Celtic Tiger Devours Children

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The Celtic Tiger is Returning

Returning Celtic Tiger Devours Irish Children

The IMF International Monetary Fund has issued a recent statement saying it expects the Irish economy to grow by no less than 5% this year. That figure, if it is realised, is more than three times 3X the expected EU average.

At the same time that this “rising tide” is in the process of bringing back the Celtic Tiger, we have been given a glimpse of a very dark underside of the Irish economy. A place where nearly one third 33% of all Irish children are now living in deprived households.

UNICEF Report on Ireland.

This upsetting figure comes from a new UNICEF report in which that organization states that children are now the most neglected demographic in Irish society.

Another black hole in the Irish economy is revealed in studies which indicate that while Ireland as a whole is doing very well financially on the world stage, it concurrently has the fourth worst income inequality figure in the EU, with an income gap of over 76%.

The Irish income gap appears to look a lot better when Social Welfare payout figures are applied. The Social Welfare payments narrow the income gap to a little over 41%.

The UNICEF report clearly says that this income gap is unsustainable and leaves many families "living on the edge".

The Definition of a Deprived Household.

The EU has deemed households as deprived if they are unable to afford at least three items from a list of essentials. The main items on this list are housing, heating, utility bills and a protein meal every other day. Other designated essentials include; the ability to face unexpected expenses, a yearly holiday of some sort, a telephone, a television, a washing machine, and in some cases a car.

UNICEF Statement on Ireland.

UNICEF Ireland, in a statement released by Peter Power, Executive Director said: "100 years ago this month, the Proclamation proclaimed to cherish all Irish children equally. This report demonstrates that as a demographic group Irish children are falling behind other sections of society."

"The message is stark: as inequality increases, wealthy nations of the world are failing their most vulnerable children. " "Those with the least ability to narrow the gaps are being allowed to fall furthest behind."

UNICEF has urged the incoming government to act on the findings of the report.

Constitution of Ireland 

a reminder of some of its provisions.

Equality before the law:

Under Article 40.1. The equality of all citizens before the law is guaranteed.

Family and home life:

Under Article 41.1 the state promises to "protect the Family", and recognises the family as having "inalienable and imprescriptible rights, antecedent and superior to all positive law".

Under Article 41.2 the state is required to ensure that "economic necessity" does not oblige a mother "to engage in labour to the neglect of [her] duties in the home".

Education:

Article 42 guarantees parents the right to determine where their children shall be educated (including at home), provided a minimum standard is met. Under the same article the state must provide for free primary level education. Currently Irish law also guarantees free second and third level education.

Social and Economic Policy.

Article 45 outlines a number of broad principles of social and economic policy.
The principles require, in summary, that:

(a) "justice and charity" must "inform all the institutions of the national life".
(b) Everyone has the right to an adequate occupation.
(c) The free market and private property must be regulated in the interests of the common good.
(d) The state must prevent a destructive concentration of essential commodities in the hands of a few.
(e) The state must supplement private industry where necessary.
(f) The state should ensure efficiency in private industry and protect the public against economic exploitation.
(g) The state must protect the vulnerable, such as orphans and the aged.
(h) No one may be forced into an occupation unsuited to their age, sex or strength.

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Impending World Disaster

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The World

is Heading for a Disaster

I am not talking about climate change, nuclear war, or asteroid strikes.
Greed and Avarice, in this case, are the Weapons of Mass Destruction

Just short of one year ago I posted a piece that voiced one of my nightmares; that the world was returning to Medieval Feudalism with all the horrors, disease, and ignorance associated with that time returning.

A time when all the power and almost all the wealth was in the control of a handful of emperors, kings, and war-lords, and church leaders.  A time of plagues, a time of migrations, a time of famines, a time of wars and uprisings. It's happening again now, a return to a form of Medieval Feudalism - just substitute the super rich, the mega businesses, the financial manipulators, the big stock market players, for Emperors, Kings, and War-Lords.

Here is what I wrote then:

http://wood-pellet-ireland.blogspot.ie/2015/02/reset-your-calander-2015-to-1015.html

Oxfam have just released 
a New Report  
62 of the richest people - just a Bus full
Own as much as 3,600,000,000 of the poorest
1% of people own 99% of everything
The Disaster is happening

Mahatma Gandhi

"Poverty is the worst form of violence"

Mahatma Gandhi

Squirrels

If Mother Nature went seriously awry and some few squirrels were able to take and hide away some tens of thousands of times their normal share of nuts, what do you think might be the outcome?

Thankfully this is not happening in the woods and forests of the world, but it is happening in the human world.  The latest reports clearly show that the rich are getting very much richer 44% in 5 years, while the rest of society is getting poorer. What do you think might be the outcome?


Those who take and hide away more than their fair share, are depriving others. Those who take vastly more than their fair share are committing violence against the greater part of the peoples of earth.

My fear is that the deprived, the starving, the under-privileged will rise up and chaos will ensure.

Frederick Douglass

"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced ... 

neither persons nor property will be safe"

Frederick Douglass

The Oxfam Report outlines the GROWING Imbalance.

 Growing inequality means that the world's wealthiest 62 people, as many people as would fit on a tour bus, own as much as the poorest half of the entire world population - some 3.6 billion people - according to a new report from Oxfam.

Don't you think the shape of the graph of growing inequality is remarkably like a missile?

It amazes me just how symmetrical both sides of the above graph actually are. It worries and sickens me that the richest 1% of people - which is around 73 million of the world's 7.3 billion people - now own as much as everyone else put together. That is 1% of people own 99% of everything. Too much water behind a dam - and the dam will burst.

This is in a report published ahead of the annual World Economic Forum of global political and business leaders in Swiss ski resort of Davos.

The latest Oxfam report indicates that world-wide imbalance, unfairness, and inequality has reached levels not seen in over 100 years..

Oxfam has calculated that the richest 62 individuals had the same wealth as 3.5 billion people, or the bottom half of humanity.

The wealth of those 62 people has risen 44 percent, or more than half a trillion dollars, over the past five years, while the wealth of the bottom half has fallen by over a trillion.

The Toxic Trend

The saying that "a rising tide lifts all boats" could not be further from the truth in this case.  Wealth is being sucked upward at an alarming rate, leaving a massive vacuum at the lower end. Of the generation of wealth in our present day world the Oxfam report says the following:  "Far from trickling down, income and wealth are instead being sucked upwards at an alarming rate".

It points to a "global spider's web" of tax havens that ensures wealth stays out of reach of ordinary citizens and governments, a recent estimate puts the figure at $7.6 trillion in private individual wealth held in offshore accounts. The figure is greater than the combined economies of the United Kingdom and Germany.

Some Other Commentators on the Dangers of Inequality

Jyrki Raina, general secretary of IndustriALL Global Union, which represents 50 million workers in 140 countries in the mining,energy and manufacturing sectors. "Inequality is one of the biggest threats to economic well-being and it needs to be addressed."


Edelman's annual published it's "Trust Barometer" which shows that in 2015 there was a record gap in trust between the informed publics and mass populations. This exists in many countries, and is driven by income inequality and divergent expectations of the future. The gap is the largest in the United States, followed by the UK, France and India.

In the last year, trust has declined for three of the four institutions measured. NGOs continue to be the most trusted institution, but trust in NGOs declined from 66 to 63 percent. In 66% of countries surveyed there is not trust in the media. Governments are not trusted in 19 of 27 markets surveyed.
And trust in business is below 50 percent in half of those markets.


In December of 2014 the New York City's police commissioner has reminded us of the roots of crime, and recent acts of civil unrest."This is about the continuing poverty rates, the continuing growing disparity between the wealthy and the poor. It's still about unemployment issues"


I'm depressed and worried.


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The Return of Medieval Feudalism

Reset your Calendar 2015 to 1015 

The Immanent Return of Medieval Feudalism
or if you like, you can call it Economic Apartheid

There was a time when more than half of the world's wealth was owned by a tiny percentage of super-rich kings, dukes and lords etc. 1000 years on, and history is about to repeat itself!

Oxfam has projected figures which show that the wealthiest 1% will by next year own more than the rest of the world's population put together.

The figures show a clear rapidly rising trend - indicating that we are heading back into Medieval times.

The Figures.

In 2009 the very rich, who represent just 1% of the world's population, owned 44% of the entire wealth. By 2013 that figure had inflated to their owning 48% of everything. On that trend any forecaster would easily pitch the figure at 50%+ by 2016.

In 2014 the global elite had average personal wealth of $2.7m per adult.

Davos Talking Shop.

No doubt the talk shops like Davos will table some well meaning spin-doctored stuff, and no doubt the well meaning projections will most probably never be reached - going on past performance.

Bono, an Irish musician, didn't put a tooth in it when he told the assembled Davos elite “Some of the criminals around here are not wearing ski masks, they are wearing skis.”

Warnings.

Oxfam have warned that this virtual explosive widening of the gap between rich and poor is "holding back the fight against global poverty at a time when 1 in 9 people do not have enough to eat and more than a billion people still live on less than $1.25-a-day".

* Allowing extremes of wealth and poverty to exist is simply morally wrong.

* The imbalance undermines economic growth,

* It threatens the national security as well as economic stability.

* It leads to revolt and revolution and promotes extremism.

Oxfam is advocating 7 point plan to tackle inequality:

(1) Clamp down on tax dodging by corporations and the rich,

(2) invest in universal, free public services health, education etc.,

(3) Fair tax laws to shift taxation from labour and consumption towards capital and wealth,

(4) Enforcing minimum wages and a living wage for all workers,

(5) Equal pay and conditions for women,

(6) Adequate safety-nets for the poorest,

(7) And a global goal to tackle inequality.

Some Interesting Quotes.

In 2013 Economics Nobel prize winner Robert J. Shiller said that the economic stratification of society into "elites" and "masses", is a major danger to world stability. And that it played a central role in the collapse of other advanced civilizations such as the Roman, Han and Gupta empires.

Oxfam made a bold assertion in 2013. It stated that worsening inequality is impeding the fight against global poverty. The 2013 report stated that the $240 billion added to the fortunes of the world's richest billionaires in 2012 was enough to end extreme poverty four times over.

Oxfam Executive Director Jeremy Hobbs said that "We can no longer pretend that the creation of wealth for a few will inevitably benefit the many – too often the reverse is true."

Jared Bernstein and Elise Gould of the Economic Policy Institute suggest that poverty in the United States could have been significantly mitigated if inequality had not increased over the last few decades.