an unequal society: what must christians do?

An Unequal Society: What Must Christians Do?

Richard HarrisProfessor, University of Bristol

AN UNEQUAL SOCIETY: WHAT MUST CHRISTIANS DO?

Session 1: Thinking about inequality

Social and Economic inequality

source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/busines

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Top 10% (2013)

Source: OECD, 2015

Bottom 10% (2013)

Source: OECD, 2015

Source: Income inequality in the UK (House of Commons

Briefing Paper)

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Some questions about inequality

• Does it exist?• Is it increasing?• If yes, why is it increasing?• Does it matter? If yes, for whom?• What can be done?

Is it true?• Economic inequalities between rich and

poor countries are decreasing– In 1990, almost half of the population in

developing regions lived on less than $1.25 a day. This rate dropped to 22 per cent by 2010, reducing the number of people living in extreme poverty by 700 million (UN Millennium Development Goals Report, 2014)

• But, what about economic inequalities within countries?

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Within the UK

Source: Income inequality in the UK (House of Commons Briefing Paper)

The rise of the 1%

Source: http://www.oxfam.org.uk/media-centre/press-releases/2016/01/62-people-own-same-as-half-world-says-oxfam-inequality-report-davos-world-economic-forum

In the UK

Source: Income inequality in the UK (House of Commons Briefing Paper)

In the US

Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/03/how-you-

i-and-everyone-got-the-top-1-percent-all-wrong/359862/

In the US

Source: Oxfam (2016) An Economy for the 1%

Worldwide


The 1% or the 0.01% ?

Source: http://houseofdebt.org/2014/03/29/measuring-wealth-inequality.html

Meanwhile…

Source: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/real-wages-and-living-standards-the-latest-uk-evidence/

Average (median) weekly earnings in the UK

International real hourly earnings growth, 2008-13

Source: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/real-wages-and-living-standards-the-latest-uk-evidence/ after OECD, 2014

Why is it happening?

Why is it happening?

• Piketty’s theory– Income• Labour income: wages, salaries, benefits, …• Capital income: dividends, interest, retained

profits of companies, house price inflation, rental income, …

– r > g• Return on capital is rising faster than the

growth of national economies

The capital/income ratio in Europe, 1870-2010

Source: piketty.pse.ens.fr/capital21c

Well worth reading• A beautifully written rally

against the “unjust and dysfunctional mechanisms that allows the 1% to siphon off wealth produced by others through the control of property and money.”

Effects of taxation?

Source: Atkinson (2015)

Tax and spend?

• “No advanced economy achieved a low level of inequality and/or relative income poverty with a low level of social spending, regardless of how well that country performed on other dimensions that matter for poverty.”–Marx (not that one!) et al., quoted by

Atkinson (2015)

Does it matter?

Source: https://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/resources/the-spirit-level

The Spirit Level documentary

http://thedividedocumentary.com/

AN UNEQUAL SOCIETY: WHAT MUST CHRISTIANS DO?

Session 2: Responding to inequality

The price of inequality• Undermines social cohesion, create spaces of exclusion• Fuels resentment, encourages cynicism• Disengagement (from politics; from the church?)• Wealth, power and undue influence undermine

democratic processes• Unproductive capital as a cause of crisis in capitalism;

inequality hinders economic growth• Environmental costs• Undermines notions of meritocracy and fairness (social

trajectories become determined by privilege and place – accidents of birth)

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The price of inequality

• Affects different groups of people differently– Gender divides– Ethnic divides…

The price of inequality

• Affects different groups of people differently– Gender divides– Ethnic divides– The marginalised low-income, White

British

The price of inequality• Childhood, education and debt

– Under some circumstances the costof University in the UK exceeds £100,000!

• Work and employment• Wealth and poverty• Health inequalities

– Age of male deaths in Kensington & Chelsea on average 14 years greater than in parts of Glasgow (12 years for women)

• Injustice: we like to talk about choice systems but choice is constrained and we then blame those most constrained as having made ‘bad choices’

What can be done?• OECD, In it Together:

why less Inequality Benefits All• Recommends focusing policy

on four areas–Women’s participation in economic life– Employment promotion and good-quality jobs– Skills and education– Tax-and-transfer systems for efficient

redistribution

What can be done?

• See also http://www.tony-atkinson.com/the-15-proposals-from-tony-atkinsons-inequality-what-can-be-done/

• But what can Christians do?

http://www.tony-atkinson.com/the-15-proposals-from-tony-atkinsons-inequality-what-can-be-done/




Luke 4: 18–19

• ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’

But it continues!• ‘Truly I tell you,’ he continued, ‘no prophet is accepted in

his home town. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed – only Naaman the Syrian.’ All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff.

Mark 10• As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to

him and fell on his knees before him. ‘Good teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ […] Jesus looked at him and loved him. ‘One thing you lack,’ he said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Luke 10: 25–29• On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to

test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘What is written in the Law?’ he replied. ‘How do you read it?’ He answered, ‘“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind”; and, “Love your neighbour as yourself.”’ ‘You have answered correctly,’ Jesus replied. ‘Do this and you will live.’ But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’

Be the change you want to see in the world

The Kingdom of God Christ incarnate

Change

What might Christians do?

• Christ in community– Supporting Food banks– Supporting Christian Aid, Oxfam, …– Supporting Christians Against Poverty• Etc.

• These are tackling the outcomes rather than the cause


• Speak out– e.g. the Bedroom Tax is a disgrace• Write to our MPs• Show solidarity with those affected• Show that we care and are concerned


• Not be drawn in–Welfare recipients (most of whom are

working) did not cause the banking crisis

– The language of the ‘underserving poor’ strikes me as, underserving


• Critically reflect and acknowledge– givingwhatwecan.org estimates that I

am in the richest 4 per cent of the world’s population, with an income 21 times the global average

– Do our churches (unintentionally) have practices of exclusion?• Mine talks a lot about money (it wants more

of it!)


• Behave ethically– Do we need to always chase the

cheapest deal?– Shareholdings in small companies we

might have some real investment in?– Support and purchase from

Cooperatives, Fair Trade, etc.


• Welcome the poor• But also the rich• All are welcome in the Kingdom of

God, aren’t they?


• Nudge theory– Little things can

make big differences

Source: https://healthpsychologyconsultancy.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/4stages.jpg

Some questions• Should the church campaign against inequality and, if so,

how does it do so without appearing political (or should that not matter)? What about the Christian Right (in the US especially)?

• As individuals is inequality too big a problem for us to tackle or have you ideas for what we might do?

• Are there practices of exclusion within churches that (unintentionally?) promote those with power, authority and wealth? If so, how do we change that?

• How do we speak out against inequality without also casting out the rich?

• Anything else that comes to mind and that you would like to discuss?

an unequal society: what must christians do?

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