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Saturday, December 14, 2013

"Britain is the Fourth Most Unequal Counrty" - Easily Proven A Total Lie

       Murdo Fraser has an interesting article on ThinkScotland today looking at a regular lie from the Yes campaign and leftists generally - that Britain is the 4th most unequal country in the developed world or the most unequal in the west or the 4th most among the richest 25.

        I must admit that having seen this repeatedly, without ant demur by the likes of BBC interviewers, I had assumed it must have some factual basis, however tenuous.

         But Murdo looks at the standard measure of inequality, the Gini Coefficient (0 means total equality, 1 means .... well whatever total inequality would be) . It is an interesting read whether you believe total equality is desirable and humane or the ultimate suppression of human individualty and freedom (or both).

        As it turns out in this table we are not in 4th place (Botswana at 63) or even 4th in the developed world. 13th behind Hong Kong, Singapore, USA, Russia, Israel, Portugal, Japan, New Zealand, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Estonia, 5 of which are, per capita, richer than us. Both Hong Kong and Singapore are high in inequality though Singapore has a strong welfare state and socialist history while Hong Kong is probably the most free market place in the world.

        Overall we place a rather boring 92nd  most unequal out of 134.

       Interesting to see trends. There is certainly a trend for poor countries to be more unequal - it is dominated by poor African countries down to our Marxist foe Zimbabwe (24th at 50.1).

       The most equal, from Finland (117th at 29.5) are all EU members except our Marxist foe Belarus (122 at 27.9) and Albania (I don't believe any figures from Albania).

       Among developed countries there is a trend for the efficient (Hong Kong, Singapore, USA, Switzerland to be higher) but not a strong one. Estonia, the most libertarian of the Baltics places 91st while Latvia and Lithuania are 84th and 85th.

        All in all total equality (or inequality) seems a perverse target to choose, certainly if you are putting it ahead of wealth creation as the SNP are..

        So this "leftist" claim turns out to be wholly, completely and totally, a lie. Where did it come from? Mainly it looks like everybody quoting each other as a source and nobody on the "left" being interested enough in the truth to look. Which says much about the "left" and the integrity of what the Yes campaign say generally.

         Not going to go through all 5.8 million sites telling this lie.

         According to Gerry Hassan in the Scotsman the ultimate unimpeachable authority for this is  ‘Fair Play: A Daniel Dorling Reader on Social Justice’, another site claimed an unspecified UN report. The point is that it is clearly a total lie and equally clearly those pushing it don't care.

        Next time they make some assertion the question must be "What proof have you that this claim is more than 5.8 million times more trustworthy than your last false one?"

1Namibia 70.72003
2South Africa 65.02005
3Lesotho 63.21995
4Botswana 63.01993
5Sierra Leone 62.91989
6Central African Republic 61.31993
7Bolivia 59.22006
8Haiti 59.22001
9Paraguay 56.82008
10Brazil 56.72005
11Bosnia and Herzegovina 56.22007
12Panama 56.12003
13Guatemala 55.12007
14Chile 54.92003
15Colombia 53.82005
16Honduras 53.82003
17Hong Kong 53.32007
18El Salvador 52.42002
19Papua New Guinea 50.91996
20Zambia 50.82004
21Niger 50.51995
22Swaziland 50.42001
23Gambia, The 50.21998
24Zimbabwe 50.12006
25Dominican Republic 49.92005
26Peru 49.82005
27Argentina 49.0January-March 2007
28Sri Lanka 49.02004
29Venezuela 48.22003
30Singapore 48.12008
31Costa Rica 48.02008
32Mexico 47.92006
33Madagascar 47.52001
34Mozambique 47.32002
35Nepal 47.22008
36China 47.02007
37Rwanda 46.82000
38Malaysia 46.12002
39Ecuador 46.02006
40Philippines 45.82006
41Uganda 45.72002
42Jamaica 45.52004
43Uruguay 45.22006
44United States 45.02007
45Cameroon 44.62001
46Cote d'Ivoire 44.62002
47Iran 44.52006
48Nigeria 43.72003
49Turkey 43.62003
50Guyana 43.21999
51Nicaragua 43.12001
52Cambodia 43.02007 est.
53Kenya 42.52008 est.
54Burundi 42.41998
55Thailand 42.02002
56Russia 41.5September 2008
57Senegal 41.32001
58Georgia 40.82005
59Turkmenistan 40.81998
60Mali 40.12001
61Morocco 40.02005 est.
62Tunisia 40.02005 est.
63Jordan 39.72007
64Burkina Faso 39.52007
65Ghana 39.42005-06
66Indonesia 39.42005
67Malawi 39.02004
68Macedonia 39.02003
69Mauritius 39.02006 est.
70Mauritania 39.02000
71Israel 38.62005
72Portugal 38.52007
73Guinea 38.12006
74Japan 38.12002
75Timor-Leste 38.0
76Yemen 37.72005
77Armenia 37.02006
78Vietnam 37.02004
79India 36.82004
80Uzbekistan 36.82003
81Azerbaijan 36.52001
82Benin 36.52003
83New Zealand 36.21997
84Latvia 36.02005
85Lithuania 36.02005
86Algeria 35.31995
87Poland 34.92005
88Laos 34.62002
89Tanzania 34.62000
90Egypt 34.42001
91Estonia 34.02008
92United Kingdom 34.02005
93Switzerland 33.72008
94Bangladesh 33.22005
95Moldova 33.22003
96Greece 33.02005
97Mongolia 32.82002
98France 32.72008
99Tajikistan 32.62006
100Canada 32.12005
101Ireland 32.02005
102Spain 32.02005
103Romania 32.02008
104Italy 32.02006
105Korea, South 31.32007
106European Union 31.02005 est.
107Ukraine 31.02006
108Netherlands 30.92007
109Bulgaria 30.72007
110Pakistan 30.6FY07/08
111Australia 30.52006
112Kazakhstan 30.42005
113Kyrgyzstan 30.32003
114Ethiopia 30.02000
115Montenegro 30.02003
116Serbia 30.02003
117Finland 29.52007
118Cyprus 29.02005
119Croatia 29.02008
120Belgium 28.02005
121Hungary 28.02005
122Belarus 27.92005
123Germany 27.02006
124Albania 26.72005
125Austria 26.02007
126Luxembourg 26.02005
127Malta 26.02007
128Slovakia 26.02005
129Czech Republic 26.02005
130Iceland 25.02005
131Norway 25.02008
132Denmark 24.02005
133Slovenia 24.02005
134Sweden 23.02005

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