Tackling economic inequality is one of the many good things glibly asserted to be achievable "only through independence".
The latest analysis ("Executive pay 140 times that of workers", The Herald, August 18) suggests that this is not an easy prospect.
In fact relative inequality is steadily increasing worldwide, and notably across the EU. The much-lauded group of Nordic countries are among those where recent inequality growth has been faster.
By far the biggest factor driving increasing relative income inequality is the free-market global economy which we are all inevitably part of. It is hinted by the SNP that there will be legislation to increase wages for lower-paid workers, but this can impact on international competitiveness, and increase "off-shoring" of jobs.
Even to make a small difference, a substantial redistribution of the tax burden would be required, in an opposite direction from the announced intentions to reduce corporation tax and to restrain top income tax rates. In any case, tax redistribution will be possible under enhanced devolution, as pointed out by Shirley Williams.
The intention to slash spending on defence would have secondary consequences in jobs lost, both in the armed services and in supporting services and industries such as shipbuilding, with a knock on effect on income and corporate tax receipts. The SNP as usual ignore any difficulties or hard decisions involved.
Transforming the economy so that the great majority of jobs are highly skilled and based in strongly growing innovative enterprises would help. Scotland has some advantages in its strong university system, and it has a number of examples of highly innovative companies, but it has a long way to go seriously to transform its overall jobs market to overtake other developed economies pursuing this same objective. This is an important agenda, which of course is already being pursued under devolution, and where progress is probably easier within the larger context of the UK economy.
The only way fundamentally to address the global trends increasing inequalities would be by international agreement to re-jig relative tax rates to increase tax burdens for top earners and the most profitable enterprises. Such an agreement involves countering "the invisible hand" of the free market, an uphill prospect. It would need to end the "race to the bottom" that is exemplified by tax havens, and by the SNP's own tax proposals. It would be necessary to reduce rather than increase the incentives for top earners and companies to dodge taxes by relocating.
Alan Roach,
93 Octavia Terrace, Greenock.
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