Tackling inequality makes sense

Feb 8 2010 Kevin Rowan, The Journal

TACKLING inequality at work has long been accepted as the right thing to do both morally, there can be no reasonable justification for discriminating against individuals on the basis of their personal characteristics, and increasingly from a business perspective, there is increasing evidence of the sound business case for diversity and equality in the workplace.

Closing the equality gap in broader society is, however, often regarded as something a bit fluffy and liberal or a bit ‘lefty’ and politically correct.

A revelatory, if not yet revolutionary, book by Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson, The Spirit Level, demonstrates with startling affect the dramatic impact inequality has on the wellbeing of society as a whole, as well as for large swathes of individuals within it.

Whether it is economic participation and productivity, health and wellbeing, a sense of community and trust, crime and social disorder, this excellent analysis of comparative international data, only relatively recently available, shows absolutely clearly that societies that are more equal, consistently do better than those with larger levels of inequality.

A second observation about social equity is that where there are effective public services inequality is mitigated.

There is no rocket science here, investing in education, health, social housing is proven beyond doubt to have a positive impact on the life chances of individuals, families and communities, especially those who are the least well off.

It is true too that those countries and regions with relatively high levels of public sector employment – like Denmark, Sweden and even the north east of England – have suffered less dramatically from the recent recession than those who have sought to minimise the role of the public sector.

These observations about fundamental pillars of what makes societies work well for the benefit of citizens are critical in the context of the current debate about public spending and the steps to achieve recovery from recession.

Those on the right of the political spectrum, including representatives of the small percentage of society that has ownership of the vast share of its wealth, are loudly promoting their thesis that the necessary solution is to dramatically reduce public spending, including limiting the pay of public sector workers and reducing pension rights (and, in the case of civil servants, removing long-standing redundancy terms).

The immediate impact will hamper not hasten our recovery from recession. The fact is, public spending is part of the solution, not part of the problem.

Kevin Rowan – Regional Secretary Northern TUC