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Leo Varadkar, the Taoiseach, promised five years of tax cuts, at the Fine Gael Ard Fheis 2018 Sam Boal

Opinion Debunking the myth of the squeezed middle

High earners pay more tax but they also benefit from the fact workers in the service industry get paid low wages, writes Killian Donoghue.

THE THEORY OF the squeezed middle has been bandied around a lot in Irish politics over the last few years.

Back in September in the Dail, an Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, said that there are some people who pay for everything but qualify for nothing.

The theory of the squeezed middle is as false as it is politically divisive.

Proponents of this theory display the same sort of blinkered vision as the Brexiteers: they want to reject any of the burdens that the political system places on high earners while allowing them to retain all of the advantages that they accrue from it.

Yes, those on high incomes do pay more tax, and some of it at a higher rate, than their fellow citizens on lower incomes and it is true that that money goes into the central exchequer, and a large part of it is redistributed.

But that’s only half the picture. Compensation does also flow the other way, as low wage workers are selling their labour at less than the cost of producing it. 

Cost of Producing Labour

I think most people would accept that citizens of this State, who work full time, should be able to afford housing, food and other basic requirements. 

But the outcomes of the market economy are not fair because the market is blindly indifferent to human need.

No person exists for the purpose of producing labour. The purpose of employment (selling your labour) is to cover your basic living costs at a minimum.

But the cost of living in a modern economy is so high, that there are now a significant number of people in full-time employment, who need subsidies to their income to achieve a basic standard of living. Rent supplements like the HAP scheme are an example of this. 

The concept of a person working in full-time employment and earning less than the cost of living is simply economically non-viable. No economist would propose producing something to be sold below the cost of its production. But that is what low wage workers are doing. 

The problem is that when the salary that an employer pays to an employee in return for their labour,  isn’t enough to cover their living costs, then the employee is effectively subsidising the employer. 

If their employer passes that subsidy on to the customer – as market economic theory would predict – low paid workers are therefore effectively subsidising the market in the area of their employment.

The other side of the equation is that other people are then paid more than the cost of producing their labour, yet they also benefit from the subsidies that lower paid workers provide to the cost of goods and services.

Example 

Let’s tease out this theory – take a childcare worker in a Dublin crèche. 

Legally, that worker could be caring for up to five pre-school children, possibly enabling up to five other adults to stay in full-time employment. Those availing of the service may complain that they pay very high-income tax and yet also have very high childcare costs.

But according to salary data provided by Early Childhood Ireland the average wage for a childcare worker is €11.70 per hour, that is €403 after tax for a 39 hour week.

Therefore a childcare worker could not afford to put their own child in childcare and likely cannot afford to pay their rent without some state support whether rent subsidies or social housing.

If childcare workers were paid the full cost of living, the cost of childcare would be considerably higher. So the childcare workers are subsidising the cost of childcare. And the same is true across all service and retail industries.

The role of progressive taxation is to balance the competing rights of those who profit to a larger extent from the market economy against the most basic rights of those who do not. 

That means taxing higher earners at a higher rate to compensate those on lower incomes who are subsidising the market.

Who is Squeezed?

It is incorrect to say that those earning high incomes are squeezed, pay for everything and qualify for nothing. It cannot logically be claimed that they are more squeezed financially than people earning less than them.

High earners benefit from an economy that, for complex reasons, places a higher value on certain occupations over others. And they qualify for the subsidised prices in the food, retail and service industries where low-income workers are employed.

Income and rent subsidies are a poor substitute for real livable wages. But the proponents of the squeezed middle theory would deny Irish low-wage workers even that consolation.

Their theory is a Trojan horse to justify tax breaks which would disproportionately benefit high earners and would prohibit the sort of investment that is needed in our healthcare system and social housing stock.

Any further deterioration in those areas, I believe could lead to the sort of political and economic division that we see manifesting in France, the UK and the USA.

The theory of the squeezed middle disparages those on low incomes and diminishes the value of their contribution to the economy and to society.
Killian Donoghue is a Law and Politics graduate from Maynooth University. He writes a blog about the Supreme Court of Ireland at scoirl.wordpress.com.

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    Mute Glenn O'hAilpín
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    Dec 17th 2018, 7:18 AM

    I’d rather hear this discussed by an economist than a politics graduate. The Lens can be shifted to argue this topic in more ways than he would have you believe.

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    Mute Mark Scott
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    Dec 17th 2018, 8:16 AM

    @Glenn O’hAilpín: Thomas Sowells three questions for economic arguments: “compared to what?”, “at what cost?”, and “what hard evidence so you have?”

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    Mute Thomas Molloy
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    Dec 17th 2018, 9:15 AM

    @Glenn O’hAilpín: Good to see a writer who is saying exactly what Trump is saying. Slave wage jobs overseas creating misery for ordinary workers.

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    Mute Sean Conway
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    Dec 17th 2018, 9:40 AM

    @Glenn O’hAilpín: An economist that speaks for the wealthy that believes in trickle down economics i bet.

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    Mute Nuala Mc Namara
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    Dec 17th 2018, 2:06 PM

    @Glenn O’hAilpín: Ok,read article ‘Myths of the squeezed middle’ by economist Ml Taft!

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    Mute Glenn O'hAilpín
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    Dec 17th 2018, 3:32 PM

    @Nuala Mc Namara: Ok, read article ‘There will be no relief for the squeezed middle’ by Economist David McWilliams.. once again.. a lens can be shifted to tell what ever narrative.

    https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/david-mcwilliams-there-will-be-no-relief-for-the-squeezed-middle-1.3452719?mode=amp

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    Mute Nuala Mc Namara
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    Dec 17th 2018, 6:11 PM

    @Glenn O’hAilpín: Re the ‘squeezed middle’:
    Fact:if you count All workers ie part time and full time workers the thresholds for middle income is much lower& gives the true definition ‘middle income’.
    Fact:If you count full time workers the thresholds for middle income is much higher.But why should part time workers be excluded,Ireland’s employment rate includes both?!
    In Ireland 2018 both low and middle income persons are struggling.While consistent poverty which had doubled to 8.2% in 2016, deprivation hasn’t decreased by much despite increases in wages etc.

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    Mute Paul Whelan
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    Dec 17th 2018, 7:24 AM

    You are proposing a very narrow view in this piece. The clue lies in the term ‘squeezed middle’. Yet you consistently refer to ‘high income workers’ in your article. The squeezed middle, also termed the ‘coping class’ exist, and remain relatively silent as they endure high tax and high cost of living to keep the train on the tracks. They are the class who have to make the decision between child care and work, or not, dependent on budget. To propose that low income workers somehow ‘subsidize’ the squeezed middle is ignoring the bigger issue of a massive corporate failing to deal effectively with costs in this country, from health to housing, to childcare. The squeezed middle pay the high tax, and the high costs. ‘Lose-Lose’.

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    Mute Hellenize Dublin
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    Dec 17th 2018, 7:46 AM

    @Paul Whelan: also the use of the easy scapegoat: “it’s all the market’s fault”. In my opinion, the problems with the Irish market are majorly because of bad government policies.

    I respect the author’s attempt at analyzing the situation, but I think he should take another look from a root cause perspective.

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    Mute Thomas Molloy
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    Dec 17th 2018, 2:10 PM

    @Paul Whelan: Applying this Marxist thinking (person A owns person Bs earnings) to avoidable welfare dependents, they are stealing money on others by not working and keeping the tax for themselves in the form of being time rich.

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    Mute Brian Conway
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    Dec 17th 2018, 4:43 PM

    @Thomas Molloy: stealing money? You are clueless fool who misses the hole point of taxes. We taxed for services and so those who can’t/don’t work can have a back up not to pay the bills of failed businesses and criminal banks. Cop on lad

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    Mute EvieXVI
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    Dec 17th 2018, 7:41 AM

    The clue is in (your own) headline. The squeezed ‘middle’ are not ‘those on high incomes’ and they are not ‘higher earners’
    They are middle-income earners.

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    Mute Kevin Slater
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    Dec 17th 2018, 8:08 AM

    45 years ago my dad bought a house. He was a fitter. On that wage he paid a mortgage had a car and four kids; my mother didn’t work outside the home. It was tight but they managed. Surely that should be the benchmark, one average income and still be able to pay your mortgage. House prices in particular are the deal breaker now. On the basis of say €40,000 a year wage, an affordable house would be €150,000. That is not the case.

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    Mute Patrick Nolan
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    Dec 17th 2018, 10:01 AM

    @Kevin Slater:
    It is, just not within 50 miles of Dublin

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    Mute john doe
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    Dec 17th 2018, 1:17 PM

    @Patrick Nolan: bit of a generalisation there. You wont get a decent livable family home in kilkenny waterford portlaoise carlow galway limerick etc etc etc for €150k or amywhere near it.

    If a single average wage cannot afford a family home there is something fundamentally wrong with out society.. we are doing something wrong and need a large shift to pit it right. Not tweaking rental rules or building a token few council houses. Root and branch review of how we do housing is needed.

    In anchient times all but the very poor could would have somewhere to live, in the 1600’s all but the very poor had somewhere to live. If they could do it then surely with our so called advanced society we can do it now.

    More land per person in this country than anywhere else in europe.

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    Mute Pilib
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    Dec 17th 2018, 4:25 PM

    @john doe: you’d get a lovely house in co. limerick for well under 150k. Look at daft.

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    Mute Jane Bresnan
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    Dec 17th 2018, 9:33 PM

    @Kevin Slater: You know, you’re partly right there, as when I look at our expenses, we have a heck of a lot more now to maintain than the previous generation. Our cars have more gizmos and gadgets, and are multiples of the insurance and tax they used to be. We each carry around expensive mobile phones, and usually maintain the contracts with them. Internet, I bet your dad didn’t have that , or the devices to access it in the home. Insurance in general, home, travel, car, health etc. We travel more, we eat better/more expensively, we wear far more clothes that very few people repair or reuse, and fast fashion has a whole new trend set in a few weeks.

    Sports… used to be easy going, casual kick around. Now you need specialized gear, and lots of it. Monitoring bracelets, sleep trackers, step trackers, weight trackers. New runners how often? Walk up a hill, not without your insulated water bottle you don’t…

    Plus everything else in consumer-land that is marketed to us. Seasonal cushions , duvets, pajamas? Decorating equipment for Halloween. Grooming standards are now at a whole new level. How many types of cream can be made for cleaning your face? Teenagers are practically dermatologists with their talk of retinoids. Think of Everything you can now squeeze into a kitchen. Coffee machines, nutribullets, slow cookers, stand mixers.

    I bet your family had a Christmas tree and some cards this time of year, gifts were a book or a board game. Now, you can see the houses from space and people give scramblers and iPads. Children rarely have less than 20 stuffed toys in the house.

    Loads of us end up spending more on education. Bachelors are ten a penny, so we are pressured to spend more on masters, h dips, professional exams, safepass, certificates, just to stay current. previous generations didn’t do that.

    You could try to drop all that extra contemporary stuff to maintain from your life, bring it back to the lifestyle your parents had in the 70’s and 80’s, and see how fast you can save for a house. But it’s pretty obligatory to have a mobile phone and an internet connection these days, and a lot more besides.

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    Mute Vocal Outrage
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    Dec 17th 2018, 9:12 AM

    I would implore the author to take some form of writing class, and possibly one on logical thinking. He claims his piece is about the squeezed middle, yet focusses his analysis on the low and high earners, thus missing the demographic he claims to analyse. The only mention of middle income earners is somehow that the lower paid are subsidising them through lower costs, yet neglects the quite obvious observation that such a model subsidises the entire economy, not just the middle.

    I would implore the journal to require even a basic level of journalistic effort before publishing, your readers expect it, and I would hope your advertisers demand it

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    Mute Matt Donovan
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    Dec 17th 2018, 10:36 AM

    @Vocal Outrage: Well said.

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    Mute Chin Feeyin
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    Dec 17th 2018, 8:26 AM

    I think the writer should obtain a bit more work experience before they write a piece like this.

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    Mute Gulliver Foyle
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    Dec 17th 2018, 7:26 AM

    no numbers or statistics about how many people are in any classification, i.e. if the sample childcare worker is part of a squeezed middle family unit, or share resources with others to actually thrive on the additional €1800/month it generates. it’s basically an article with a vacuous hypothesis, and no supporting evidence apart from the fact that it fails (the middle is the majority, and low paid and seasonal workers are actually surviving in society without any mass poverty).

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    Mute Brian Conway
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    Dec 17th 2018, 4:57 PM

    @Gulliver Foyle: there is mass poverty. Look at the statistics. It’s frankly sickening. Sad to the likes of you pretend it doesn’t exist. Living standards have been decimated in this state. It’s a fact. Except of course for the corrupt criminals who caused the crisis and who’s policies perpetuate it

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    Mute Dan
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    Dec 17th 2018, 7:30 AM

    All great but id just like to pay my tax and then be able to get a guard or doc when I need one. Had to experience A&E recently and what is going on in our health system is a disgrace. You could die waiting for a doc and/or bankrupt yourself trying to get answers.

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    Mute
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    Dec 17th 2018, 7:30 AM

    I do seriously hope that this contributor has a better grasp of his chosen subject, his grasp of economics and money is fragile. Low earners are low paid because they work in a low margin business where wage cost control is critical. Investing the income taxes and other taxes paid by people earning €35,000/40,000 plus per annum in a broken healthcare system or social housing is a facile argument. We create investment in housing, consumption and savings by reducing the tax burden on those people thereby increasing the flow of money in the economy. I do agree that the minimum wage should be increased but an extra €1.00 per hour will not benefit the economy to the same extent as €1.00 per hour in reduced income tax for marginal rate taxpayers.

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    Mute Brian Conway
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    Dec 17th 2018, 5:00 PM

    @: reduce tax by €1 per hour. What are you waffling about?

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    Mute Brian Mc
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    Dec 17th 2018, 9:19 AM

    Aspirational piece with little specifics. For instance in health care, people who do not qualify for a medical card and yet cannot afford health insurance “the squeezed middle” are at an appalling disadvantage. No access to rapid ultrasound diagnostics, no access to Vacc dressings in community, not to mention cost of medications, GP visits etc It is truly a three tier system, and for many in Ireland they belong to the middle tier which struggle to contribute to our society as hard working citizens for little reward

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    Mute Pj Windgap
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    Dec 17th 2018, 7:07 AM

    What popcorn should I eat when I come back to read the comments later?

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    Mute Gav Brosnan
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    Dec 17th 2018, 7:19 AM

    @Pj Windgap: buckle in, we’re in for a show down.

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    Mute Darren McCormack
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    Dec 17th 2018, 7:20 AM

    @Pj Windgap: Old fashioned salted popcorn with a drizzle of butter.

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    Mute Owen Ball
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    Dec 17th 2018, 9:51 AM

    Is it bring your kid to work day at the Journal?

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    Mute Rathminder
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    Dec 17th 2018, 7:47 AM

    Capitalism thrives on low income workers. There is no equity when constant growth is the goal. In a “fair” system, low income workers would receive some subsidy to be able to meet an adequate standard of living. Cue the screaming of the higher income brackets. The reality is that lower incomes, under thirty thousand euros, are the norm for the country. This is why social housing is a necessity. Those of us who are above the norm seem to want to punish those who did not have the advantages for which we’ve worked.

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    Mute Lena Madden
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    Dec 17th 2018, 11:35 AM

    Both myself and my husband could be classified as a squeezed middle. We work and study non stop and yet have very little, slightly above the low income because we pay all possible taxes and get no tax breaks or other benefits as low incomes get… I guess the author is just one of those blabbers without any knowledge in the area.

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    Mute Frankie Mangan
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    Dec 21st 2018, 1:24 PM

    @Lena Madden: you and your Husband seem like good people. I’m of to Lanzo for the Chrimbo and them diggers better not have cut me off the dole when I get back

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    Mute hughsheehy
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    Dec 17th 2018, 10:21 AM

    Can I get paid for writing tripe like this? Where do I apply? I could use some extra income.

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    Mute Ciaran Whyte
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    Dec 17th 2018, 8:55 AM

    Having a squeezed middle is not mutually exclusive from an underpaid lower class. Arguing the plight of one, doesn’t invalidate the other. Some points you make are fair and valid, but the fundamental argument you make is utter tripe

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    Mute Adrian
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    Dec 17th 2018, 10:28 AM

    Its no myth. It boils down to how much money this group of people have left after paying taxes, and its very little. And the squeezed middle is a different group to the high earners.

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    Mute Greg Blake
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    Dec 17th 2018, 9:29 AM

    Did somebody actually give this guy a degree, they must be passing them out like nightclub flyers in Ibiza.
    Squeezed middle is more than a buzzword. The ‘living’ end of the market (incl tax) is really much more simple and cruel, it is operates like this.
    It extracts from labour at its optimum at all times. It always tries to stay ahead of average wages, and the various strands are in competition. Any broad wage hike will always be immediately soaked up by a cost of living or tax increase. That’s a constant squeeze. Some things like housing get a jump ahead of other markets get to take a bit less. The overall take is limited to what the average worker can afford or it becomes a flat market. That puts the ‘squeeze’ right on the ‘middle’, never on the high earner. Clown!

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    Mute Greg Blake
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    Dec 17th 2018, 9:45 AM

    @Greg Blake: I also think Kevin Slater above has hit a big nail on the head. The adjustment to our current style of market economy, through deliberate individualization changes in taxation and market regulation, has been the biggest uncounted inflation of all time.
    It used to take one average working week by one average person to sustain one average family. Now it takes two to do the same, that’s a simple fact, the average (aka middle) couple has been ‘squeezed’ for DOUBLE the labour input just to stand still. That there son is a ‘squeezed middle’. Hereth endeth the lesson.

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    Mute damien ryan
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    Dec 17th 2018, 8:33 AM

    A lot of crap is written here to fill the page but this surpassed the lot.

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    Mute sVRCsaSg
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    Dec 17th 2018, 9:18 AM

    You say low income earners subsidise retail buy working for less and that this is a benefit to high income earners (despite this article proporting to be about middle income earners). Yet taxes subside those in retail employment. Therefore taxpayers save with one hand (buying a good or service which would be debatable as to how much of this cost is passed to the customers) and lose money with the other (assistance given to those in this employment). Therefore its not the taxpayer who’s getting something for their taxes it’s the business owner who’s getting cheaper employees subsidised by the taxpayer.

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    Mute Chris OB
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    Dec 17th 2018, 10:55 AM

    People need to look at the wealthy 90% of the wealth is controlled by very few who probably evade tax in the country. The distribution of wealth is and always will be the issue until its addressed. The squeezed middle are also the ones who can force the issue but tend to be confortable enough to accept what the politicians ( wealthy) spoon feed them through policies which are designed to support themselves and throw a few scraps here and there.

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    Mute Eden McLaughlin
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    Dec 17th 2018, 1:32 PM

    I find the type of criticism on this piece to be more than a little perplexing. The main argument is that he doesn’t know what he is talking about because he does not have a degree in economics. (I’m guessing few of those making the criticism do either) As someone with a degree in economics I don’t really have any major issue with some of the assumptions made in this article. His frame of reference is different to what you would expect in a standard economics textbook but the idea that low income workers are subsidising the market isn’t completely insane and I’m sure there is plenty of literature out there to support it. Most of the comments decreeing a lack of concrete data immediately give a vague anecdotal diagnosis of the issue like, ‘Markets are a scapegoat’ or ‘It’s supply and demand’ or the one what annoyed me the most, ‘the author should get some more work experience’. If anything, the comments show that this issue is complicated. More complicated than most of us, degrees in economics or not, can fully grasp and I don’t think anything that challenges our perceptions of our society should be as immediately or as flippantly dismissed as it has been.

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    Mute Zmeevo Libe
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    Dec 17th 2018, 4:59 PM

    @Eden McLaughlin: There is a difference between “the market’ and “the squeezed middle”, and it is a bit rich (pun intended) on the author to claim that the exploitation of the poor enriches the people on middle incomes.

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    Mute izotope
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    Dec 17th 2018, 11:19 AM

    If you earn over 34k you’re in the top 1 percent of world income earnings. The other 99% must look at us in astonishment.

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    Mute David Daly
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    Dec 17th 2018, 2:08 PM

    @izotope: top 1%? Genuinely surprised

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    Mute Chris Murphy
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    Dec 17th 2018, 10:28 AM

    In trying to over intellectualise this piece the author has lost his way.

    “High earners benefit from an economy that, for complex reasons, places a higher value on certain occupations over others. And they qualify for the subsidised prices in the food, retail and service industries where low-income workers are employed.”

    The supposed “complex reasons” could not be more simple, it is called supply and demand.

    Pseudo intellectual rubbish!

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    Mute Zmeevo Libe
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    Dec 17th 2018, 11:15 AM

    The elefant in the article are the rich. And by this I don’t mean the “high earners”, I mean rich enough to avoid paying high taxes. Most commenters guess the writer is too young to know better, but my guess is that his intention is to pitch the poor against the middle, thus sheltering the common class enemy.

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    Mute wacker macker
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    Dec 17th 2018, 9:13 AM

    All smoke and mirrors by a government lackey

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    Mute Margaret Lees
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    Dec 17th 2018, 4:21 PM

    Is he talking about the squeezed middle or high income earners? How did this article get passed quality control?

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    Mute Margaret Lees
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    Dec 17th 2018, 4:25 PM

    @Margaret Lees: when he was copying and pasting the contents for his article from various websites he mixed up two completely different ecomonic classes and roled them into one, squeezed middle and high income

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    Mute Jonathan Eastwood
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    Dec 17th 2018, 9:14 AM

    “For very complex reasons” we value certain occupations more? What utter nonsense as is this entire article! Generally this type of article involves some facts and figures, where are yours? It is terrible how little some jobs pay but then you see someone getting paid for this drivel….

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    Mute Greg Blake
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    Dec 17th 2018, 10:19 AM

    @Jonathan Eastwood: I’ve a figure for this article… 0/10.

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    Mute Kath Noonan
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    Dec 17th 2018, 9:51 AM

    What wage nowadays is middle?? Cost of living gone so high, most employed people are either wealthy or scraping by.

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    Mute HR Guru
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    Dec 17th 2018, 4:57 PM

    Not your proudest hour Journal. Fair dues to the chap for having made the effort to pull together a treatise and finding someone to publish. The actual content was really poor , however, and screams of no insight or knowledge of the the real world with all the hallmarks of a one sided hipsteromics echo chamber. Also with the overuse of the ” Citizens” language and the selection of “facts” contained within the piece I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a certain bias in there concious or otherwise.

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    Mute MickN
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    Dec 17th 2018, 2:26 PM

    So those on 20k who cant meet their basic bills should rest assured they help those earning more, nice…

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    Mute damien ryan
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    Dec 17th 2018, 8:34 AM

    Absolute rubbish

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    Mute Maunie Cregan
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    Dec 17th 2018, 7:16 PM

    More communist baloney anti paying class propaganda from the lefty journal

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    Mute William Kelly
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    Dec 17th 2018, 9:02 AM

    Is there a political combination in the country to apply the logic of this analysis?
    As it implies, any reduction in top rate taxation , which is justifiable at the margin just above the base rate, should be directly balanced by an equivalent increase in the legal minimum wage, ie a top and bottom adjustment.
    The crèche costs, the takeaway coffee, the janitorial & other service costs would increase, but the HAP & state income supplements would decrease as lower paid workers become self sufficient & tax payers in their own right.
    Since many of the higher value enterprises yield proportionately lower taxation yields as well as the higher incomes, eg the multinational & offshoring element, than smaller local enterprises, this rebalancing of incomes & pricing could also impact corporate tax.

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    Mute Airblazer
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    Dec 17th 2018, 2:05 PM

    Pffftt…a graduate. What a grade A moron.
    They can barely wipe their ass out of college and we have a young gobshyte lecturing about economics. The journal is a complete joke.

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    Mute Brian Conway
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    Dec 17th 2018, 5:04 PM

    @Airblazer: most jobs on offer in this kip are jobs that require less knowledge then it takes to wipe your arse. The rebuttals here lack everything they claim is missing from the article

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    Mute Cillian Yeates
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    Dec 17th 2018, 4:08 PM

    Ah perfect! I was about to leg it to the supermarket to pick up some bogroll, but I can just print this out and use it to wipe my arse instead

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    Mute Pauline Gallagher
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    Dec 18th 2018, 11:46 PM

    Things are not right and fair when you need to be earning a way above average wage to afford to live alone if you dont have a partner, and be financially independent. Im not even talking about a fairly comfortable lifestyle with disposable income for social pursuits. A single woman with no children cant barely afford even the most basic lifestyle in her own home, rental or bought, without being on a wage of a least 40 grand a year, maybe 45. And before i hear the smug ‘well go to university and work for it’. I have an honors degree, i did courses to better myself, and i still cant make it, years later.

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    Mute Michael O'Neill
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    Dec 19th 2018, 10:18 AM

    “It is incorrect to say that those earning high incomes are squeezed, pay for everything and qualify for nothing. It cannot logically be claimed that they are more squeezed financially than people earning less than them.”

    That statement is correct. Nobody is saying that those earning high incomes are squeezed. So what’s the point of that paragraph. The remainder of the article talks about high earners as if they’re the squeezed middle.

    The middle section talks about creche workers. I agree that they should get paid more. I agree that the government should be helping them more. The point of that section seems to be that it’s the fault of higher earners that creche workers don’t get paid well. It’s not. It’s the usual tinkering of our government putting in regulations all over the place and making the service expensive without any thought to the people that have to pay for it.

    Maybe it’s time to vet the contributors to the Journal and get people with a bit more experience than writing a blog.

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