3 minute read
PETER McVERRY SJ
REALITY CHECK
PETER McVERRY SJ THE SCANDAL OF INEQUALITY
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ONCE COVID-19 IS ELIMINATED, OUR TASK MUST BE TO ELIMINATE GLOBAL POVERTY AND INEQUALITY
Iam worth €4,000, according to my most recent bank statement, and getting poorer by the month. Kim Kardashian is worth £1,000,000,000, according to Forbes magazine, and getting richer by the month. It's not fair.
But I'm not complaining. I am rich compared to many people in Ireland who don't even have a bank account because they have nothing to put in it. The biggest request for money that I get is for €3 bus fare, or €5 to get a prescription out of the pharmacy, or €10 or €20 to get their electricity back on, or to buy a heavy jacket in the local charity shop. Others need €60 to see a doctor, because they may not have a secure address to which a medical card can be issued, or €100 to get a painful tooth extracted because the few dentists who now accept medical cards often have long waiting lists, or €40 to bring their best – and often only – friend to the vet.
I have a heavy jacket and don't have to worry about the electricity running out. One young man living in a bedsit, after paying rent and maintenance for his two children, has €130 left from his welfare payment to pay for his food, heating, electricity, bus fares, and second-hand clothes. Recently, he was fined €800 because he couldn't afford to pay €160 for his TV licencse. He will probably go to jail for a week or two because he cannot afford to pay the fine and may lose his little bedsit and return to homelessness. Meanwhile, his landlord, who has six other bedsits in the building – bedsits have been illegal since 2013! – is earning about €5,000 per month in rents, some of it paid by the Government under the Housing Assistance Payment subsidy. In addition to this income, the landlord insists on a 'top-up' payment of €125 per month from this tenant who has €130 per week to live on. The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.
THE BILLIONAIRES
And many people in the world are much richer than Kim Kardashian. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos earns $9,000,000 per hour, according to Business Insider. There are now 2,755 billionaires in the world, 660 more than last year. Someone was able to buy a 1962 Ferrari at auction in 2018 for $48,000,000. The crown prince of Saudi Arabia bought a disputed Leonardo Da Vinci painting, Salvador Mundi, for $450,000,000 in 2017. The most expensive yacht in the world, reportedly owned by a Malaysian billionaire, is worth $4,800,000,000.
COVID-19 shone an X-ray on our world to reveal the stark inequality that exists. While wealthy countries have had the resources to buy enough vaccines in 2021 to vaccinate their populations many times over, many in poorer countries will die, waiting years for the vaccines to arrive.
Millions of people worldwide depend on the gig economy for their paltry income. When the economy shut down, they faced the choice of dying from starvation or risk dying from COVID-19. Meanwhile, a widely accepted estimate of the amount of wealth hidden in offshore accounts, some of it legal, much of it illegal, is in the region of €7,500 billion. A fraction of that money would provide everyone in the world with healthcare (between €100 and 250 billion), food (€260 billion), and education (€26 billion).
UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME
The world is waiting to 'get back to normal' after COVID-19 has been eliminated. But getting back to normal is not a desirable outcome. Reducing inequality should be the focus. Two Gospel-inspired steps in that direction would be: * A universal basic income, which protects the dignity of every person by ensuring they are not pawns in an uncaring economy but are protected from hunger, ill-health and lack of education, even when unable to work. * Debt forgiveness. "Forgive us our debts as we forgive others" is a prayer we frequently say at Jesus' request. We are called to do just that by forgiving the debts of poorer nations whose economies have been ravaged by COVID-19.
