Aufgabe HT 3 · Abitur NRW Sozialwissenschaften GK · Haupttermin · bilingual Englisch 2022

Torsten Bell

Wishful thinking will not close Britain's inequality gaps

Optimism helps get us through tough times, and the Covid pandemic has had plenty of those. The recent reopening of the UK economy has provided grounds for optimism, with firms hiring at a swift pace. But wishful thinking can be dangerous and, when it comes to the economic legacy of this crisis, there's far too much around.

5 The coronavirus crisis has cost tens of thousands of lives, and everyone understands its negative health effects will last, from long Covid to an overstretched NHS 1. But on the economy, despite driving the deepest downturn for 300 years, people seem desperate to believe the pandemic will help the UK overcome some of its deep-rooted challenges. Apparently it will help us level up by closing regional gaps, give low-paid workers the respect – and pay – they deserve and save the local high street.

10 Much of this wishful thinking rests on futurology about home working. Everyone being able to work wherever they fancy will apparently mean people can earn London salaries while living in Lincolnshire. The shift of spending power, from where offices sit to where homes are concentrated, will drive a rebirth of the high street. Home working won't just spread the jobs out – it'll spread the Prets 2 out too.

15 What is becoming increasingly clear however is that hybrid working, with about three office days a week, will become the norm. That might mean some people commuting further, but more people living in Tunbridge Wells 3 won't do much for the north-south divide 4. And while home-working professionals have helped posh bakeries boom in some high-income neighbourhoods, Covid's real legacy has been the acceleration of the decline of high street retail with record numbers of store closures.

20

Indeed, the main way the pandemic has helped to narrow economic gaps is by levelling down rather than up. London's economy, reliant on commuting and foreign tourists, is recovering much slower than the rest of the country. By July it had recovered about only half the 6% of

25 employees lost during the crisis, while the north of England reported an increase.

The sheer scale of focus on working from home reflects the types of work done by economists and commentators pondering our future. But among low earners, home working is very rare indeed. While half of managers did some home working in 2020, that dropped to fewer than

30 one in 20 of those in so-called elementary occupations, which require minimal training.

And because most low-paid jobs can't be done remotely, low-paid workers have borne the brunt 5 of this crisis. As well as facing the highest health risks, they have been three times as likely as higher-paid workers to experience a labour market hit, such as losing their job or being furloughed 6.

35 What have low earners had in exchange for this highly unequal burden? Wishful thinking. At the start of the pandemic everyone recognised that it was low earners who kept our economy and health service running. They were clapped from our doorsteps and told greater dignity for such work would follow.

40 It hasn't. Low earners still have no minimum notice period for their shifts (more than one in three workers recently surveyed were given less than a week's notice of their work patterns) and no right to a contract reflecting the hours they actually work. Worse, the government recently decided not to extend sick pay to low earners – something it previously favoured.

45 We're now told that current hiring difficulties will suddenly deliver lots of bargaining power for low-paid workers, automatically leading to surging pay and better-quality work. But data from the jobs site Indeed shows that it's higher paid roles, in transport, manufacturing and construction that are seeing fast increases in advertised wages. […]

The Covid crisis has led to huge changes in how economic activity takes place. Some of those

50 will last; some will be beneficial. But they are not magic bullets targeted at the big economic challenges the UK faces. If we want some positive change to come from the pandemic we need to make, not wish for it, to happen. The pandemic has highlighted the inequalities

55 scarring Britain – but also shown this Conservative government that acting boldly can make a huge difference, as with furlough.

The insecurity at the bottom of our labour market can be tackled with new rights and proper enforcement to make them a reality. We can level up by keeping the £20 a week increase to universal credit 7 that one in three working-age families in "red wall" 8 constituencies rely on.

60 We can properly fund our further education colleges if we want to tackle disgraceful gaps in education.

Covid has made us poorer. It has widened wealth gaps and educational inequalities. Almost everything important we need to achieve as a nation has been made harder, not easier. So, put the wishful thinking aside. Silver linings to Covid won't solve our deep-seated economic problems. We have to.

Footnotes:

1 NHS: National Health Service

2 Pret: abbreviation for Pret a manger (prêt à manger is French for ready to eat) which is an international sandwich shop franchise chain based in the United Kingdom

3 Tunbridge Wells: wealthy suburb, 60 km southeast of London, with lots of commuters working in London

4 north-south divide: cultural, economic, and social differences between Northern and Southern England

5 to bear the brunt: to suffer the main part

6 furlough: During the pandemic, employers could agree to put some or all of their staff on temporary leave ('furlough'). This included 'flexible furlough', where employees worked some of their hours and were put on furlough for the hours they did not work.

7 universal credit: payment for people over 18 but under State Pension age who are on a low income or out of work. It includes support for the cost of housing, children and childcare, and financial support for people with disabilities, carers and people too ill to work.

8 red wall: The red wall is a term used in British politics to describe a set of constituencies in England and Wales – mainly in the Midlands, Northern England and North East Wales – which historically tended to support the Labour Party.

About the author:

Torsten Bell is the Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation, an independent British think tank established in 2005. Its stated aim is to improve the standard of living of low- and middle-income families.

Source: The Guardian, 26 August 2021

Aufgabenstellung (Teilaufgaben 2 und 3)

2. a)

Analyse the author's stance on social inequality in Great Britain.

[30 Punkte]

2. b)

Explain, with reference to two passages from the text, in what way the author addresses vertical inequalities.

[16 Punkte]

3.

Taking the author's position as your starting point, discuss whether Germany should increase public spending in order to reduce social inequality in view of the Covid crisis. Consider both the economic and the social perspective.

[30 Punkte]