Editorial: Tale of a tiger

Sydney
10 August 2003

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Editorial: Tale of a tiger

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Editorial: Tale of a tiger

We hear a lot these days about Ireland the Celtic Tiger and how this economic miracle has banished the spectre of poverty that for so long haunted it.

This is a far cry from the days that saw so many bid their native land farewell forever from a ship’s rail, to be remembered only in poignant ballads.

But the story of newly-rich Ireland that Helen Johnston, director of Ireland’s Combat Poverty Agency, told in the annual St Vincent de Paul Society’s Ozanam lecture paints a more complex picture.

Economic prosperity is not the kind of rising tide that lifts everyone up, she said. It does help greatly, because in Ireland it has reduced unemployment dramatically.

But not everyone can take advantage of the new employment opportunities - the old, the under-educated and women at home have all experienced only limited economic benefits from it.

We have a similar situation here in Australia, which has also experienced an economic boom. But both countries have seen that a bit of income distribution is necessary if the economic benefits of prosperity are to be shared out.

Of course, taxes have to be paid to fund welfare initiatives. But both countries should look at the provision of ‘public goods’, as opposed to ‘private goods’ - i.e. what you get in your pocket when you get a job or a wage increase that allows you to buy more.

Public goods include such things as free pre-schools, free medical care and schooling, and cheap, available public transport. Some countries take them for granted, but they are not common in either Australia or Ireland. They are a means of spreading the benefits of prosperity more widely and to those who might otherwise not enjoy them.

Government and other help (from agencies like the Church) is needed to help this to come about. And guess what else you get when you spread economic benefits about in this equitable fashion? No stigma!

If every child goes to free pre-school, as happens in France, or if every child has a hot, cheap, subsidised school lunch, as they do in Britain, no one feels they are poor.

This does not directly attack the problem of poor children being bullied because they don’t have designer sneaker, as Ms Johnston says happens in Ireland. But it might make it possible for their parents to able to afford them.

It’s a shame they need to - but what mums and dads want their kid bullied just because they can’t afford to buy them a smart pair of sneakers, if there is such a thing?