Notes On The Front

THe Mood Song of the Poverty Deniers

Shane Coleman doesn’t believe. CORI recently published its exhaustive Socio-Economic Review 2008 – a 240 page report detailing all aspects of poverty in Ireland. Contained therein was the startling fact that there are over 720,000 poor people living amongst us. Not only that, there are now more poor people today than there were at the start of the Celtic Tiger boom. But Shane Coleman just doesn’t believe and, in this, he is not alone.

How poor to do the poor have to be before they are considered ‘poor’? Very poor, dog-poor, a tenement-dweller-in-a-Sean-O’Casey-play poor, subsisting on fried bread and margarine. If you are not at least this poor, you are not poor, there is no poverty, the system is fine and all we need to do - if anything - is tinker with a few ‘targeted’ programmes: the yin of economic growth and the yang of Fianna Fail rule is restored and universally applicable.

Welcome to the world of poverty deniers. They sing a lot.

The Truth About Irish Wages

The new union, UNITE (the merged ATGWU and AMICUS unions) has just published a report on Irish wages which is sure to prove controversial. It flatly contradicts the prevailing consensus that Irish wages are somehow ‘high’, that Irish wage growth is high relative to our EU trading partners and that these ‘high’ wages are one of the root causes of our deteriorating competitiveness. In removing these arguments from the table, the trade union movement will be doing all of us a considerable favour – not just because it strengthens the arguments for wage increases; it will focus our attention on the real reasons behind our economic troubles - reasons which have little to do with the employers' claims.

Earth to NIB, Do You Copy?

Somewhere on a distant planet a group of people employed by the National Irish Bank labour away on a publication which you may have come across, ‘The Emerald Isle: The Wealth of Modern Ireland’. They peer down from the heavens in their custom-made tele-socio-scopes and opine on the habits of the people on a small island off the coast of Europe. Their distance is no impediment to producing far-reaching conclusions; indeed, it is a help because they are unencumbered by the messy matter that constitutes life on that island. No, these are meta-commentators, squaring circles that us mere mortals find impossible, connecting dots that most of us can’t see, weaving and linking in such a way that assures everyone that we truly live in a democracy of chattels – paraphrasing the African-American spiritual: ‘Rich at last, rich at last – O Lord, rich at last.’

It must be the air.

Go For It, Eamon, You’re On To a Good Thing 1: The Extent of Low Pay

Last week the Labour Party leader, Eamon Gilmore, TD, made the first tentative steps towards putting the party on the economic policy ‘map’ in his speech before the SIPTU National Executive. Tentative, because his speech didn’t break any new ground that he hadn’t addressed before (higher education spending, tax incentives to high-tech investment, retraining construction workers, etc.). Nor did he put forward an over-arching framework but that is not surprising; Labour and the Left has to do a lot of economic homework before it can start putting forward ‘frameworks’.

But there is one issue he has been touching upon of late, an issue which, if aggressively pursued, can unlock a lot of ‘policy’ doors, help lay the foundations of an alternative economic critique and (and party leaders always love this) become politically popular. And that is the issue of low pay.

Missing the Real Story

Spare a thought for Robert O’Byrne. He resents being made ashamed that he is a member of the middle class. He complains that when the homeless die in the streets, they feature in the Irish Time whereas middle class folk dying in their own homes doesn’t even merit a mention. And to top it off, he can’t afford a taxi. Tough times, indeed. So thorough-going is his despair that Donagh’s thorough response will be little solace to Mr. O’Byrne who, I fear, is destined to repeat fashionable stereotypes and misjudged analysis.

Shame, though. For middle income earners are being squeezed. But Mr. O’Byrne doesn’t seem to know exactly how, never mind why.

The Incompetent Competition State

Paedar Kirby is one of the leading proponents of the theory of the ‘competition state’. The concept is that the state subordinates the welfare needs of it citizens in favour of the profitability of the corporate sector – especially multi-national capital). For instance, we can’t raise tax on profits or capital because that would inhibit ‘competitiveness’. Similarly, the state can’t intervene in the social partnership process to substantially increase low wages because that would inhibit – what else – ‘competitiveness.’ Now I’m a bit hesitant about this theory – mostly because I don’t want to cede the concept of competitiveness to the Right – but it does provide valuable insight into the broad economic thrust of government policy.

The 5:40 Club

Man, it’s hard just to live. Bank of Ireland Private Banking has just produced its second ‘Wealth of the Nation’ report, which is a strange title because really it’s about the wealth of a tiny fraction of the nation. According to the report – the top 1% holds 20% of all the wealth of the nation. When residential property is excluded, just 1% holds an astonishing 34% of wealth. Leave aside for the moment all those debates over the deciles distribution of disposable income. This is about power – real financial power; and the few people who wield it.

Little Revolutions

Conor McCabe is doing excellent work on the Census over at Dublin Opinion, undermining lazy analysis that passes into received wisdom, by just . . . well . . looking up the facts. What a welcomed revolutionary act. Another lazy debate is taking place over wages – as in, wage claims are undermining our competitiveness, our productivity, our living standards, our ability to sell our goods and services at knock-down prices in the international shopping mall. Well, let’s get revolutionary – or at least look up the facts. They are telling.

News from Planet Flat Earth

The always readable Richard Delevan has a bit of fun in his recent Sunday Tribune column, tweaking the noses of liberals and would-be radicals (or, at least, Fintan O’Toole and Vincent Browne), suggesting their critique of Irish poverty is a bit stale, a bit passé and, in any event, not borne out by new statistics emerging from the OECD. Mr. Delevan concludes we can finally put to rest the idea that the ‘rich get richer and the poor get poorer’. In fact, if anyone doesn’t bury that ‘trope’ they are in danger of becoming flat-earthers. We are making considerable inroads in reducing inequality in society. In fact, we are almost unique in the OECD in this regard.

However, before conceding all this, we should take careful measurement of the flatness or curvature of these ‘facts’.