A Place to Stand

       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?"

1	Namibia	70.7	2003

2	South Africa	65.0	2005

3	Lesotho	63.2	1995

4	Botswana	63.0	1993

5	Sierra Leone	62.9	1989

6	Central African Republic	61.3	1993

7	Bolivia	59.2	2006

8	Haiti	59.2	2001

9	Paraguay	56.8	2008

10	Brazil	56.7	2005

11	Bosnia and Herzegovina	56.2	2007

12	Panama	56.1	2003

13	Guatemala	55.1	2007

14	Chile	54.9	2003

15	Colombia	53.8	2005

16	Honduras	53.8	2003

17	Hong Kong	53.3	2007

18	El Salvador	52.4	2002

19	Papua New Guinea	50.9	1996

20	Zambia	50.8	2004

21	Niger	50.5	1995

22	Swaziland	50.4	2001

23	Gambia, The	50.2	1998

24	Zimbabwe	50.1	2006

25	Dominican Republic	49.9	2005

26	Peru	49.8	2005

27	Argentina	49.0	January-March 2007

28	Sri Lanka	49.0	2004

29	Venezuela	48.2	2003

30	Singapore	48.1	2008

31	Costa Rica	48.0	2008

32	Mexico	47.9	2006

33	Madagascar	47.5	2001

34	Mozambique	47.3	2002

35	Nepal	47.2	2008

36	China	47.0	2007

37	Rwanda	46.8	2000

38	Malaysia	46.1	2002

39	Ecuador	46.0	2006

40	Philippines	45.8	2006

41	Uganda	45.7	2002

42	Jamaica	45.5	2004

43	Uruguay	45.2	2006

44	United States	45.0	2007

45	Cameroon	44.6	2001

46	Cote d'Ivoire	44.6	2002

47	Iran	44.5	2006

48	Nigeria	43.7	2003

49	Turkey	43.6	2003

50	Guyana	43.2	1999

51	Nicaragua	43.1	2001

52	Cambodia	43.0	2007 est.

53	Kenya	42.5	2008 est.

54	Burundi	42.4	1998

55	Thailand	42.0	2002

56	Russia	41.5	September 2008

57	Senegal	41.3	2001

58	Georgia	40.8	2005

59	Turkmenistan	40.8	1998

60	Mali	40.1	2001

61	Morocco	40.0	2005 est.

62	Tunisia	40.0	2005 est.

63	Jordan	39.7	2007

64	Burkina Faso	39.5	2007

65	Ghana	39.4	2005-06

66	Indonesia	39.4	2005

67	Malawi	39.0	2004

68	Macedonia	39.0	2003

69	Mauritius	39.0	2006 est.

70	Mauritania	39.0	2000

71	Israel	38.6	2005

72	Portugal	38.5	2007

73	Guinea	38.1	2006

74	Japan	38.1	2002

75	Timor-Leste	38.0

76	Yemen	37.7	2005

77	Armenia	37.0	2006

78	Vietnam	37.0	2004

79	India	36.8	2004

80	Uzbekistan	36.8	2003

81	Azerbaijan	36.5	2001

82	Benin	36.5	2003

83	New Zealand	36.2	1997

84	Latvia	36.0	2005

85	Lithuania	36.0	2005

86	Algeria	35.3	1995

87	Poland	34.9	2005

88	Laos	34.6	2002

89	Tanzania	34.6	2000

90	Egypt	34.4	2001

91	Estonia	34.0	2008

92	United Kingdom	34.0	2005

93	Switzerland	33.7	2008

94	Bangladesh	33.2	2005

95	Moldova	33.2	2003

96	Greece	33.0	2005

97	Mongolia	32.8	2002

98	France	32.7	2008

99	Tajikistan	32.6	2006

100	Canada	32.1	2005

101	Ireland	32.0	2005

102	Spain	32.0	2005

103	Romania	32.0	2008

104	Italy	32.0	2006

105	Korea, South	31.3	2007

106	European Union	31.0	2005 est.

107	Ukraine	31.0	2006

108	Netherlands	30.9	2007

109	Bulgaria	30.7	2007

110	Pakistan	30.6	FY07/08

111	Australia	30.5	2006

112	Kazakhstan	30.4	2005

113	Kyrgyzstan	30.3	2003

114	Ethiopia	30.0	2000

115	Montenegro	30.0	2003

116	Serbia	30.0	2003

117	Finland	29.5	2007

118	Cyprus	29.0	2005

119	Croatia	29.0	2008

120	Belgium	28.0	2005

121	Hungary	28.0	2005

122	Belarus	27.9	2005

123	Germany	27.0	2006

124	Albania	26.7	2005

125	Austria	26.0	2007

126	Luxembourg	26.0	2005

127	Malta	26.0	2007

128	Slovakia	26.0	2005

129	Czech Republic	26.0	2005

130	Iceland	25.0	2005

131	Norway	25.0	2008

132	Denmark	24.0	2005

133	Slovenia	24.0	2005

134	Sweden	23.0	2005