Interesting article on wealth inequalities

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16545898

It aint that there's no dosh, it's just that we don't see any of it.

Almost as powerful a message as this:

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...8436275_177486166274_9269695_1867206313_n.jpg

 

I have a book called "The Spirit Level" sub titled "Why Equality is Beter for Everyone" published by Penguin.

It uses data from around the world and in unequal societies and concludes the follolwing:

People work longer hours
Higher death rates
Womens status is lower
Spending of foreign aid is lower
Increase use of illegal drugs
Higher infant mortality
Higher obesity in adults and children
Mathematics and Literacy scores are lower
Higher teenage birth rates
Higher murder rates
More people imprisoned
Lower social mobility
Heath and social problems are higher

The list goes on and on.

Nearly all this Countries problems are caused by Inequality.

 

I can highly recommend reading the work of this guy then (one of my lecturers at University): http://www.dannydorling.org/

Not just the absolute difference between certain sectors of society that matters, but the geographical variation in those changes.

At a global level, this website is great: http://www.worldmapper.org/

 

Oh look, the graph starts going up in 1979, I wonder what happened then?

 

But in fairness the graph doesnt exactly change direction in 97.

 

Oh absolutely. New Labour was all about accepting that Thatcherism and Reaganomics had wedded us to free market capitalism, which is the driver of inequality. They believed they could never be a natural party of government again unless they accepted neo-liberalism. They did try to bridge the gap between the two ideologies and to readdress the balance (eg minimum wage). They pumped millions in to regeneration of areas that had been decimated by years of under-investment under the Tories and suffered from the fall out of deindustrialisation, admittedly with mixed results.

 

I didn't suggest it would have done. It shows a change in attitude completely that started in 1997.

 

Ark: What would you say about the cult of 'managerialism' - which I think was one of the worst legacies of the Blair era?