It’s time we had a budget that put workers first - and didn’t treat us as a cash cow

HERE’S an interesting quiz for you to try on this fine Saturday - give honest answers, based on your thoughts and prejudices, and no peeking at the results!

In the period between 2004 and 2019 - just before Covid hit - the following increases took place in disposable incomes for three separate categories of people:

40.2%

19.2%

8.8%

If I told you the three categories were:

Employed people

Unemployed people

Pensioners

what would your guess be on which group saw its income increase the most?

Since we have spent all of that time being told we are living under so-called centrist or right-wing governments, you might assume that employed people enjoyed a sizeable boost to their earnings at the expense of those who rely on the State - or at least on a par with them.

Wrong. Very wrong.

In fact, that 40.2% rise went to pensioners, while the 19.2% increase went to unemployed people. Those in employment saw their incomes rise by just 8.8% in those 15 years.

Before we argue the rights and wrongs of these figures, it’s worth pointing out that they should act as a wake-up call to anyone who believes there is a right/left divide in Irish politics and that the right is perennially winning.

Rather, what we have is two apparently centrist parties that have dominated government for 100 years but who are not wedded to any particular ideology or creed, and face whichever way the political wind is blowing - and in the past dozen years or so, that wind has been blowing strongly left - in relation to incomes and taxes at least.

And we have parties of opposition who largely describe themselves as left-wing who cannot allow themselves to see that their policies are actually being enacted under their very noses - that their clothes are being stolen.

It does make you wonder about our choices in the next election, when we are getting the same economics whichever way we vote: One that drains the workers and creates a larger - critics may use the word ‘bloated’ - State.

Won’t anyone stand up for the poor aul worker?!

The strange thing is, those income disparities appear set to widen in the coming years, if you listen to the promises and pledges of all the main parties.

As we approach another budget described as pivotal for our nation’s future, even the slightest inclination from politicians towards helping out the workers and easing off on their tax burden is greeted by howls of outrage from pressure groups, opposition politicians, many in the media, and the majority of those who populate our social media echo chambers.

At the same time, we are left with the strong sense that pensioners are struggling to get by on a meagre hand-out, and that the unemployed are a woebegone underclass of society.

The statistics would suggest otherwise.

Despite this, calls for to ease the tax burden on workers across the board are still being drowned out by the kind of pressure groups and organisations which seem to represent every person in society bar the employed.

Note that Age Action recently called for a €23 increase in the pension in the budget on September 27, while Sinn Féin is pushing for a €50 a week rise in the Jobseeker’s Allowance. Both these calls were made with an eye on the ‘cost of living crisis’.

But what about people who work? Aren’t they affected by the ‘cost of living crisis’ too?

The last I heard, Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar’s suggestion of a 30% tax band aimed at benefiting a million workers was facing stiff opposition in government circles - by people who clearly think there are more votes to be had in satisfying the other cohorts - yet again.

Cutting taxes is seen as a right-wing thing to do, and creating a larger state is seen as left-wing - so, economically at least, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil appear happy to dress to the left, helped by the third wheel in their cobbled-up coalitions, whether that be Labour or the Greens.

It is all a long way from the right-wing capitalism we have been led to believe has been dominating the main parties’ mindset for decades, isn’t it?

Another odd thing: The government parties aren’t trumpeting those figures I mentioned at the start. Is it because they are aware it amounts to a betrayal of their voter base - the type of people Leo referred to as “getting up early in the morning”?

Lookit, an argument can assuredly be made that the Irish governments of 2004-2019 had many right-wing principles in place, such as the low corporation tax and the fact they were wedded to the banks and in thrall to the property speculators.

Stories of opposition to a windfall tax on the energy giants - surely as big a no-brainer and vote-winner as you are going to get at present - also suggest some right-wing ideology is in play at the heart of government.

No decent left-winger would tolerate such abasements.

Even so, if a left-wing government spent 15 years in power and could trumpet those increases in jobseeker’s allowances and pensions over that of workers, they would be crowing about it from the rooftops.

Of course, many of those workers who lost out in this equation were in the low income range, but many left-wingers will have been gratified by the fact high earners also lost out in the intervening years.

They would also be thrilled to declare that the top 25% of earners pay 80% of all tax these days - a statistic that makes you wonder if we elected a left-wing governments for the entirety of the 21st century!

I suppose one good question to ask Sinn Féin here is, if they get into power in the coming years, as seems likely, how much more do they plan to squeeze the workers, and how much more do they plan to favour increases for pensioners and the unemployed, at a time when full employment is being trumpeted?

Because their hated rivals in the two main parties seem to have done a pretty good job of it! To the detriment of the worker, I would add.

It was 18 years ago that then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was roundly mocked for saying of himself: “I am one of the few socialists left in Irish politics.”

Nowadays, it seems the Dáil is packed with them - whether you voted for them or not.