A detailed and startling analysis of how unequal Britain has become offers a snapshot of an increasingly divided nation where the richest 10% of the population are more than 100 times as wealthy as the poorest 10% of society.
Let's be blunt: that's unsustainable. This is a recipe for social breakdown.
I don't want that.
It's why I demand change.
Part of that change will reduce the monetary wealth of the richest. It has to.
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Richard,
I could accept that there is a potentially serious social problem if the better offs’ wealth and income keep growing in absolute terms, while the worse offs’ wealth and income decrease in absolute terms as well.
Why would rising inequalities matter as long as all deciles on the wealth and income distribution curve get better off over time? If everyone see their conditions improve, even though not at the same rate, what is the problem? Is it just a matter of envy among the less well-off?
eg
And to what degree has that inequality has been accentuated over New Labour’s period of power? The former party of the common working man?
”Part of that change will reduce the monetary wealth of the richest. It has to”
Why does it have to ? What about economic growth coupled with policies to re-balance that inequality? Like it or not , it is the wealthy and ‘keen to be wealthy’ entrepreneurial types that will provide the engine of growth that, coupled with enlightened social policies from a pragmatic centre-right Tory party could start to mend a broken UK.
Eugene
Why does it have to? Go back to the article about the hamster!
@eugene
If you have not worked out that w live in a fintie world where growth is no longer possible in the way you look for it then you are clearly part of the problem, not part of the solution
More equal societies are happier societies – beyond doubt
Without growth this requires redistribution
Now
More equal societies are happier societies – beyond doubt
Richard
Happiness is difficult enough to define and compare at the level of individuals. It is surely even more difficult at the level of entire societies. So I believe your statement is open to significant and sensible challenges.
Besides which, an overwhelming majority of Americans consider themselves happy and believe their country the best place to live in the world.
Yet I would assume that the (far-) left would argue that the US is not an example of equal society.
Edouard
a) Please read the academic literature on this issue – from places like Cambridge University
b) If you aren’t aware of it classical economics assumes we do know what happiness is – utility is a proxy for it
c) Any purely objective person is very well aware that the USA is a very unequal society. Please read Ricahrd Wilkinson and Kate Pickett – The Spirit Level
d) Those with concern for their fellow travellers in life are not far left – we’re empathic human beings. Stop the absurd rhetoric which shows you to belong to the extremes
Richard,
I agree that the United States is not a very equal society in terms of wealth and income distribution.
These inequalities do not seem however to make Americans unhappy; in fact, an overwhelming majority believe that the United States are the best country in the world to live in, and very few would trade their citizenship for that of, say, Sweden.
Americans will continue to be be a very happy society for as long as they perceive that there is relative equality of opportunities.
@Edouard (London Expat)
Not what the evidence reveals at all
Talk to people outside your own social group
Your eyes may be opened
Maybe reading evidence might help you too
Evidence free rhetoric is really not very clever
check this, pages 2 and 25 among others.
http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com/pdf/AP-GfK_Poll_Release_1_Topline_12.15.09.pdf
Almost 80% of Americans (as per this poll) are happy, and over 80% are optimistic for themselves and their families. Over 70% are optimistic for the country. All this as the country is struggling to recover from the deepest slump since the Depression.
This is evidence.
I wonder what the British would say if asked the same question.
@Richard Murphy
So are you saying utility is a proxy for happiness? Even though you do not support classical economics?
@Edouard (London Expat)
PR is not research
@Peter
I think you’re really quite confused
Classical and neo-classical / neo-conservative are really not the same thing at all