Bill Clinton and friends dine out on inequality

DOES anyone else share my sense of irony that former US president Bill Clinton can claim – within the space of a couple of hours – that the “enormous, staggering amount of inequality within and between countries” is one of the biggest threats facing humanity and then sit down to dinner with 575 of the elite, each of whom paid €2,500 for the privilege?

€2,500 – that’s the amount a 23-year-old unemployed person has to live on for four months – is quaffed away on a meal of “Atlantic salmon, Connemara lamb and lemon posset, washed down with Chablis Domaine de la Mandeliere 2007 and Chateau Les Roches Gaby 2001”.

But at least we know that while they quaffed, they pondered on the inequality of it all. It’s not just ironic, it’s downright disgusting. Economic inequality is clearly the biggest injustice in society today. In Ireland, 1% of the population own 34% of the wealth. No doubt at least some of that 1% supped with Mr Clinton last Thursday night.