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The Environmental and Social Costs of Inequality by Benjamin Irvine
In the 10 years to 2008 the top 20% of earners in the North West increased there incomes at roughly double the rate of the bottom 20%, in line with wider UK trends, by 9% compared to 4%. [Jenni Viitanen and Katie Schmuecker, ‘Richer Yet Poorer’, 2011, Institute for Public Policy Research North, Page 6; Retrieved from: http://www.ippr.org/assets/media/images/media/files/publication/2011/05/richer%20yet%20poorer%20Feb2010_1823.pdf]
Whilst most people are aware of rising income inequality in the UK over the last 30 years it may come as surprise that this has been accompanied by an increase in the proportion of employees who are earning below the OECD low pay threshold.
The growth of inequality in the UK has not, therefore, just been a case of runaway high pay and stagnating wages for the rest of the workforce; the distribution of income for the lower 50% has also become more unequal. Low pay is more prevalent now than it was in 1978.
A cut from 50p to 45p in the top rate of tax in April constituted a tax break of between £1 billion and £2.7 billion to the highest-paid 0.9 per cent of the pay scale.
The social costs of inequality have been most strikingly presented in Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett’s The Spirit Level. [R. Wilkinson & K. Pickett, The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better. 2009. London, Allen Lane. ] The authors find strong evidence that income inequality produces a myriad of negative health and social outcomes for societies. They find a strong positive correlation between nations with high income inequality and an index of health problems (mental illness, shorter life expectancy, obesity) and social breakdowns (such as; high rates of imprisonment, homicide and teenage motherhood).
Addressing income inequality has the potential to reverse these damaging cultural trends, enhance an equality of respect amongst people and mitigate the unsustainable trend towards excessive and unnecessary ‘over-consumption’. These social problems should make governments concerned to reduce income inequality for the inherent public good, but they also result in a significant, and perhaps unnecessary, cost for the government and for taxpayers. Addressing income inequality is an opportunity to reduce public expenditure on social ‘costs’, freeing it up for investment in much needed social ‘benefits’.In fact, in modelling the transition of the British economy to a sustainable low-carbon future the New Economics Foundation find that reducing income inequality will be absolutely essential. [S. Spratt et al. ‘The Great Transition: A tale of how it turned out right’. 2009. London: nef. Retrieved from: http://www.transiciones.org/publicaciones/GreatTransitionNEF09.pdf] Committing the country to the necessary carbon emissions reductions in the period to 2050 they reduced projected economic growth, the challenge of how to pay for key public services was overcome by introducing levels of equality found in Denmark which dramatically reduced the cost of social ills, making up for the loss in revenue. Increasing equality should be the foremost economic policy goal for developed nations on social considerations alone, never mind environmental. With environmental limits to continually growing the economic cake, a more equal distribution will be essential if social and environmental problems are to be tackled together.
Other estimates suggest that our global ecological footprint surpassed ‘planetary carrying capacity’, the planets ability to regenerate resources and absorb waste, in the mid 1970’s. [Rob Dietz and Dan O’Neill Enough is Enough, 2013, London: Routledge/Earthscan, p.21]
This is why Steady State Manchester, along with many ecological economists and sustainable development organisations, argue that further economic growth in developed countries, growth in aggregate production and consumption, is incompatible with social justice and climate safety.
A post-growth economy means that inequalities can no longer be hidden by an expanding cake (although actually, growth increases inequalities). This brings the question of equality into the spotlight. Responsible, sustainable development means a reduction in inequalities between and within countries. If we are to address issues of poverty, deprivation and disadvantage in Manchester, and allow ecological space for essential development in the majority world, we simply cannot afford the levels of income inequality that prevail. When considering levels of income inequality, what is fair and what is sustainable, it is worthwhile to considernotional estimates of the average income that is compatible with using planetary resources sustainably. Whilst such large calculations are problematic and multifaceted, an informed estimate suggests that, at current levels of resource use intensity, the earth can safely sustain 6.2 billion with an average income of $5,100 (2008 prices). [Erik Assadourian, ‘The Rise and Fall of Consumer Cultures’, in State of the World 2010: Transforming Cultures, Linda Starke and Lisa Mastny, Eds. (Washington, DC.: Worldwatch Inst. 2010) p.6. Cited in: Dietz and O’Neill, 2013, Op. Cit. p.35; Retrieved from: http://www.worldwatch.org/files/pdf/Chapter%201.pdf]
Global population is currently around 7 billion and increasing. This is a humbling and challenging figure. It reveals the scale of the challenge for economies to develop towards ecological prosperity and starkly demonstrates how ballooning high pay is grossly unsustainable and incompatible with practical solidarity with the majority world.
Current mechanisms for determining levels of pay in the public and private sector are based on justifying principles which are a world away from considering the limits to individual claims over finite ecological space.
We would argue that public pay policies should take social and ecological value creation (and destruction) into account and this would imply a convergence of pay dispersion towards a socially just and ecologically fair level where variations of reward based on worker skills and role requirements would be more modest.
The Benefits of More Equality, Moving Towards Shared Ecological Prosperity
Social costs associated with inequality are a strain on national and local government resources, the good news is, taking actions to reduce it would result in considerable gains towards Local Government goals. These include reductions in the social costs associated with inequality but also some opportunities for sustainable economic development including increases in the proportion of money re-circulated in the local economy, job creation and development towards a localized low-carbon/high-well being economy.
Equality as a Stimulus for Local Prosperity
Moves to address inequality have, in recent history, been rejected on the basis that they are detrimental to economic growth. Indeed the rise of inequality is arguably the result of the erosion of restrictions on, and taxation of, economic activity and the erosion of labour union power, on the assumption that they constrained growth. There is increasing evidence that inequality is a barrier to the social goods we otherwise hope to derive from growth and that it is inhibiting the kind of selective growth needed to rebalance the economy to bring local prosperity and ecological safety. As a report by the High Pay Commission observes, the rich and the low paid use their incomes very differently. The rich tend to save or invest their incomes, particularly in property. Disproportionate levels of investment in, and loans for, non-productive property assets has contributed to the rise of house prices and high mortgage/rental burdens for average earners. This has been at the expense of investment in other productive areas of the economy and at the expense of low income household consumption power in the productive economy. [High Pay Centre, 2013. Op. Cit.p.19; Retrieved from: http://highpaycentre.org/files/Reform_Agenda_Final_Report.pdf]
If we are to achieve an economy that increases well-being within ecological limits in the near future, a reduction in income inequality is required. Increased spending power for, and investment in, re-localized production of the basic things we need is also a positive step in this direction. This report investigates what steps have been taken in Local Governments to reduce income inequality through their direct role as employers and their ability to affect pay inequality in the private sector as commissioners of services.
