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A NEW REPORT by the Swiss-based World Economic Forum highlights problems with income and wealth inequality in Ireland.
The country has been placed 8th out of 30 in the organisation’s latest Inclusive Development Index for advanced economies, which measures how nations perform across a variety of categories of economic progress.
Ireland was placed 12th in last year’s list.
Here’s the summary for Ireland from this year’s report:
Ireland ranks 8th among advanced economies, demonstrating solid performance in Growth and Development and Intergenerational Equity and Sustainability. The country benefits from a high GDP per capita, 4th in its peer group, and the second-highest level of labour productivity. A favourable business climate has allowed Ireland to drastically decrease its public-debt level by 43% over the past five years, the largest improvement by any advanced economy.
The report finds that although median living standards have risen modestly, “Ireland is faced with high income inequality and soaring wealth inequality”.
Ireland performs above average on ‘Intergenerational Equity and Sustainability’, driven by relatively low carbon emissions, strong human capital investment, and low levels of environmental damage.
Norway is the best performing economy in 2018′s report – retaining its position from last year.
Small European countries dominate the top ten list – with Australia (9) the only non-European country included.
The UK places 21 on this year’s list, with the authors finding the numbers suggest that the country “is lagging behind its peers on many dimensions of inclusive growth”.
In particular, wealth inequality has been increasing over the past five years. Income inequality, on the other hand, has declined slightly over the last five years on average. The country is also showing a positive longer-term trend in terms of falling carbon intensity of economic activity.
The report is aimed at policy makers around the world. Explaining the rationale behind it, the authors note that the prevailing method of measuring national economic performance is gross domestic product (GDP) – which measures the aggregate amount of goods and services produced in an economy.
Most citizens evaluate their respective countries’ economic progress not by published GDP growth statistics but by changes in their households’ standard of living — a multidimensional phenomenon that encompasses income, employment opportunity, economic security, and quality of life.
And yet, GDP growth remains the primary focus of both policymakers and the media, and is still the standard measure of economic success.
The Inclusive Development Index is designed as an alternative to GDP, and aims to reflect more closely the real-life criteria by which people evaluate their countries’ economic progress.
What is the World Economic Forum?
The annual World Economic Forum kicks off in earnest in the Swiss resort town of Davos tomorrow.
The organisation was founded by German business professor Klaus Schwab back in 1971 as a way for European corporate leaders to learn from their US counterparts.
Political leaders started attending later in the 1970s, and since then it has morphed into an annual jamboree where the global elite – joined by intellectuals, activists, celebrities and sometimes protestors – debate the world’s problems.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar will be among the attendees this year – as will Emmanuel Macron of France, Germany’s Angela Merkel, Britain’s Theresa May and Paolo Gentiloni of Italy.
US President Donald Trump is due to close the conference with a speech on Friday – provided he is not held back by a US government shutdown.
- with reporting from AFP
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Did they think we needed some guys in flash suits at a swank junket at tax payers money to tell us that?
@Féach News: yes it is excellent news for everyone that the country has improved so much over the last year and we are now 8th best.
@tom McCormack: but we have a shit medical system,incurance fraud,bank fraud,shit school system,tax system etc etc etc.yes we are flying if your on either side of the work force
@Féach News: At least we qualified for something.
@Michael Mulcahy: Our health system is excellent. Despite the trolley crisis and overworked frontline staff, everyone has access to everything whether they are rich or poor – only difference is time to get it. When you become familiar with other health systems where diabetic people rationalise their insulin, or people with chronic lung disease rationalise inhaler usage you will appreciate the health system that pays for drugs costing €100k + per year for CF, cancer, or IBD patients. CT scans, MRIs, PET scans – all available from our troubled health system and you get them if you need them whether you have money or not.
Education is much better here than you think and again any motivated person from any background can become anything they want.
We were made bail out bankers and bondholders to maintain the status quo. Taxed to our knees to maintain the status quo. New taxes thought up with regularity to maintain the status quo. 100 years and the one constant in all is FF FG. Change the constant and the status quo can be broken for a fairer society…
@Willy Malone: A favourable business climate has allowed Ireland to drastically decrease its public-debt level by 43% over the past five years, the largest improvement by any advanced economy.
@thewolf: SF hacks can’t handle it that the economy is robust and nearly at full employment
@Tony Dowling: https://www.nationaldebtclocks.org/debtclock/ireland
207bil in debt and rising, our debt ratio has has perhaps fallen by 43%, however in 2013 our debt was 215bil, clearly there has not been a fall of 43% of actual debt.
@Tony Dowling: calculated on an over estimate of the size of the economy. Unless you believe our growth rate of 26% in 2016 for example. Calculating our debt burden using gross National Income(GNI), a more accurate measure , out debt ratio is around 100%
@the-wolf so sick of the cries of fake news
@Willy Malone: Effort gets rewarded in this life, i’m all for that. surely its fair that those who put in the most are rewarded the most? or are you one of these that think humans are equal :D
@Gerry Murphy: You obviously don’t live in Limerick or anywhere in the west of Ireland?
@Tony Dowling: Google Ireland’s debt clock for the facts.
Tell us something we don’t know!
A Republic of Opportunists!
Keep the Recovery going, the Billionaires and Multinationals need those tax breaks!
Back to work slackers!
@Jarlath Murphy: Shinner logic. It is somehow better that there is no FDI, becasue multinationals are the bogey man.
@Tony Dowling: who is a Shinner?
@Jarlath Murphy: if you put in more effort in life im sure you would be more successful and less bitter.
@frank murphy: well spoken by a pathetic sock puppet who exalts in living in the shadow of the great Leonski and their ilk, well satisfied with living off the crumbs that fall in your path as a favoured pet.
Yes such a success, living off the grace and favour of your betters!
Up 4, They must have just seen how our car tax system works
@Tomas Lyne: and the pusbucket landlords profiteering off slums while vultures make €3 million out of homelessness.
@DaisyChainsaw: well the homeless need somewhere to stay. Without the sevice then I’d imagine they’d be on the streets ..should they provide the service for free?
@DaisyChainsaw: fair play to them, finally some good news regarding homelessness
@DaisyChainsaw: who made the homeless ,homeless was it the landlords ,if yes explain how .was it the government ,banking system the lack,of will on the homeless to provide for themselves or a mixture off all
Leo and pascal at Davos, probably dining on their 50 euro burgers and 500 euro dinners, all at the Irish taxpayers expense. The crowd at Davos won’t be fooled by our leprechaun economics and sham state finance figures but I’m sure they’ll be fully clued in on how to take nieve pascal and leo to the cleaners.
@Adrian: no its not a SF gathering, food is under the $500 mark…
Paschal wants it to continue, he is not in the 1% bracket yet.
@Christy Nolan: He will be when all Noonan’s friends invite him to the initiation.
An overwhelmingly positive report, but sure focus on the negatives.
@Boutros Boutros-Ghali: Not a hope of that on here. If you look at the positives you’d be branded an FG troll or something. Sure we’re the most corrupt kip of a country on the planet, maybe even in the known universe. Apparently.
@Nick Drake: Grow some balls so and go somewhere else if you don’t like it
@Gerard O’Donovan: 100% agree. Lets not have a debate with 2 sides of an argument. Lets tell everyone we don’t agree with to bugger off so there is nothing but an echo chamber left.
Last thing I want to see is a different point of view…………
@Nick Drake: we are 19th in the world for corruption last year, down 2 places in 2 two years. Exaggerate much?
http://www.thejournal.ie/ireland-corruption-fail-3205588-Jan2017/
The land of rogues and robbers, where did it all go wrong all them saints and scholars must be having a right laugh.
@Dae Monicus: Don’t be so hard on the public sector.
@david:
I think you’ll find the biggest culprits of income inequality are the private sector by a country mile.
I’m pretty sure Dob probably gets leo and pascal (and enda) an invite to these events because lets face it, they’re not there on merit. I mean FF bankrupt the country and were wholly supported by FG, who criticised FF in gov for not spending more money at the time!
@Adrian: We nearly back at full employment
Sure Leo thinks we are a country of equality and opportunity for everyone ,he chooses to ignore statistics when it suits him
@Rita Jordan: Ah yes. It’s all his fault.
This is a world problem,and the reason is we have reached our peak the 08 crash was the final part of the puzzle, and for some reason leaders throughout the world sold out their own people.
All that was individual own, now just a few own and have control and have the backing from what ever leader is in power.
There not one thing the dont control.
The future will be generic, like animals at zoo we given at a cost a generic home, food, car, etc… All to make it easier for technology to take control.
They want technology cause it will make them millions, but if we not working were dose we get our money, and were dose it end.
Inequality:
- retired people with 3 pensions and second homes.
- young people with no houses.
- VHI people with queue jumping pass
- Non-VHI bus to Belfast to get your eyesight back
- People who can afford new cars – Low Motor Tax
- People who can’t – tough – HIGH Motor tax
- Owner Families pay LPT property Tax
- Social housed families pay none
- VAT on new homes (none in UK)
- No VAT on Banks charges …
…. and on …
@Neuville-Kepler62F:
Your little gripes hardly equate to a dystopian state.
@Johnny Bellew: .. you can book a seat on the “Belfast Bus” and get your eyesight restored so that you can see clearly again.
Who will take notice ? The same people who did not listen before the CRASH
Just Ireland ?
You can thank central banks across the world for that !
Why don’t these bloodsucking vultures just eFF off up their own holes.
Low earners are really skewing the numbers. Something must be done.
Wealth will never be equal..that was tried already remember..didnt work out too well for our comrades in Soviet Russia
@Leroy: because it was a society fueled by fear, run by the same corrupt group that is still running the show. The Soviet govt didn’t want an equal society any more than current govts do now. They just said they did. It was all lies…you know, like it still is now.
Its great to see we improved from 12th place to 8th now..Despite all the negative comments here, the country overall is getting better.
We should be all proud of this achievement.
This is good news isn’t it?
The article is opposite to the tardy grabline.
Yeah, repeal the eighth and we’ll be fine again.
Norway is not in the EU. How can it survive?
Lol since when did Ireland become Germany ?
No shit Sherlock.
@Seán J. Troy: look where Iceland are, a country that ditched eruope and jailed bankers, and the amount of bs that was said at the time they came out of Europe, no begging bowl out for them.
@Kathy Paul Dowd: theyve never been a full member of the EU so not sure you mean “when they ditched/came out of europe”
@Ian McNally: They burned European depositors.
Yayyyyaaaaayy! A bunch of global elites at a star f**ker fest debating why wealth inequality is on the rise. Seriously? No they’re not, They are all having a great laugh at how they keep doing what they are doing with no accountability or conscious. Besides, what the heck is there to debate? I will be more than happy to just tell them. Wealth inequality is on the rise because these global elites are nothing but a pack of lying, theiving slave masters who are constantly coming up with ways to continue to consolidate all of the world’s wealth amongst themselves.
You know what? This “world economic forum” is just adding insult to injury. It obscene.
Well no issue for Leo on this….
how do we manage to resurrect from ashes over and over? did anyone ever think how we do this, i have.
if you are in a country that is riddled with corruption and the divide is getting wider, then you know how we recover. its not by brilliance of intellect or anything, its by brilliance of the wonderful ‘brown envelope’
have your say