;

      The recovery by the Fine load’a Gob-shite’s party will squeeze even more amounts of wealth and at increasingly faster rates to get society’s elite echelons back on track to their ambitious levels of greed and inequality.

      :-J

  6. cian

    But no tax that an Irish government can create will affect these 300 richest. So 20% of the nations ‘wealth’ is outside the taxman’s grasp.

        1. Harry Molloy

          And that is a good point Andy.

          Out of all these rich people, how much have earned their money within Ireland? Are they actually hording wealth that would have went to the average punter in Ireland?

          This is similar to the argument of taxing google and apple etc. “They made $12bn last year”, yes it was booked here but certainly not generated here.

          That’s not to say we shouldn’t be getting more than we do from either gorup, but the feeling that they are taking money directly from our pockets is unwarranted and inaccurate.

          1. Clampers Outside!

            ” That’s not to say we shouldn’t be getting more than we do from either gorup, but the feeling that they are taking money directly from our pockets is unwarranted and inaccurate ”

            I do love a good contradictory finish.

        2. Dόn 'The Unstoppable Force' Pídgéόní

          Some country was talking about taking passports off people who refused to pay tax there.

          Sounds about right to me though you would never get it through the courts/parliament/whoever.

      2. Neilo

        Wealth is mobile – these people don’t bodysurf over cellars full of gold coins á la Scrooge McDuck.

  8. Andy

    “Is that the recovery we want? Is that the Republic of Inequality we want?”

    Yes, I’m perfectly happy with that.
    Thanks,

      1. Andy

        I am wearing a purple shirt with lovely vertical navy blue stripes which are softened by lighter blue horizontal stripes. Line spacings are approx 3.4cm
        It’s quiet fetching.
        I’m also going with the collar open with a hint of a vest underneath. To be honest, I’m not sure what tie would complement it.
        Slim fit which is reminding me I should really go for a run tonight or I’ll be needing new “comfort fit” shirts soon enough

        1. Anne

          “Wealth is generated by investing.”

          Generated for who?

          Are you the same Andy who was proposing that taxes should be increased for lower income earners? You sound like that Andy.. an idiot.

    2. Neilo

      If equality of outcome is desired, heartbreak and frustration is all but guaranteed. Equality of opportunity from infant care to education should be the goal.

  9. Frilly Keane

    just heard a story there over the dinner break

    A lad rang a Clongowes Dad to ask if he was going to the match tomorrow (v Monkstown CBC)
    Clongowes Dad says “No Way, they’ll charge a fiver at the gate.”

    Swear, Promise, and on the life of the puppy doggie
    that happened today

    Its the N11 Set.

  11. VinLieger

    The stats regarding pay differences between men and women are not accurate as they do not equate job with job and are just a snapshot across the board all it shows is more women work jobs that pay less and has nothing to do with pay inequality

      1. VinLieger

        The article very specifically focuses on graduates and does not have any concrete figures on job for job comparisons apart from one mention about lawyers near the end. All these studies prove is their are more inequalities in our education systems for specific high paying jobs and that parental leave seriously needs to be re evaluated so that men are given equal rights for mandatory parental leave and women are not punished so harshly for taking all the time out of work to have children

        1. Dόn 'The Unstoppable Force' Pídgéόní

          Says there are not stats comparing like for like jobs. Shown stats. Disagrees with stats because they are too specific for stats.

    2. DubLoony

      I’d love to see a direct comparison of yr 1, yr 2, yr 3 by job type by gender.
      Many women work in female silos in cleaning, retail, administration. There aren’t men there to compare with.

      Women being mainly responsible for childcare is a huge issue.

      1. Dόn 'The Unstoppable Force' Pídgéόní

        And women not being paid the same. Men tend to ask for more money so get paid more despite the same or less experience, women aren’t taught to do that. But also some employers won’t pay women the same – it happened to my boss and she had to refuse to sign the contract before they budged.

        Good luck proving that that was down to her gender in court though which is how people get away with it.

  14. Kieran NYC

    HA! Basing an article on the pie-in-the-sky, out-of-their-arse Rich List? After being called on that BS on Tuesday on The Last Word?

    Some cheek!

    1. rory

      RE: His appearance on the last word (I only caught the 1st few minutes of it),
      What was he called on, specifically?

  15. :-Joe

    My last ha’penny on 100 years of regressive, unequal, elitist, civil war politics that makes the proclamation seem like it was written five years ago and this is Groundhog Day without the comedy or existential reflection.

    I would argue the only chance to keep the Fine load’a Gobshites and their buddy’s in the ItsFineToFail party out of power and control is to Vote Sin Fein. Ye, I said it!.. Why? Well they are the next biggest party that has a chance to create a majority government and they also look willing to deal with other more social and democratic candidates in a coalition. Either way, how can they be any worse than the other two InequalityISFine(FG/FF) party?…

    OK, so G’urry is a terrorist with mild on-set alzheimers and Sin Fein will make the country explode financially so you could never even consider voting for them as a serious option, right?..

    Well what de funk do you think has been going on for the past 50 years and more with the other established parties?… Half a fuppin century at least.

    Hmmm… I think it’s been Bust To Boom & Skim The Cream off for the top bhoys, rinse the poor & repeat it more effectively the next time…. No?.. Really?..

    OK, maybe I missed something. Ye, it must have been Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom de Boom and constant, consistent, progressive growth like I keep hearing from the Dail… Ye sure, it must be true. Why would they lie to us?

    I’m not saying Ireland hasn’t made progress but five steps forward and four steps backward is hardly a system to believe in and the common denominator is always the bhoys(FG/FF) and YES in case you haven’t noticed they are two halves of the same one party, you’re not a member and hell-ooo!! Wake up aspiring upper middle class, you’re never going to be a member either so you better check yo’self before you wreck yo’self….

    Fine, you won’t ever vote for a “Terrorist” but you’ll vote for an Independent with no previous record who let’s face it, will have very limited access to power because the system is rigged against them but that’s OK too. Eventually they will get a chance to go into a coalition situation over the next ten years if extremely lucky and then they will get some power…

    Eh, no. In reality, they will sell out, swallow the lies, get eaten alive or assimilated like some alien parasite victim in a B-movie sci-fi. You would know that if you bothered to notice the history of every coalition government, even only going back through the last 25 years… A mere quarter of a century of the exact same repeated scenario..

    It’s all OK though, your living in the now and your conscience is clear because it’s the right thing to do, right now. You’ve made up your mind and you know it’s what the smart, modern progressive people would do and your friends, the media and all the flag waving pseudo intellectuals(the worst f’ing kind) are backing you up with the same beliefs.

    So you cast your vote and that makes you happy, you’ve taken a part in democracy and you feel so proud. Your mind is floating in a warm bubble of satisfaction, you did the best thing possible to change the country for the better. You’re glad it’s all over and you can’t wait to see the results, it’s so exciting… isn’t it?…

    It’s the day after and the results are counted and things have settled down again… Oh, but wait, somehow nothing has changed, it all seems almost exactly the same but wait the technology is getting better and smaller and eh… well never mind, now you’re back in dreamland…

    Meanwhile again the bhoys wil celebrate and say…

    At last we have more room to play,
    All systems go to kill the poor tonight,
    Gonna Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill the poor… Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill the poor… Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill the poor…tonight,

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IFYUR76p0E

    Tonight, today, yesterday, tomorrow and again and again…. on and on into the next cycle…

    Let’s make it 105 years… Vote for the bhoys, enjoy our inability to evolve and change…

    Still dealing with the same basic fundamental problems a century and change later…

    A waste of time perhaps?…

    :-J

      1. :-Joe

        Hmmm….. I had to reply to this… even though I said I was done.

        First thing you have to do is read that IT article again and skip through the parties reading only the first sentence.

        Wow, what a surprise, you will notice that SF and AAA or the so called “centre-left” to “far left” parties are all bad…. but amazingly all the so-called “centre-right” to “far-right” acceptable coalition partners and the establishment are good.

        Now, at this point I have to point out that I have no affiliation to any establishment party or SF and I never have. I always vote for local independents campaigning on social issues who I believe, can and will do something positive no matter how small. Far from being disappointed, I’ve always been amazed that they always over deliver on my expectations.

        The problem I have and the reason I am considering SF as a 1 or 2 is because I can’t figure out a way to help push out the Bhoys without choosing a more established party and the more I listen to the propaganda and smears the more I’m convinced that SF is the way forward even temporarily to break the hold of the main parties and allow more independents that I normally would vote for get more access to the power to make real reform. Instead of the same sh1t over and over.

        So, I was not able to find “climate change” anywhere on the SF website which is typical of the usual bad web design but if you open the pdf file link of the manifesto and search for “climate change”you will find these three excerpts…

        https://www.sinnfein.ie/files/2016/GE2016ElectionManifesto.pdf

        Protecting our environment
        ■ We will engage with climate change experts to
        set specific targets and create a roadmap to
        reduce CO2 emissions.

        Sustainable energy
        ■ We will engage with climate change experts to
        set specific targets and create a roadmap to
        reduce CO2 emissions. We will then develop
        an interdepartmental strategy to meet carbon
        emissions reduction targets, and ensure
        there is innovation in the green economy, the
        provision of public transportation and so forth.

        Flood defences
        ■ We will introduce measures to militate against
        climate change and its effects, including rising
        sea levels, storms, coastal flooding, etc.
        “We will introduce measures to militate against
        climate change and its effects, including rising
        sea levels, storms, coastal flooding, etc”

        Also, there are other ideas in there if you have a look…

        So, do you see what’s happening…. ?

        Who in the funk is “Dr Cara Augustenborg’s”…. and is she not capable of opening a pdf file and reading the ACTUAL manifesto ?…. I don’t care who she is, I’m calling bs on this and for good reason.

        You don’t have to like or dislike any party to see the clear bias by IT against the so-called “Left”(I f’n hate that term) The Irish Times is frequently acting as an establishment propaganda tool, just like Newstalk, R.T.E etc. etc. to control and shape public opinion.

        Just listen back to Newstalk from 7am until 2pm today and count the number of times they smear the so-called “left” and in particular SF. Go back any day in the last month and it’s similar… The reason for this is that the establishment is genuinely worried about SF gaining more ground so it’s all working together to push back regardless of what SF did or didn’t do or say etc. half of it could be real but which part.. I can’t tell the possible truths from the smears any more.

        Look up Fionnan Sheehan Irish Independant and his bizarre “Xpose” lol, of how SF bullied R.T.E. to get more coverage and air-time… which explains in part, why they had a more successful election last time.. according to his double-glazed, transparent, smear campaign.. probably handed to him by the mentally inept FG think tank.. The idea that SF bullied R.T.E let alone got preferential treatment from them at any time or that this is even possible is so laughable you’d have to be incredibly naive or completely ignorant about how the history of the media in this country works.

        Broadsheet.ie is quite literally the only relatively clean, un-biased source of news and debate in Ireland. Yes there are some journalists and writers, intellectuals within the mainstream but they are very few and far between because of the amount of bias, censorship and propoganda going on.

        I can’t believe I’m talking myself into voting SF No.1 instead of No.3 ahead of my same two independent warriors from last time out…

        ;-J

  16. WeDontNormallyDoThis

    Dr Hearne should run for office, again. And again and again and again. Best of luck with that.

  17. join the pizza party

    Loving all the comments-,some great insights, mighty that citizens are thinking critically, it has taken us a long – bring on the political revolution

    1. :-Joe

      Oooh my, I love pizza…. but only real pizza.

      Not the fake mass manufactured base pizza that so many fake places are churning out, only the real hand made to order type…no matter how basic and cheap it’s all about the base…

      If you guarantee you will respect your base and will work towards driving out the corruption of the famously good Italian cheese toasty everywhere in Ireland and put that as one of your main three policies in your manifesto I am in… and nom nom nom for the people !!

      :-J

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