The recent events of June involving the death of five rich men dominated the media. As all eyes were on the Atlantic, in the Mediterranean those fleeing war, poverty and climate change were ignored as they drowned in the seas crossing to Europe. According to the EU commissioner for home […]
Tag: inequality
Boom or bust?
In Ireland the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and more people are falling into poverty every day. The Central Statistics Office is the statistical agency responsible for gathering information relating to economic, social and general activities and conditions. It collects and “analyses” this type of information […]
To fix these problems we need socialism
As the cost of living grows ever higher, and more families are choosing between eating and paying bills—with some parents skipping meals so their children can eat—we continue to produce an over-abundance. We produce such an over-abundance of food that no one should be without food. Roughly a third […]
How long will they get away with it?
Two instructive headlines from the bourgeois financial news web site Business Insider give an indication of how the balance of global wealth has shifted since the covid-19 pandemic began in early 2020. The first: “Billionaires made $3.9 trillion during the pandemic,” informing us that the likes of the Victorian workhouse […]
Work, mental health, and the disease of neoliberalism
Part 2 ■ Part 1 of this article was published in the February issue. What model of human does neoliberalism encourage? Neoliberalism sees Darwinian competition as the defining characteristic of human relations. It redefines citizens as consumers, whose democratic choices are best exercised by buying and selling. It maintains that […]
UBI: A Trojan horse
The outbreak of covid-19 has exposed the glaring inequality in housing, health, education and work in Ireland and around the so-called “developed world.” This has led to renewed calls from some quarters for a universal basic income for all citizens. Some of those proposing this are well intentioned and believe […]