N e w s f r o m C a t a l y s t
1 1 O c t o b e r 2 0 0 4
Included in this mailing:
1. WHY INEQUALITY MATTERS - timely new Catalyst pamphlet
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1.
WHY INEQUALITY MATTERS
By Ben Jackson and Paul Segal
"Catalyst's paper unashamedly revives old debates. First, that equal
opportunity cannot be used (as New Labour has been wont to do) as a
substitute for equality. Second, Catalyst's paper challenges the legitimacy
of a meritocracy: why should the banker be vastly richer than the nurse or
street-cleaner? These were the big debates of Labour's 20th century, and the
child poverty targets are going to reopen all of them."
- Madeleine Bunting, The Guardian
Today Catalyst publishes a powerful new pamphlet warning that Labour's third
term agenda of tackling child poverty, widening educational opportunity
and building strong communities will be undermined unless it acts directly
to bring about a more equal distribution of income and wealth.
It is now known that Britain entered the twenty-first century with a wider
gap between rich and poor than at any time since the Second World War.
Though New Labour has taken some redistributive measures these have not yet
been on the scale needed to reverse the trends begun in the 1980s.
Some have suggested that the left should not be fixated upon abstract
measures of economic equality and instead focus upon concrete problems such
as poverty, equality of opportunity and social exclusion. But Ben Jackson
and Paul Segal, highly qualified experts in political philosophy and
economics respectively, argue that this is a false "displacement exercise" -
economic inequality matters precisely because it is the most important cause
of poverty and social exclusion, and the single biggest obstacle to social
mobility.
The pamphlet contains a wealth of arguments and information, including
evidence showing that:
* contrary to the popular "trickle down" theory, poverty levels are
affected more by the distribution of income than by total economic growth.
Sweden has a much lower GDP per capita than the US, but the bottom fifth of
Swedes are 41 per cent better off than the poorest fifth of Americans
because in Sweden income is more evenly distributed. Britain has a similar
per capita GDP to France and Germany, but the bottom fifth of Britons are 25
per cent worse off than their French and German counterparts.
* social mobility is highest in countries with more equal distributions
of income and wealth. The extent to which your income will be determined by
that of your parents is on average three times greater in Britain than in
Sweden. Moreover, Sweden's success in equalising life chances through
education and childcare strategies, currently much admired in Labour
policymaking circles, has only been possible against a background of
reducing economic inequality. "Universal childcare coupled with British
levels of inequality will not yield Scandanavian levels of social mobility".
* communitarian thinkers and theorists of "social capital" such as Amitai
Etzionai and Robert Putnam increasingly recognise that worsening economic
inequality is one of the most important factors in declining social
solidarity and cohesion. Empirical studies show that economic inequality
produces lower levels of trust among citizens, uneven levels of political
participation, and weaker support for public spending on social provision.
The pamphlet also challenges the widespread belief that there is little
governments can do about economic inequality in an age of globalisation.
Studies demonstrates that the design of the tax and benefit regime, and
labour market interventions such as the minimum wage, can make a decisive
difference to the distribution of income and wealth. Nor is there any
evidence that such measures harm economic growth - greater equality may
indeed have many economic benefits.
Jackson and Segal conclude that "economic inequality on the scale now
present in Britain presents an enormous challenge to the core values and
policy objectives held by even the most modern of social democrats".
The pamphlet is being sent to Catalyst subscribers and can be ordered from
Central Books (020 8986 4854), price £5. For more information visit
http://www.catalystforum.org.uk/pubs/paper25.html.
"A job is not enough" - read Madeleine Bunting in today's Guardian at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1324412,00.html
"Making equality a reality" - Catalyst is running a special panel on
equality, with speakers including Ruth Lister and Stuart White, at the
Compass national conference in London on Saturday 23 October. Other speakers
at the event include Gordon Brown MP, Brendan Barber, Robin Cook MP,
Patricia Hewitt MP and Polly Toynbee. For more information and online
booking visit http://www.compassonline.org.uk/conference/index.asp.
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'Why inequality matters'
By Ben Jackson and Paul Segal
A Catalyst Working Paper
Published in October 2004
ISBN 1 904508 12 X
64 pp
Price £5
http://www.catalystforum.org.uk/pubs/index.html
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'The One to Watch' - Prospect Think Tank of the Year Awards 2003
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