OPINION:A survey shows that the public knows better than the establishment that inequality harms, writes Paula Clancy
'Society is like a machine designed to work smoothly with the oil of equality, into the bearings of which some malignant demon keeps pouring the sand of inequality" - George Bernard Shaw, The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism
With markets tumbling around the world, governments being forced to prop up the global banking system and families from Mumbai to Mallow faced with spiralling food and fuel bills, one thing has become increasingly clear: many of the indicators traditionally used to measure a country's prosperity - such as GDP or export earnings - tell us little about national realities.
At the end of September, the Tasc think tank published a survey showing that 70 per cent of respondents feel that wealth is distributed unfairly in Ireland - and 80 per cent are concerned at this inequality. Our survey also showed that 41 per cent of all respondents, and 50 per cent of higher earners, would be willing to pay higher taxes to fund improved public services. The fieldwork for the survey was conducted by Behaviour and Attitudes earlier this year, when the national and international economic portents were already gloomy, but before the current crisis.
So let's examine the backdrop to Tasc's survey. A decade of unprecedented growth and (sectional) prosperity had been accompanied by a national spending spree. The most visible target of that spending was property, at home and abroad.
Large swathes of the media, ably abetted by certain financial gurus, persuaded us that property was a safe bet - whether a holiday home in Rosslare or an apartment in Bulgaria.
Not only did the property boom - and the sense of individual and national wealth it generated - mask continuing problems relating to infrastructure and service provision, it also contributed directly to the banking crisis. Irish banks now find themselves massively overexposed to property debt, and the taxpayer may yet have to pick up the tab. The economic chickens have come home to roost.
Respondents to the Tasc survey knew that the reality bore little resemblance to the narrative spun by economic commentators, many of whom work for the banks and building societies. Unfortunately, our spending spree largely bypassed the essential public services on which we all depend, particularly health and education. The building boom in the private sector was not matched by public housing output, and we ended the boom with more than 43,000 households on local authority waiting lists - an increase of nearly 60 per cent since 1996. When one includes those who cannot afford to buy or rent on the private market, the total number of people in housing need is 250,000. And while the country's top chief executives could look forward to salary packages topping €1 million annually, 1.5 million of our fellow citizens earn less than €38,000 per annum.
Last year, the United Nations published its Human Development Report for 2006. In an effort to compare like with like, it assessed the Human Poverty Index for 18 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries - and Ireland ranked 17th. We were outstripped in the poverty league only by Italy, and fared worse than either the UK or the US. Unsurprisingly, Sweden emerged with the lowest poverty rating.
Last year also marked the publication of another report: Bank of Ireland Private Banking published its annual Wealth of the Nation report - and the picture painted was rather different. We were told that, in terms of net wealth per capita, Ireland was the world's second-richest country after Japan.
At first glance, it is difficult to square those contradictory and remarkably symmetrical figures - second in terms of wealth, and second in terms of poverty - unless one examines how that wealth is distributed. The internationally-accepted measurement of wealth equality/inequality is the Gini coefficient: a score of 0 indicates perfect equality, while a score of 100 indicates perfect inequality - ie, one person controls all income and assets. According to the most recent figures published by the UN, Ireland scores 34.3 - together with Greece and Indonesia, and just above Egypt.
Equality, of course, also depends on equal access to services. The Tasc survey was conducted against a backdrop of service inequality. The problems in our public health service had been highlighted by the avoidable death of Suzie Long (diagnosis: unequal access). It had become apparent that fee-paying schools - which cost the taxpayer upwards of €80 million each year - and State schools in wealthier areas were cherry-picking pupils, leaving a small number of State schools (many in disadvantaged areas) to cope with special needs ranging from autism to language difficulties. Moreover, it was revealed that 78 per cent of the accommodation catering for rent supplement tenants in Dublin failed to meet basic minimum standards.
Against this background, it is not surprising that 41 per cent of all respondents - and half of all higher income earners - professed themselves willing to pay higher taxes to fund improved public services, or that 80 per cent of all those surveyed are concerned about wealth inequality. They know - perhaps better than many in the political establishment - that inequality exacts a price. That price is paid not only by the individual languishing at the bottom of the inequality ladder - society pays a price in terms of alienation and, as taxpayers, we pay an inequality surcharge in terms of increased healthcare, education and social welfare costs.
The price of inequality is one we cannot afford to pay.
• Paula Clancy is director of Tasc, a think tank that seeks to promote social change and debate between citizens, researchers and politicians; www.tascnet.ie