Turkey is one of the two OECD countries which have achieved the most rapid decrease in income gap between the rich and the poor; yet, this has not resulted in an equally successful increase in Turkey’s life satisfaction score.

In the last 25 years, inequality in income distribution has decreased remarkably in two OECD countries, Turkey and Greece. By the way, Turkey is still among the bottom ranked countries, coming in at 30th among 36. . In relative terms, however, there has been a substantial improvement in income equality since 1985. The income gap between the top 10 percent and the bottom 10 percent has eased, especially in the last decade. In the mid-1990s, the income of the top 10 percent was 22 times that of the bottom 10 percent. By 2005, this had decreased to 17 times. Currently, the income of the top 10 percent is 14 times that of the bottom 10 percent. Still a large gap, obviously. In the case of Greece, the rate decreased from 10 times in the mid-1990s to 8.5 times by 2005. It is 7.4 times currently. True, Turkey has made progress in income equality, but Greece has progressed more. The income of the top 10 is 14 times that of the bottom 10 percent in Turkey and 7 times that of the bottom 10 percent in Greece. In the 1990s, it was 20 to 10. Greece was and is two times as equal as Turkey. Nothing seems to have changed. Turkey is doing well compared to its performance in the past, but everything is the same when you compare it with Greece.

Turkey is one of the two OECD countries which have achieved the most rapid decrease in income gap between the rich and the poor; yet, this has not resulted in an equally successful increase in Turkey’s life satisfaction score. Among 36 OECD countries, Turkey and Greece rank 33rd and 34th in life satisfaction, respectively. Greece is in a crisis. The Greeks are suffering from a record-high unemployment rate and it is not known when the crisis will end or in which direction the country will steer. But what’s the problem with the Turkish people? If we are living in a more equal country, why are we not more satisfied with our lives? Why is Turkey stuck at the bottom of the life satisfaction league?

I think five key factors are at play here. First, the list of our needs has grown longer with time. The reason for this lies in the second factor: the more Turkey becomes an indispensible part of the world, the more closely Turkish people follow what people elsewhere do and have. The better they get to know the world, they more items they add to their list of what they consider needs. As Turkey becomes an indispensible world country, it becomes impossible to assess it in relation to its past. Third, the list of needs changes in terms of not only the content of the consumption basket, but also the demand for fundamental rights and freedoms. Everyone learns about the norms of the rest of the world and wants to attain them as well. Fourth, the demand for new politics that materialized during the Gezi incident originated from this very dynamic as well: we elect the administrators to serve us, not to rule us. The economic transformation program initiated by Turgut Özal continues to change politics in Turkey. And this process is irreversible.

Before Özal’s time, we always compared Turkey to its past. We have got to learn that this has become senseless as Turkey has become part of the world. When I was born, my grandparents did not have a washing machine. It was a privilege to have a fixed-line telephone in your house. There were no TV broadcasts, not even in black-and-white. In fact, I was eight years old when I first saw a television. Back in the day when clothes were hand washed, doing the laundry took an entire day. After that, roller washing machines were introduced. Everyone had them in the early 1980s. Doing laundry with these machines took almost a day if not an entire day. I remember ours rolling from the bathroom to the doorway. Today, Turkey manufactures automatic washing machines, which are relatively more affordable compared to some decades ago. We live in a world of seven billion people. Hans Rossling said that only two billion own washing machines. The rest of the world has not met this magical technology yet. But they know that such a device exists. Now, tell me: can you stop those five billion people from dreaming about owning washing machines, in today’s world, where there are more cellular phones than toothbrushes? Each and every one in that five billion would vote for the candidate who could fulfill the washing machine dream, right? That’s the story.

Times are changing. So do the concepts of luxury and need. You cannot understand the zeitgeist if you cannot read these concepts correctly.

This commentary was published in Radikal daily on 29.11.2013