Sir Simon believes things that just ain't so

Simon Jenkins tells us that inequality has increased considerably in this 21 st century:

Political economists on both the left and the right are coming to the conclusion that the gap between rich and poor countries, as well as between rich and poor people, is destabilising and dangerous to democracy. The so-called Gini coefficient of inequality in personal incomes and wealth fell steadily in the latter decades of the 20th century, but has risen sharply in the 21st. The world is getting less equal.

As Mark Twain pointed out it’s not what you don’t know, it’s what you believe for sure that ain’t, which is dangerous.

Globally the world is becoming more equal. That’s what neoliberal globalisation has been doing - the poor countries continue to grow faster than the rich ones and the gap between them shrinks. It’s entirely true that we here don’t worry very much about inequality thinking that absolute poverty is the thing we should be striving to defeat. Fortunately this neoliberal thing beats both, proper poverty and also global inequality.

If we restrict ourselves to the UK then Sir Simon really should have a look at his own link to the evidence he says supports his thesis. His own dang newspaper points out that the Gini rose substantially in the last decades of the 20th century and has been roughly flat since - actually, it’s a little below 2008 levels right now.

It’s possible to become a little curt, possibly even short, here and mutter than basing policy on entire ignorance of the subject under discussion might not be the best manner of running the world. Or even of writing columns about what that policy might be. But there’s more here:

The world’s most successful industries – largely the concern of the top 10 wealthy individuals – are still operating virtually tax-free. The reason at root is that these industries are global, while taxation is national. Tax regimes tend to be deeply conservative, continuing to undertax wealth, notably property, and overtax lower and middle incomes. Fiscal authorities, such as Britain, are also cynically indulgent towards tax avoidance and money laundering, while loading taxpayers with regressive imposts such as council tax and VAT.

The global marketplace of Apple, Facebook, Google and their sprawling dependencies is essentially left alone in space. No one country has yet had the nerve to confront it – except possibly China – despite its vast tax potential. This will end only when Europe and America take the lead and act in concert, which should be a top item on Joe Biden’s agenda.

This has already been done, this was part of the Trump tax reforms. It used to be that if profits could be squirreled out of Europe or other such areas into a tax haven then they remained, for a US corporation, untaxed forever. Or could, potentially so, remain untaxed. This is now not possible. Overseas profits made by a US corporation are taxed in the US. That loophole being complained about is at least 3 years out of date now.

It’s possible that soaking the rich is the answer however much we think it would be completely the wrong thing to do. But those who would advance that argument should be held to a reasonable standard of proof. Offering justifications which are at least true rather than clearly and obviously not being so a good starting point we think. Inequality is not increasing, globally or nationally. Big Tech profits no longer go untaxed.

Any other reasons to offer up?