Widening gap between rich and poor.

[Robin-H]

The Gini coefficient (for net income) shot up from about 0.25 in the late 1970s to 0.34 in the late 1980s, and has hovered between 0.33 and 0.36 ever since. See this nice little summary, which also discusses some of the possible reasons, as well as some alternative ways of measuring inequality, like the ratio of incomes at different percentiles.

 

Wealth inequality is probably even more significant in the long term, and is definitely much more marked. It's even more difficult to measure, for various reasons, but a probably conservative estimate puts its Gini coefficient at 0.64.

 

Yes - the link (and the graph therein) I provided showed that quite clearly. To clarify, I'm not trying to argue that inequality didn't rise markedly during the 1980s

 

That information from Jonathan Cribb at the Institute for Fiscal Studies is interesting.

[TORONTONY]

The scary thing is though, primitivisti's post pretty much nails it.

 

Ha ha ,yes I agree with all he said, I was just trying to lighten it up, Basil Fawlty style lol

[ez8004]

Typical for failures to be making excuses.

 

Get a decent education and work hard. Problem solved.

[El Cid]

Wealth inequality is probably even more significant in the long term, and is definitely much more marked. It's even more difficult to measure, for various reasons, but a probably conservative estimate puts its Gini coefficient at 0.64.

 

The wealth of those at the top, will have increased because companies are now much larger and international, the bosses will be responsible for thousands of workers, so their pay will reflect that.

[max]

There's an interesting and thought provoking article about rentiers here: No, wealth isn't created at the top, it's merely devoured there.

A quote:

 

Think back a minute to the definition of a rentier: someone who uses their control over something that already exists in order to increase their own wealth. The feudal lord of medieval times did that by building a tollgate along a road and making everybody who passed by pay. Today’s tech giants are doing basically the same thing, but transposed to the digital highway. Using technology funded by taxpayers, they build tollgates between you and other people’s free content and all the while pay almost no tax on their earnings.

[Cyclone]

The wealth of those at the top, will have increased because companies are now much larger and international, the bosses will be responsible for thousands of workers, so their pay will reflect that.

 

Are you confusing income and wealth? The income of senior managers might arguably have increased because companies are larger. But honestly, that's a poor argument IMO. And income doesn't equate directly to wealth anyway.

 

---------- Post added 01-04-2017 at 23:32 ----------

 

There's an interesting and thought provoking article about rentiers here: No, wealth isn't created at the top, it's merely devoured there.

A quote:

 

What free content do you have to pay to access?

 

---------- Post added 01-04-2017 at 23:33 ----------

 

Typical for failures to be making excuses.

 

Get a decent education and work hard. Problem solved.

 

Whilst advising people to get a decent education, you could do some study of sociology 101 and inherited privilege.

 

---------- Post added 02-04-2017 at 12:04 ----------

 

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/apr/01/huge-tax-giveaway-for-rich-as-poor-are-hit-george-osborne-tax-benefit-budget-changes

 

Typical conservative policy, take from the poor to give to the rich.

[max]

What free content do you have to pay to access?

 

The link is to The Guardian, not sure what you mean about paying.

[Cyclone]

The link is to The Guardian, not sure what you mean about paying.

 

Me neither...

 

Did you say something somewhere about large corporations making money by charging people to access free content? Or did I imagine that?

 

---------- Post added 02-04-2017 at 12:42 ----------

 

Ah, it was in the bit you quoted

 

Today’s tech giants are doing basically the same thing, but transposed to the digital highway. Using technology funded by taxpayers, they build tollgates between you and other people’s free content

 

That's what my question was about.

[max]

That was a quote from the article, so if you read it there will be more detail.

 

I must have read several (possibly 10s of) thousand words, including half an Ian Rankin book, since I posted that link so you'll have to forgive me for not remembering exactly.