We should all be sharing the pain

WE have been told over and over again — usually by well-off people, that ”we must all share the pain” if we are to get out of this recession. All share the pain? I doubt it.

In the middle of a recession, when ordinary working people are having their wages and pensions reduced and their taxes increased, and some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in society are suffering cuts in their public services and in their meagre allowances, it is sickening to read last Sunday that the 300 richest people in Ireland have vastly increased their income, to the extent of €6.7 billion in a year. Obviously wealthy people haven’t been taxed enough, which is, perhaps, one of the reasons why Ireland has such a huge deficit.

The kind of injustice that makes the rich richer and the poor poorer often happens in countries suffering a recession, with some of the increased wealth being created by the sell-off of public assets.