Inequality breeds contempt

It’s that time of year again – a time for sharing and giving.

On Tuesday, as I walked on the cold, wet and rainy streets of Cork I was amazed at the number of people who were giving of so much of their time, even in inclement weather, to collect money to make Christmas a special time for those who are unable to do so for themselves.

Then there were the school choirs singing Christmas carols not for their own benefit but for that of others. The numbers giving of their time whether in choirs or as individual collectors were many, as were the charitable causes espoused.

On the one hand what these folk were doing was honourable — giving of their time to make life better for others. On the other hand we should ask ourselves why all of this is necessary. We are, after all, one of the richest countries on the planet. The answer is clear and simple.

We are a country divided, not by religion and not by colour, but by financial resources, by political connection and by power.

That power ensures that those who have are guaranteed to get much more and the increasing number of those who are barely making ends meet, or are not even making ends meet, are destined to be milked until they are dry. It’s not quite yet a feudal society but it’s in danger of going that way.

After bringing us from boom to bust, the last government and also this current one, decided that the best route to get the country back on track again was to tax us all, directly and indirectly, to death.

However, rather than starting at the top and getting rid of the very highly rewarded functionaries, supernumeraries and those with titles but without any real work who existed and still exist at the top of the public sector, within the government and within the state agencies, they chose to go after those who were already in serious financial trouble. Bad and all as the Universal Social Charge is, it is unfortunately just one of many.

Then to make matters worse, and to ensure that they got us after our working lives were over, they decided to raid our pensions. However, that particular raid affected nobody in the realms of government or the public sector.

And as we now all know, by any measurement or comparison our senior public sector managers are among the most highly rewarded in the world. The differential between average public sector pay and private sector pay is now 50%. That old argument about level of qualifications required is a hoary old chestnut given the huge numbers now obtaining third level qualifications.

However, the icing on the cake belongs to some of the other antics our government got up to in protecting its own.

Last Sunday it was reported that 16 retiring department of health officials were given substantial top-ups, with one individual getting a top-up of nine years or almost a quarter of the value of that person’s total pension. That meant that if he was on €100k per annum a total of €450k would be added. By the way, the Department of Health “cannot” give us the overall cost of this largesse. Where do they think it comes from?

When you add to that the news that over 500 senior university academics and managers were given top-ups to their pensions amounting to tens of millions you begin to get the message. That is particularly so when you consider that ordinary workers have to fight tooth and nail to even get their proper pensions or you consider that the Waterford Glass workers had to tramp to the courts for a decade almost to get their dues.

The reason those folk are tramping the streets signing and collecting for good causes is not for the good of their health or because they are “do-gooders”, it’s because they have a conscience. That would apparently be in stark contrast to those who manage our economy.

The reason they have to do it is because government and mandarins have their priorities “where the sun don’t shine”. And unfortunately, should the Shinners become the major party of government after the next electorate, we have the current folk to thank. Wither our economy then?