If you've ever wondered about the state we're in, it's New Mexico. Forget Boston and Berlin, think Albuquerque, writes Fintan O'Toole.
A Swedish think-tank called Timbro recently analysed how the wealth of western European countries compares with that of the United States and its individual components. It found that the only EU country which could conceivably catch up with US levels of Gross Domestic Product per head of population is Ireland. If the US economy had stagnated since 2000, it claims, Ireland would match its per capita GDP next year. As it is, we would be the 12th poorest state in the Union, just ahead of Florida and just behind New Mexico.
The people who compiled these figures did so for a purpose, of course. As a free-market think-tank, they wanted to make the point that the EU, with its relatively high taxes and high levels of social protection, is being overshadowed economically by the might of America. But they also did us a favour by putting down some concrete markers against which we can map our collective fantasies.
Ever since our American uncles and aunts started to send home pictures of their houses, fridges and cars, ever since we started to watch sitcoms set in a US suburban utopia, we've been haunted by the American Dream. At some deep level, we've wanted to be like them.
And now, it seems, we're close to that goal. The boom of the past decade has turned us into an American state. Not, admittedly the very rich ones like Delaware, Connecticut and Massachusetts, but not the poorest redneck ones like Mississippi and West Virginia either. With just a tiny bit of progress, we'll be New Mexico. Which, since we already have the cowboys, isn't all that bad.
When it comes down to it, this is what the last decade or so has been about. The half-articulated economic agenda has been to make us at least a medium-wattage star on the Stars and Stripes. The low taxes for the rich; the deliberately engineered inequalities which, as Michael McDowell has finally told us, are the engine of economic progress; the gradual substitution of the market for public provision, of consumers for citizens - all of this is about making our American Dream a reality. And now that we're within touching distance of being New Mexico, let's ask what it's like.
Well, if you're rich, it's very nice indeed. The tax system is carefully calibrated to make sure you keep hold of your money. The richest New Mexicans - with average incomes of $610,900 - pay only 6.3 per cent of their income in state and local taxes. Middle-income taxpayers in New Mexico - those earning between $23,000 and $36,000 - pay 10.4 per cent of their income in state and local taxes, or 1½ times the share the rich pay. The poorest New Mexico families earning less than $13,000 pay 12.1 per cent of their income in state and local taxes, which is almost twice the rate the richest New Mexicans pay.
Fortunately, though, there are plenty of poor New Mexicans to bear this burden. The household poverty rate - at 19 per cent - is very high. An estimated 20 per cent of new mothers in New Mexico are at or below the poverty line and qualify for food stamps and programmes like Temporary Aid to Needy Families. Experts say the number is probably higher because not all women take advantage of such assistance.
Nearly half - 46 per cent - of New Mexico's American Indian population and 27.8 per cent of its Hispanic population are at or below the poverty level. Approximately 132,000 children - more than 25 per cent of the state's kids - live at or near the poverty line. Nearly 6 per cent of homes have no phones and 14,228 of them lack complete plumbing.
Slightly more than 15 per cent of New Mexico households suffer from so-called food insecurity - limited or uncertain access to enough safe, nutritious food for an active and healthy life. Some 46 per cent (114,542) of families with children are defined as low-income. Most of these are, by the way, working people. Just 17 per cent of low-income families with children have no employed parents.
These levels of poverty and inequality are what we are supposed to aspire to. And we've done a pretty decent job of getting close to them. The UN Human Development Report 2003, which Bertie Ahern launched in Dublin, last year ranked 17 selected OECD countries for poverty and inequality. The US was first but we were a close second. With another little push, we can make it all the way. We can get to the point where fabulous wealth sits alongside a large impoverished minority and half the families with children struggle on low incomes. We can be New Mexico.
Already, indeed, we've got the fabulous wealth. Another recent study, done by Cap Gemini and Merrill Lynch, contains a remarkable statistic. It tells us that 15,000 individuals in Ireland - less than half of 1 per cent of the population - have a combined wealth of €43.05 billion. To put that in perspective, it's slightly more money than the State takes in every year from all taxes and duties. This is serious money even by American standards. With just a little more effort, we can generate, again even by American standards, serious inequalities.