Inequality is not inevitable

It’s hard to imagine where to begin with the inequality. You hear stories in the media, on the radio and television that illustrate vividly, be that the increase in foodbanks or anecdotal stories of people having to make stark choices between food and heat. I have been lucky over the years where I’ve always (somehow) managed to get by, by either being frugal with what little I’ve had, prudent with money making its way from my pocket or a sudden piece of luck landing on my lap, at least metaphorically speaking.

I’ve had some closes calls in recent years as regards finance, a lack of work, or sustained periods of unemployment. I’ve what I describe as ‘sailing close to the wind’ where I didn’t know if I’d have enough money in my account at the end of the month not only to pay bills but to either eat or put fuel in the car (a necessary evil when you live in the country) or both.

I recall once receiving a PPI claim that I had forgotten I’d even inquired about, and to my excitement, and relief (it couldn’t have come at a better time) my financial ills were cured in that moment. Then I of course remembered I was getting excited at the prospect of getting my own money back, money that I was effectively ‘swindled’ out of! And of course the company that managed to claim it back for me took its 25% cut. Mmmmmmm. Needs must though, it cured a few headaches for me at the time.

But of course, inequality is more than just the ability, or even inability to put food on the table or meet overheads on a monthly basis. I think back to a moment in 2002 when I secured a job paying £25k a year. I jumped from £18k and wow, what a moment. I finally had arrived. I could afford some breathing space and start saving, maybe even afford a few treats – finally a family holiday of sorts, things for the house, etc.

Not so long after that, my wife and I split up and in agreeing to leave the family home I had effectively become ‘homeless.’ Trying to find temporary accommodation let alone work out a more permanent place of residence that I could bring my kids to stay wasn’t easy. Life had changed basically overnight. Suddenly that £25k didn’t seem so £25k anymore!

Fast forward to 2017 and I found myself managing a project for an annual salary of €12k; in 2018 it was another project for around a salary of £26k+. At least 15 years after hitting the ‘jackpot’ of £25k I was earning, respectively, less than half on one project, and still less in ‘real terms’ than I was back in 2002.

In fact in 1995, when I had just qualified as a Youth Worker and started a job as an Education Welfare Officer, I was earning £13k a year, which was greater than my salary in 2017 – 22 years after I had qualified I was earning less than the then entry pay for a new EWO.

None of this is meant to garner sympathy of any kind (although I’m happy to take any donations going to help recoup losses from down the years), but rather demonstrate that wages in real terms have at best stagnated, and at worst, well exactly that, they have just got worse, there has been no keeping up with inflation.

The cost of living seems inexorably to increase on an annual basis, but the ability to achieve parity in terms of suitably well-paid employment does not. And for me, and as I imagine for most, the ability just to survive is inherently were inequality starts.

I’m not a jealous or vengeful person so when I see neighbours or friends, colleagues or even family being able to afford the nice things in life I don’t begrudge them. But there is a certain frustration that after almost 35 years I still have no savings, my ability to pay off my mortgage at any given point remains at zero, and my level of household décor is such that if a burglar broke into my home tomorrow he or she’d be leaving their stash out of sympathy. In recent years, I’ve even upgraded a Curry Chip from ‘treat’ to ‘luxury’ and before you judge, I don’t smoke, I’m not a secret on-line shopper, I can count on my left hand the number of times I be out ‘on the town’ in the last 12 months (covid-19 aside).

Anyways, I digress, it is what it is. My point is this, I’m well qualified, academically speaking, I have had a good career, yet I struggle to get decent paid work, and if I struggle, what about the teenager just starting out, the young mother just returning to work, or the ex-prisoner just released?

The cards are seemingly well and truly stacked against them, unless of course they are willing to take jobs in, for example, the ‘gig economy’ or in say, fast-food outlets, call-centres and so on. Options are limited, the work is not terribly rewarding and opportunities for progression is poor, and if you want to make something of yourself you have to get qualifications and if you can’t afford not to work nor have a support network around you, you become ‘stuck’ on the lower rungs, and so a life of inequality is almost pre-ordained. Alternatively, you can ‘sign on’ and as in my case, a single-man, claim your seventy-odd quid a week. You can imagine how far that stretches!

I’m a great believer in a UBI (Universal Basic income) – at least it would remove the pressures of trying to put food on the table and keep a roof over your head. There has been many studies and trials that have shown that it works, and that people haven’t simply squandered their money or lazed about. If there’s one thing that coronavirus has demonstrated is that people don’t want to be cooped up at home and so they would make use of their time. If you have a UBI, it removes immediate stressors and thus improves well-being allowing you to concentrate on other things.

Unfortunately, those who make policy (and it’s probably fair to say that the overwhelming majority) have rarely if ever experienced living on the ‘breadline’ and are unlikely too, ever. Even if they had to ‘sign on’, they probably have enough support around them to survive or get by in the short-term. As class division has once more become abundantly apparent, at least very much in the UK, so too the gap in equality has widened.

The idea that you make your own luck, or rags to riches, or ‘if I can make it anyone can,’ or the ‘you’re responsible for your own situation’ story has been a narrative that has been handed down to generation after generation, and reinforced constantly through things like reality television programmes.

That’s why we laud and hold up to the light the story of those who ‘make it’ as inspiration for the rest of us and if only we had ‘got on our bike,’ we could change our circumstances. There is, and of course, will be those kinds of stories all the time. They make great news, and do of course offer inspiration, but for most of us, a life of trying to get by, make ends meet or just plain survival is our lot.

Inequality is not merely a story of one person’s efforts over another, or bad luck, or a failure to grasp the opportunity. Inequality is, as more and more research and studies have shown, quite a deliberate policy. It is much more dependent on your postcode (at birth) and the circumstances you were born into as it has anything to do with that which can be remotely attributed to your own ability.

We will always have, at least under capitalism, people who have more, but that does not mean you should go hungry whilst others feast, or that you freeze your bollocks off in the winter whilst others can jet off to holiday homes in the winter. Inequality is not inevitable!

How can we for example, continue to accept deaths linked to benefit cuts? Or, not commit to redress the clear north-south divide (in the UK but more broadly, on Mother Earth)? How can we continue to allow someone to be treated differently due to the colour of his or her skin? How can we accept overwhelming levels of domestic violence against women, or not address the gender pay-gap, nor deny basic education for young females in various parts of the world?

How can we accept that lower levels of educational attainment among children and young people from working class areas continues, or that access to third-level education be only because you can afford it?

How can we continue to allow a toxic climate to exist for immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees when many of their sons and daughters are the front-line workers in the battle against Covid-19, many of whom have given their life to ‘serve the country’ yet we still want those very workers to pay for the very service they work in?

Wasn’t it the now Prime Minister of the UK, Boris Johnson, who famously and very publicly advocated the merits of an unequal society so that the cream of the crop could rise to the top? And, he who leads a country where inequality is at epidemic levels, and he who so publically lauded two immigrant nurses who nursed him back to health from Coronavirus when he was in intensive care?

Inequality is not a natural outcome of a society that evolves but rather is policy choice.