Increasing inequality in the UK

Nice post on trends in increasing inequality from the ripped off Brtains blog

  • The top 0.1 per cent of earners will take home 10 per cent of national income by 2025
  • They will take home 14 per cent by 2030 on the present trajectory.
  • FTSE 100 bosses are paid 145 times the average wage
  • On current trends, this would rise to 214 times by 2020**
  • Corporate leaders have seen their pay quadruple in the past 10 years, while average earnings increased at just 0.1 per cent a year.

**FYI – I knocked up this graph to show you what 214* more than looks like – it looks insulting (based on 2009 figures – 2020 projections)

 

The public is angry about the yawning gap that has opened up between rich and poor. In an ICM poll for the commission, 72 per cent of those questioned felt that high pay made Britain grossly unequal.

Yet 73 per cent said they had no faith in business or government to tackle excessive pay, and two pieces of evidence support this –

Firstly, the decoupling between pay and company performance – share prices have dropped.

Secondly, although most of the super rich’s returns come from sources other than wages – Osborne’s commitment to scrapping the top rate of income tax also shows how he’s committed to allowing wealth to drift upwards.

Given the government’s unwillingness to act and given the debilitating effects of inequality on a country’s well- being (see the spirit level) – some might argue that UK citizens at this point in history now have the moral right, if not the moral duty, to forcibly take, or failing this, destroy, the wealth of the richest 0.1% of our country. What dyou think?

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