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National University of Ireland, Galway

The Real Debate Starts HereThursday 26 February 2015 The outstanding faults of the economic society in which we live are its failure to provide for full employment and its arbitrary and inequitable distribution of wealth and incomes. John Keynes, 1936 The good news is that inequality has at long last become a BIG talking pointIncome inequality has increased sharply since the late 1970s, with a particularly dramatic rise in the share of total income going to the very highest earners. Thomas Piketty Pope Francis tooHe tweeted that inequality is the root of social evil and then called for governments to redistribute wealth to the poor.President Obama felt the urge to join in the chorusInequality is at a level we haven't seen since the Great Depression and it hurts us all. It distorts our democracy. More fundamentally, this kind of gaping inequality gives lie to the promise at the very heart of America: that this is the place where you can make it if you try. And then there was Bill GatesHigh levels of inequality are a problem messing up economic incentives, tilting democracies in favour of powerful interests, and undercutting the ideal that all people are created equal.

The Waltons - Opening Scene

Sam Walton

By the middle of the 1980s Sam Walton became the richest man in the United States with an estimated wealth of $2.8 billion. At the time of his death he was the 24th richest man who ever lived and his personal wealth was estimated at $65 billion.

Now six of the surviving Waltons have as much money as the bottom 30% of all Americans.Just think about that for a moment ... and let it sink in.

The top 1% of households in the US own 34%, of all privately held wealth, up from 12.8% in 1982.

The next 19% own 50.5%.

That means that the top 20% of the population of the United States own a staggering 85% of wealth leaving only 15% of the wealth of the country for 80% of the population.

The average income of the top 400 people in the United States tripled during the administration of President Bill Clinton.

And doubled during the first seven years of the administration of President George W. Bush. The following are some of the startling figures to emerge from recent studies.

Political figureheads might change but the impact on wealth distribution is negligible. 1 in every 148 people in the United States is in prison.The current prison population in the United States is 2.1 million. In the 1970s the prison population was in the region of 300,000. African Americans are disproportionately represented in the prison population. The Clinton administration undertook the biggest prison building programme in US history. During his presidency funding for public housing was slashed by $17 billion (a reduction of 61%) and prison construction increased by $19 billion (an increase of 171%). One in three young black people born today will serve time in prison - if current trends continue.SourcesAlexander, Michele. The New Jim Crowe - Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2012) The New Press, New York. Packer, George (2013). The Unwinding - An Inner History of the New America. Faber and Faber London.The 85 richest people in the world own the same wealth as the 3.5 billion poorest people on the planet. Almost half the world's wealth is now owned by just 1% of the population.

The richest 10% of adults accounted for 85% of the worlds wealth.

The bottom half of the worlds population owned barely 1% of global wealth. Gross Global Inequality (1)Davis, James and Susanna Sandstrm, Anthony Shorrocks and Edward Wolff (2006) The World Distribution of Household Wealth World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER)

G. William Domhoff reports in Power in America, Wealth, Income Powerhttp://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

Oxfam. Working for the Few. Political capture and Economic Inequality. January 2014

SourcesWhile there were 499 dollar billionaires in the world in 2000, three and half billion people had to make do with barely 1% of global wealth.

Not surprisingly wealth is heavily concentrated (90%) in North America, Europe and high income Asia-Pacific countries. More than a third live in the US. Ten per cent of Irelands population are in the top one per cent of the worlds wealthiest.

While global inequality is thriving so too does intra-country inequality. Gross Global Inequality (2)Davis, James and Susanna Sandstrm, Anthony Shorrocks and Edward Wolff (2006) The World Distribution of Household Wealth World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER)

G. William Domhoff reports in Power in America, Wealth, Income Powerhttp://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

Oxfam. Working for the Few. Political capture and Economic Inequality. January 2014

SourcesI want to leave the United States for a moment and take a continental jump to Africa and land in Angola. Africa

Sources: KMF Productions (2009). The Curse of oil in Angola. King, Peadar What in the World? Political travels in Africa, Asia and The Americas.The Liffey Press, Dublin. Extract from Angola filmRead pp 163 171

Between 2009 and 2010 the wealthiest 10% of households experienced an 8% increase in disposable income while the poorest 10% had a 2.6% drop in disposable income. In 2011 the risk of poverty rate increased to 16% from 14.7% in 2010. Almost 1/4 of the population experienced two or more types of enforced deprivation in 2011 - up from 22.6% in 2010.

Between 2010 and 2011 students were amongst the groups that showed a statistically significant change in their at-risk-of-poverty rate. While 22.7% of students were at risk of poverty in 2010, this rose to 31.4% in 2011. This means that one-third of students are now at risk of poverty.

In 2013, 12% of children (aged 0-17) lived in consistent poverty - that's more than 137,000 children. This is up on the 9.9% recorded in 2012 and double the 6% figure of 2008. This is nearly one in eight children.

In 2013 the annual average disposable income was17,551, which showed little change from 2012.

SourceCentral Statistics Office (2012)IrelandI now want to take another jump - from Angola to Ireland but staying with the inequality theme. Bringing it all Back HomeUniversity PresidentProfessor Junior Lecturer General OperativeGalway196,830 136,27756,78232,863Cork 226,329136,00060,77523,000DCU 193,843UCCClerical Officer30,000Technical assistant 30,000Library Shelving Assistant 23,000Source NUI,G HR Departmenthttp://www.ucc.ie/en/hr/salaryscales/And then of course there is the gendered dimension of inequality.

The case of Dr Sheehy-Skeffington

In its rulingin favour of Dr Sheehy-Skeffington, the tribunaldescribed NUIG's interview process as "ramshackle".It ordered the college to review its policies and procedures in relation to promotions and to report back.

Dr Sheehy-Skeffington is a highly qualified botanist, widely published, and described as an "inspirational" lecturer by a former student.

After 19 years as a college lecturer at NUIG, she applied to become a senior lecturerfor the fourth time.She was not appointed and after an unsuccessful internal appeal, she took a case based on gender discrimination to the tribunal.

The tribunal found in her favour, citing both direct and indirect discrimination.It foundthat on paperpromotion to senior lecturer at NUIG seemedto be fair.

But it said its implementation has fallen short.

The tribunal said it was worrying that one male candidate who was promoted was not even eligible to apply for the position.

It found that men at the university had a one in two chance of being promoted to senior lecturer.

Female academics' chances were less than one in three.So what am I saying?

In the very opening page of her book Whose Crisis, Whose Future? long-time activist Susan George writes:

I am angry because so many people are suffering needlessly on account of the economic, social and ecological crisis and because the worlds leaders show no sign of bringing about genuine change; perplexed because they dont seem to understand or care much about the public mood, the widespread resentment and the urgency of action; frightened because, if we dont act soon, it may well be too late, particularly where climate change is concerned. KMF Productions 2011 Even that most wily of campaigners, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who has seen more party politicians up close and personal than almost any other non-party political operator, despairs of the ability of mainstream global political figures to affect change. Writing in the Irish Examiner on 21 June 2011 he states:

Our governments must shoulder a lot of the blame. Their policies and practices are propping up a broken system that benefits a few powerful companies and interests groups at the expense of the many they have neglected the 500 million small-scale farmers that together feed one-third of humanity. They have spent more than a decade debating climate change but pledged emissions reductions that put us on course for catastrophic warming. Source: Tutu, D. Governments must lead to solve hunger problems. Irish Examiner 21 June 2011.

(They) know and recognise no purpose but the ever increasing creation of wealth and, more secretly, its concentration in the hands of a small privileged minority: and it therefore leads to a combat by every means, including the destruction of the environment and human sacrifice, against any obstacle to the maximation of profit.Pierre Bourdieu A Reasoned Utopia and Economic Fatalism - Speech given to mark his acceptance of the Ernst-Bloch Prize in Germany in 1997.Change will come not from the professional class of economists and politicians but from institutions of this or that: truckers, publishers, teachers and so forth but also defenders of trees, fish, mushrooms, pure air, children and all of the rest. For you young teachers, that must be a refreshing and liberating thought. The day has passed for patching up the capitalist system; it must go.James Connolly