The FT reports that:
The very rich have grown richer at double the pace of most Britons under Labour and their incomes may have accelerated further in recent years on the back of a rising stock market, research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows.
As they showed, the income of the very richest person rose on average by 4 per cent above inflation every year between 1996-97 and 2004-05. That compared with growth of about 2 per cent for those on middle incomes.
There is some other sobering data.
To be in the top 0.1 per cent of earners you now need to earn £350,000 a year. 47,000 had incomes of that level.
£100,000 a year puts someone in the top 1 per cent of earners, while £35,000 puts one among the nation's top 10 per cent.
That's how skewed our economy is.
But there's another fact. When I tell those who earn £100,000 a year that they are in the top 1% they are incredulous: how do the rest of the world live, they say? We're not well off, is their opinion. Which is as worrying.
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OK… call me foolish. But how could someone earning £100,000 a year think they’re not well off? What on earth do they spend it on?
I earn less than half that and consider myself very comfortably off.
But I guess it’s all about what you’ve been used to. Given I grew up in a cottage where the only heating came from an ancient woodburning stove and almost the only meat we had was pigeons and pheasants my dad shot, being able to afford a centrally heated flat and to eat what I like seems riches to me.
M
M
Agreed, entirely.
But I also recall the client (now dead) who earned more than £300,000 a year and sat in my office and said ‘But Richard, I don’t think you understand how hard it is to make ends meet’.
He was right. I didn’t.
I thought he was a fool.
Richard
The reason someone earning/making a lot of money still struggles to make ends meet is because they spend what they earn, but they are not a fool Richard, that is an unfair remark to make.
Think about it, you make £300,000pa you have a big house, big car, several holidays in exotic locations, meals out several times a week at the best restaurants in the area, £1,000 suits, the list goes on, the result they struggle to make ends meet even on £300,000 per year, which is not the same as struggling to make ends meet when you struggle to put food on the table or heat your home.
I find the results scary, that £35,000 a year puts you in the top 10 percent of earners in a country that has house prices with an average of .£190,000!
No surprise though, as a professional adviser having seen what Brown has done to the UK, shame, but no surprise!
Jason
I disagree. If you can’t make ends meet on £350,000 because you cannot control the desire for best restaurants and so on you are a fool.
But I agree with you on house prices. But why blame Brown? It would have been worse if the Tories had been in power. They try to make the rich richer, Brown just does it.
Richard
I have to say I agree with Richard. If someone earning £350,000 can’t make ends meet, something is very wrong.
£1,000 suits? Meals in top restaurants? Several holidays a year in exotic locations? Expensive luxuries, not necessities. Jason, I’m sorry but your client could manage with £500 – or £100 – suits, eating at a nice but not top restaurant and going to France!
One businessman I knew complained that he couldn’t make ends meet. He only had 2 children but drove a huge Chelsea tractor. My immediate response was “Get rid of that monster and buy a Ford Mondeo!”
My parents used to cart up to 5 of us about in a Renault 4!!
M
Richard, I am afraid we will not agree on this, but someone who earns a large amount of money and spends it on a lavish lifestyle really is no fool, everyone tends to live according to their income and as such omst would claim its hard to make ends meet, however to earn a large amount of money and spend even more on a lavish lifestyle then indeed such a person would be a fool.
Also, you can?t say it would have been worse under the Tories, that involves guess work and I for one do not know whether it would or wouldn?t, all I can say is Brown and Co will not have had a positive impact on the UK for the longer term, higher than ever taxes, social breakdown, worsening NHS, ever increasing black hole (and that?s after the raid on pensions in the early days). I guess we will at least get the chance to see how history writes up the legacy of Brown, and Blair for that matter.
Think back Richard to before Maggie T. got in with the Tories, did anyone have any money in their pockets under Labour?
Emily, at no point did I make reference to this being a client of mine, I was merely making a posting based on the amounts used by Richard, please read the reply again.
Jason
Let’s be objective here. Taxes are lower in most cases than under the Tories. Social breakdown is the fault of the market, not government. The NHS is better – more money, more doctors, more operations, shorter waiting lists, more demand (that’s the only bug bear). The pension black hole had gone again by end 2007 – it had nothing to do with ACT and all to do with the market. These are facts
Brown and Blair made many, many mistakes. But not what you are listing.
And on fools – I think Emily and I will be sticking to our guns.
Sorry to disagree, but I feel I must.
Richard
I beg your pardon, Jason, I did make a mistake in saying the person in question was a client. My apologies.
However my point remains – whether or not this person was a client of yours, such a lavish lifestyle is, in my opinion, not necessary.
As Richard says, let’s agree to disagree on this one.
M
It’s all relative. If you went to independent school and want your children to do the same then for our five that’s 5 x £10k for a start out of taxed income. Then add on a London mortgage and then assuming both parents work take half the cost of a nanny’s wage off each wage if you have under 5s and you can see why some find it hard to manage if they choose to live beyond their means.
But the point is, all of those are choices.
Choices you should only make if they can be afforded.