The homily delivered by the Archbishop at St John’s Co-Cathedral on Independence Day is a philosophical masterpiece. It deserves the attention, the admiration and appreciation of Roman Catholics and all people of goodwill who believe in social justice.
Another interesting contribution in your paper of September 25 was about ‘Poverty: Statistics vs Realty’.
The National Statistics Office published statistics under the titles: At risk of Poverty, Deprivation Index and At risk of Poverty or Social Exclusion.
It is not the intention of the Alliance of Pensioners Organisations (APO) to go into the merits and demerits of the figures shown in the tables but wish to point out that statistics are playful. They can be manipulated and marketed according to the will, belief and exigencies of those who apply them from time to time.
It is true that “statistics make no difference to the poor family”. It is the amount of money that remains in the pocket at the end of week/month, which shows the true picture of the financial stability/instability of the family.
The APO acknowledges the fact that the NSO has a lot of information and statistics about low-wage earners, poor families, social exclusion, etc.
In the circumstances we appeal to the NSO to compile some form of statistics about wealth and wealthy persons.
During a meeting by the European Anti-Poverty Network held in Brussels there was a slogan by the Austrian delegation stating that “Those who speak about poverty must not keep silent on the issue of wealth”.
In this respect the Archbishop said in his homily that “when the common good is sacrificed to the selfish interests of the few, to a pseudo-ethos based on the relentless quest for material gain at all costs, then we can say the State is sick”. He also quoted the words of St Paul that “greed is the root of all evil”.
The Archbishop is leading the way by his teaching about values and other aspects of social justice. It is hoped that our politicians will find some courage and follow suit. It has to be pointed out that poverty could be eradicated if there is a political will to re-distribute wealth. If this is achieved then we can start talking about social justice.
The APO also agrees completely with economist Philip Von Brockdorff that scientific calculations are under-reporting the uppermost income categories which then skews the threshold for poverty downwards. It was also stated that while the incomes have increased, in reality, the disparity between rich and poor would be much bigger than that captured by statistics.
While incomes have increased, in reality, the disparity between rich and poor would be much bigger than that captured by statistics
The NSO and our politicians should note these valid remarks. This is the reason why the APO is requesting the NSO to publish statistics about wealth and wealthy people.
In the case of poverty we know that where the income of a person is less than 60 per cent of the median income, then that person is at risk of poverty. Similarly, we should have a definition of wealth and the resources one should have to be considered as a wealthy person.
Apart from statistics, in order to tackle the poverty problem there is an urgent need to enforce our existing mechanism to control tax evasion.
Von Brockdorff pointed out that too many self-employed are declaring incomes that hover around the minimum wage.
This means loss of revenue from tax, VAT and social security contribution. Recently it was reported that €150 million remained uncollected from VAT.
Moreover, there are other sources from where the State can collect more revenue.
Increasing revenue and redistributing it fairly and properly is one of the possibilities to eradicate poverty and pave the way for the practice of social justice.
In the current position, what is the state of Malta as regards poverty and social justice?
Naturally the State is very healthy for wealthy persons and high-income earners.
On the other hand from the perspective of poor/risk of poverty persons, which number about one-fourth of the population, the State is considered as sick.
It is very difficult for them to make both ends meet due to the greed and selfishness of the few wealthy persons and the thousands of others who unscrupulously evade taxation on a regular basis without control.
Carmel Mallia is president of the Alliance of Pensioners Organisations.