Showing posts with label inequality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label inequality. Show all posts
Inequality
Pressure on the government to help struggling Britons has intensified after a leading thinktank warned that falling living standards for the poor threatened the biggest rise in inequality since Margaret Thatcher was prime minister.
The Resolution Foundation said Theresa May would need to make good on her pledge to support “just about managing” households as it released a reportshowing that rising inflation and an end to recent strong jobs growth would hit the least well-off hardest.
Its warnings chime with other forecasts for a squeeze on family budgets on the back of sluggish wage growth, welfare cuts, rising global oil prices and the pound’s sharp fall since the Brexit vote. The drop in sterling has made imports more expensive and there are already signs that is being passed on to consumers, with inflation hitting its highest level for more than two years in December.
The Resolution Foundation’s study found that the current parliament would be the worst for living standards for the poorest half of households since comparable records began in the mid-1960s and the worst since the early years of Thatcher’s 1979-90 premiership for inequality.
Since its sharp increase in the early 1980s – a period of high unemployment, factory closures and a cut in the top rate of tax from 83% to 60% – inequality has broadly remained flat.
But the Resolution Foundation forecast that between 2015 and the next general election in 2020 incomes for the poorest half of households will fall by 2%
Inequality
8 billionaires own the same wealth as the poorest half of the world's population - does it matter?
Oxfam have updated their list and comparison of the
world's super-rich showing that the top 8 wealthiest people own the same
wealth as the poorest half of the world's population. You can see
their article here.
Interestingly, the Oxfam announcement has come under a little criticism about its relevance (no-one appears to be questioning the data) and I thought it would be interesting to ask students how they felt about the issue. Does it matter that we have a small amount of super-rich people if, on average, every human being is getting wealthier?
The criticisms of the Oxfam article can be found at a BBC link here.
Interestingly, the Oxfam announcement has come under a little criticism about its relevance (no-one appears to be questioning the data) and I thought it would be interesting to ask students how they felt about the issue. Does it matter that we have a small amount of super-rich people if, on average, every human being is getting wealthier?
The criticisms of the Oxfam article can be found at a BBC link here.
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