Dakkaron To see English speaking poverty at its finest, visit one or more of the following American cities: Camden NJ, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, Flint, Gary IN, East St. Louis, St. Louis, Memphis, New Orleans, Stockton/Visalia/Merced CA. Worse than the poverty is the violence and drug use. In these cities, the American Dream has turned into a great enduring Nightmare. Most of all visit Appalachian Kentucky, where many lily-white families subsist on $5K-10K/year. The only decent jobs were in coal mining, but the mines have closed because coal burning power plants pollute the air and emit a lot of CO2. When unemployment runs out after 1-2 years, all that is left is food stamps, Medicaid and living in an unheated mobile home.
There is a simple answer to this video, income inequality is due to the Lack of Financial education and London centric government investment, eg 51% of all transportation funding is spent in London.
@@tygonmaster Nothing is being done in the UK either, but at least it is a known issue rather than the US who continues to believe their fantasy of the "American Dream".
Another complete twat who thinks the US is going to do something about pay inequality. If Britain has pay inequality, in the US, unless you live in cloud cuckoo land, is even worse. And they don't have the minimum pay laws like we do, so what makes you think the US is the problem solver. You fucking twat
We have known for quite some time that income inequality is inefficient for the economy. The greatest problem is that the wealthy don't necessarily spend in the UK as they will invest abroad, buy property abroad or just save.
My family live outside of London and may be poorer but have a better quality of life. Rent and mortgage is London is choking us to death and we are just about keeping up
yh, its disgusting that the conservatives arent doing more to build houses and reduce the increase in housing prices. During covid they have lowered taxes on houses and therefore house prices and rents are increasing, which is really hurting businesses due to the higher rent. It seems so illogical but makes sense when you relise these guys are absurdly rich and just want to protect their and their friends property and wealth.
If people are to poor to live in London they should just move? I’ve never understood why the people who moan about the living prices in London don’t just move?
You make out that people who live in London or the south east are more well off. Most use the majority of their income on rent or mortgage repayments, meaning they are just about scrapping by each month. I have friends who live further north on salaries far less but have a much greater quality of life because they have more disposable income due to their cheap housing.
the idiot renters guarantee ever rising rents. a person will never even in theory crawl out of poverty without first stopping rising living costs for self = owning a home.
Well from everyone I’ve spoke to I know it’s anecdotal and looking at house prices they seem to get on the property ladder easily compared to south east. Even if your salary is ten/fifteen grand less, rent or mortgage costs can usually be half what they are compared to southern regions area depending. For example I live in Kent in a 1 bed terrace. My mortgage is £1250, add bills on that, not much left afterwards.
It’s a fair point, opportunity may be less. I still don’t see wages being much less for similar roles. Like I said maybe 15k. Anecdotal again but I knew a guy from Edinburgh who managed to get a mortgage whilst on an apprenticeship salary of 13k a year, the property was under 100 grand. That don’t happen further south.
G M My dad came to this country from Pakistan when he was a baby. He didn’t get a free house but rather got one that had an outside toilet. Migrants work so hard doing jobs in which most people don’t want to do. Migrants help this country a lot and make up a significant percentage of NHS workers. This country needs migrants.
When you talk about the extent of the inequalities, it would have been nice to see it compared to other countries. Otherwise you really don't get an idea what those numbers mean and how bad it is.
Yes. I got THAT comparison. There is little use for me to know where the UK is in the general ranking if I don't know how it translates to the specifics. I'd be really interested in how the graphic at 5:30 would look in other countries. Or the one at 4:10. For example: Austria and Denmark have very little income inequality according to the graph at 2:25. Does their equivalent of the 4:10 Diagram look the same percentage-wise within the top 10% with the difference being, that the top 10% are generally closer to the 9th part of the population, or is it, while also far over the 9th just more uniform within the highest 10% In other words: is the UK just especially bad in the extent of inequality, or is it also different in the way inequality manifests?
@@thecashier930 fair point. I would say this is a UA-cam video, so it'll only have very limited information in it. And looking into it, a real lack of citation, so I couldn't tell you where he got these figures from, how correct they are or where you could go for comparable information. Better citation appears to be needed.
@shlibber I was pointing out there was a graph that shows where the UK reportedly sits with inequalities. But OP wanted details on wealth distribution in other countries as you can see by their reply. Which is a fair point, the video is lacking in lots of areas but the overall point that the UK is an unequal place is certainly true - a train ride from Central London to most sea side towns will show you that. Really we should be asking "What can we do about it?"
It doesn't add up. If the cost of living where that expensive and only 20 % of the people earn an above average income, 80% of the people couldn't afford living there.
Property prices in London escalated when people/companies from afar started buying up property, our people have had to move out to suburban/country and that's put up prices there so locals cannot buy or rent,staying home with parents.
Yeah but look at what you GET in London. World famous museums, Broadway shows, vastly better entertainment and opportunity improving your quality of life.
G G, sorry but that is not accurate. Most EEA migrants come to the UK because they have the skills the UK workforce lacks, and thus need. It would take the UK many decades to restructure the education system in the UK to produce a workforce with more relevant skills for the British economy. More astonishing is the lack of political will to do so. Politicians rather fight over Brexit (or whatever is fashionable at the time) than fix the structural problems the UK economy sorely needs. Think why?
@Nspnspker Laughing stock,so why is the eu begging us for money instead of telling us No Deals,your people voted Leave,you don't need us ,you have 26 other countries to prop up your club.
@@billyosullivan4514 1) Poverty in the UK is OFF the charts - ref UN, JRF, CPAG, etc reports. 2) 'all time low' based on - AVERAGES &/or selected groups with NEW lower poverty criteria indicators. 3) 'not having a new car' 😶 Hundreds of thousands of (working) families no longer have a permanent home to live in. Thousands of bedridden elderly & disabled don't receive vital social care & end up in hospital or DEAD. Millions more (working) have to use food banks.
I heard a good saying the other day 'You know monopoly is an old game because there's a luxury tax, rich people can go to jail and you can own a house.'
an electronics engineer earns 20-30k gbp in the uk an aldi's employee earns 18k, a store manager's assistant earns 25-30k yeah, it's true....aldi's can pay more than becoming an electrical engineer
"gdp" means "gross domestic product" and doesn't refer to individual earners. but the good news is you don't need to know that to be an assistant manager.
Thats the problem when your economic relied heavily on the service sector which is normally clustured in one region and need very highly qualified personal
This was what happened before the great depression, imbalance in supply and demand. Don't know what the rich is hoarding their money for, can't take it to the grave.
Congratulations. You have find out that nationalism is for poor people. If you want to grow big, think global. If you want your country to be poor. Think national.
Define "wealth." That might sound like a stupid comment. But after I tracked down the method being used to figure wealth inequality in the US, it became obvious that the equation was skewed to maximize upper income level wealth and to minimize lower income wealth. For example (if I remember correctly), the stocks and bonds owned by Michael Bloomberg count toward his wealth, while the stocks and bonds in my 401k do not count toward my wealth. Also, a large part of upper income is based on real estate, and a very large part of the population live in apartments. And then there are the assumptions that are allowed to be assumed. For example, it's assumed that the rich are living in expensive homes, eating expensive food, and driving expensive cars (which they certainly are) while the poor are feeding their children cat food because it is all they can buy. But the wealth calculations don't include any government assistance monies (rent subsidies, food stamps, SNAP funds etc). I'm not saying I inequality doesn't exist or isn't a problem. I just wish that the discussion (in the US at least) were a little more truthful.
@@sifridbassoon And yet, for about every definition and methodology I've heard about (Gini index, wealth concentration, real estates, offshore accounts, cost of living, crime rate, subsidies level, etc...) the USA is often below par on nearly every one of them. Basically, they are the top in absolute numbers in a lot of things because a very small number of persons and/or corporation skew things sky high, messing up averages. When you divide those numbers in smaller parts (like for example, using states as "countries"), you unskew these extremely high statistics aberrations and realize that there is a lot of squalor and ineffeciencies in the USA at a lot of levels. It's just hidden behind the very few who have everything. It's mainly why I mostly (personnaly) use MEDIAN research as my baseline of understanding instead of AVERAGES (as well as other stats tools such as variances) in nearly every empirical studies I read.
This strikes me as a very arbitrary selection of countries, This is not Northern Europe. Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Noway are Northern Europe. Britain and France and arguable Belgium and The Netherlands as well as Spain and Portugal are Western Europe. Germany and Austria are central Europe. What you are looking at is a group of EU countries, excluding Eastern and Southern Europe. This strikes me as selective. Why is Spain not it? Why is Germany in? Is it possible that if we include all EU countries from the former "Western Block", adding portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece, that the narrative can no longer be supported? I am actually also very surprised the some areas of East Germany don't qualify among the poorest but I am not doubting the data in general. Secondly a mere comparison of income is rather problematic. And here is where Eurostat would have to do loads more work to make an actual staement. First of all to measure the actual buying power of an income you need to display it in PPP (purchasing power parities) Meaning adjusting what a € or a pound can actually buy you in your area. Now there is data for that for countries, but I am pretty sure that there is no PPP statistics for regions within a country. And that is the problem that make the whole statement about income equality very weak. Housing prices, for example, vary wildly between rich and poor regions and need to be accounted for. As well as a lot of other things. Thirdly I am pretty sure this data is looking at average income. Which is very misleading. London is a rich place because a relatively small portion of the population make relatively much money. Which massively boosts the average income, without many people participating in it. What really matters is the median income, the amount that 50% of the population earn either less or more than. Aka the income the majority of the population will be very close to. Unless data is provided - for all countries, in PPP, for the median income - your video is sadly close to pointless. It is still indicative aof a problem. And I agree with the message. But it's a pretty weak backup.
PPP, median - yes, those are serious issue. Nevertheless: "This strikes me as selective." - actually this part is more or less fine. For benchmark for a rich country you only pick other rich EU countries. Greece and Portugal are already below (in GDP per capita in PPP) quite a few new EU members.
Was thinking the same. "Northern europe" but then excludes Sweden for some reason. And we know southern Europe is buggered. Then uses EU13. Then uses OECD. If was a 14 year old's essay would say good that uses lots of sources. If was an 18 year old's would say reeks of selective bias.
East Germany is poor in comparison with the West but West Germany also is very wealthy so maybe East Germany isn't actually that bad but only looks like that because of the wealthy West ? I live in Berlin, there are several areas in the East which are very wealthy and extremly beautiful, very clean and charming and property in east germany is half the price as in the west. idk how that compares to some of the places in the UK tho.
@@LegendNinja41 The whole issue is a non-issue. Income inequality is not a bad thing in on itself. If you look the countries that have the richest people also have the best well off "Poor" people. As an example, you can take any African country and compare rich and poor in both locations and you will notice easily that Income inequality also results in higher standards of living for the poor. It's a basic concept really that people that are unfamiliar with economics seem to ignore. With all this in mind, how about stop focusing on statistics like income inequality that don't actually hold any real value or issue and instead focus on ones that do matter. Rich people are not the problem. Rich people getting richer is not a problem either. What is a problem is the restrictions imposed on both Rich and Poor by government regulations that restrict development and improvement and as such restrict financial mobility in combination with completely useless higher level of education in an age of free access to information.
Disposable income is just income post tax. You don't deduct rent or utilities when calculating disposable income. Everyone with a salary greater than 10k has that more than that much disposable income (due to the 12k tax free allowance)
That's because you believe the lie.."I'm paid fairly well"...or "I'm middle class now". Lol It's a lie...even slaves had a story to believe they are doing well and free. It's a scam you like believing to feel good about yourself, but it's still a lie.
Now that the general election has happened, this disparity will get worse when the cons force a no deal brexit. The irony is that the poorest voted for BJ.
Very good video, living in London and being part of the 10%, I didn't realize the situation was like that in the UK. And yes it's easier to optimise income tax when you start earning over £100k. I only pay £30-40k tax a year instead of the £60k I would with a normal salary.
@@bernarddebotte5902 when you get over 70k it's fiscally beneficial to open your own company and become a contractor instead. You then pay yourself minimum wages (£160 per week). Then you take the remaining as dividend. On top of that you declare every expenses you have (computer, phones, electricity, dinners, etc.) In order to lower your profits, and you do not pay tax on it (20% off everything). What you can do on top of that is to keep your earnings (dividend included) to the lowest 46k a year, and after a couple of years you close the company and pay only 10% of tax on everything. Ok there are even more tax optimisation than that when you earn more than I do, but this can lower your tax, and it's legal.
Could you describe a time in Britain when these numbers were a more desirable ratio between the classes, or if there are no figures that represent that balance a scheme that works in other countries currently? In the US we are actively having this discussion but no one has proposed how these things would be in a healthy economy.
You might wanna have this discussion about what your country seens ( from a foreign country ) to hate a lot : taxes. It's the 1st tool to redistribute the wealth of a country in most of healthy economy. So as the US work a lot about capitalisation, and you tends to get that low taxes ( i think you dont see it this way, but compared to any others develop country, you get that low taxes), that will be a good topic of discussion. Hope this help
In the US you need only look North, Canada has far lowed income inequality and far higher social mobility than the US. If you want the "American Dream" move north of 48. PS I disagree with Misterkint, taxes in the US aren't that low compared to other countries what is low is workers rights & protections. Unions are one of the few things that are consistently associated with slowing growth in income inequality. The destruction of unions by the US and the UK in the 70s-80s is a large part of their inequality issues. Another problem is often privatization of gov't services (gov'ts generally pay higher wages & more stable work often b/c of strong public sector unions). And a capstone is the CEO-game that has seen salaries for top people at all large organizations to explode.
4:13 how does this math even remotely make sense? You took the entire population of the UK and got 0.1%? that doesn't account for any variables at all like children, elderly people that don't work, unemployed, disabled people etc etc
If you’re taking a fraction of the population.... you take a fraction of the population. Assetless(or not) children are equally spread, Because they’re just population.
Fmentz Editz in theory that would be lovely, but that’s a really hard number to nail down, so any statistician will use total population, and using the total pop for all, makes the number comparable between countries.
@@MrCalls1 were not comparing across countries in this example. This is for calculating the top 0.1% of earners in the UK, and the stats/method in this video are just bad and not even remotely reflecting reality.
Never mind the disparity’s - what is it that people of the uk can do spread the money Arround , how spend money in places which are owned by local independent establishments rather than big corporate company’s..you have change people mind set first.......
This is interesting. It’s also sad. I grew up in an east London council estate. First generation immigrant even... came to the U.K. when I was 8 years old. My parents both worked but did awful menial jobs. I’m between 25 and 30 years old now, earn around £65k, and getting higher ever year. I own a small flat in a commuter town. I did it. Britain offers opportunities like no other. It’s amazing. It’s never puzzled why the native working classes seem to be such failures because I grew up amongst them - they basically don’t want to work hard or strive for more. It’s a deep, deep cultural issue. I’m not special, neither are my siblings who just like me have done really well. The only thing we had was parents who pushed us and prioritised our education and made sure we stayed out of trouble... this was severely lacking amongst our peers and it shows. It always frustrates me because the native working class Brits deserve better but they just have a culture of not striving above their station - maybe it’s centuries of class conditioning. I don’t know. My story is anecdotal obviously but it actually reflects a lot of the stories of a lot of immigrants and as far as I’m concerned the data shows the cultural problems of the U.K. which then manifest in the earnings gap, rather than any government policy or whatever else.
Another excellent, clear, informative video ... great work! On a related note, I remember reading that the value of privately owned property in London is worth 10 times more than all of the privately owned property of the rest of the UK.
@shlibber hey thanks for yr response! True property in London is v expensive compared to other EU regions, but €600m? I dont think there are many of those ... a tiny fraction of a percent of all privately owned real estate for a population of > 8m. My understanding is that the current average purchase price of a residential London property is around €4-500,000. There are indeed very many properties with a purchase price over €1m. The important figure (I think) is less the price of property, but more how many multiples of average income this represents. In the last 30 yrs, this has ceaselessly risen.
Well what was it David Cameron said after the riots of 2011. Some people have an entitlement issue, and feel they get something for nothing. Hmmm that sounds like the financial sector. The banking sector - that helped destroy the worlds economy.
Hi, nice video which I can use for my intro to A-level sociology classes, but an improvement would be to include a section on references to data sources both in the description and at the end of the video.
The main problems we have here in west Wales are jobs and housing. One thing that upsets pretty much everyone here is that people from rich cities like London move here when they retire. They claim their massive pension here and buy up all the cheap houses and rent them out at high prices, bumping up property value and the cost of rents. Between my wife and I, we earn around 23k per year. Our rent is just over £7k and we will never own our own home as we will never be able to get a mortgage. We have 4 children, 2 of which are going to university soon which will bleed us dry. We dont expect the rich to support us but we dont expect to be raped by the rich English like we were back in medieval times. Something needs to be done to stop outsiders coming in and keeping us poor. All we want is the opportunity to work hard and own our own homes.
Note: when you say "are things getting better over time" you should remember there are people for whom gross inequality is a positive, is the system working as it should and they pledge money and influence to keep this cycle moving. They are called Conservatives. Watch for them.
And then get more poorer due to idiots like you who don't understand simple economics. The whole reason why the UK politicians and 17.4 million stupid people want to leave is because the tax haven loophole is going to be closed, and richer people, like Johnson, Farage, Rees-Mogg etc... are getting scared of their wealth being taxed even more
Remember cost of living goes up and down drastically depending on the areas too. Central London has high incomes but you need a high income just to live there, and even then most people can't afford it. Compare that to somewhere like Birmingham or Manchester and the housing is very affordable and cost of living is generally much lower. London is a beast of its own, it is unfair to compare it to anywhere else in England. The fact that it a financial hub is a great thing for the country, but it will create a huge gap in incomes. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. If London didn't exist, the income gap would be a lot smaller, but the high end would be lower, the low end would remain the same so no one would really benefit. Not to mention Englands global presence in the world would also be a fraction of what it is. So stop complaining about what other people are earning. No one is stopping you from doing the same, other than yourself.
Not to derail this discussion, but it is striking how this video could very well be a video made about the United States if you replaced London/Southeast with New York/Washington DC/Northeast/Bay Area, the Northeast and Northern Ireland with the South, and Brexit with Trump. Unfortunately, as your graph showed, income inequality in the United States is even worse than that of the United Kingdom, and there is not overwhelming political will to do anything about it.
Well things are actually going astounding well in most regions, despite Trump's ignorance. Affordable health care is a major concern and higher education should be more affordable even if many choose not to use it. But the regional difference cited is very inaccurate. "The South" has many prosperous cities along with the poorer areas as is true of every region in the US. It isn't at all like UK in those terms. However, a true view of things is we need improvement, things could get much better and yes, it is better than any point in history.
@@marconatrix , no matter your politics whether right left or other you have no idea what an American feels about the Land of the Free. Fast trains and healthcare are not what Americans calculate in freedom. You'd have to live there a bit to get it, as has been said by many Brits of different political persuasions who have done so and then spoken quite eloquently about it. Freedom in America has nothing to due with money or services.
Unfortunately, because of the UA-cam Subscriber Inequality Crisis, the top 1% of channels have 67% of the subscribers and the the bottom 10% have just 7 subscribers between them.
I mean just because it looks good doesnt mean that the guy has any IQ when he says that germany is in Northern Europe. CHINA IS IN OCEANIA AND AUSTRALIA IS IN EUROPE
Another awesome video thank you! however, I agree, the sound was really offputting... I kept looking around my room for the clicking/tapping sounds... it was the video... Please keep making these amazing vids! I can use them to teach my students about the UK!
Inequality is NOT a problem when you have economic growth. In Cuba, Venezuela and North Korea, they’re all equally miserable. The UK needs more freedom, not equality.
In 1941 Shoghi Effendi (The Guardian of the Baha’i’ Faith) castigated the prevalent trends of society in no uncertain terms: “Although Europe was the cradle of a "godless", a "highly-vaunted yet lamentably defective civilization", the foremost protagonist of that civilization was now the United States and that, in that country, at the present time, its manifestations had led to a degree of unbridled materialism which now presented a danger to the entire world.”
The disparity is worse in the UK because London is such a powerhouse. The main thing with the UK is that wages have barely increased in the past 10+ years, yet rents and house prices have sky rocketed, leaving the less well off struggling to pay rent or get on the housing ladder. 2 bed homes near where I live have gone up £100,000 in 10 years.....it's a struggle to save that amount, it's basically impossible for people on lower wages to save at a quicker rate than house prices increase at.
That was my problem. For more than five years I was struggling desperately on minimum wage, paying my rent (which was continuing to rise in itself), whilst saving for a minimum deposit whilst house prices were rising further put of reach. It was frustrating because for every grand I saved, I found the properties had risen by two grand. It was a soul destroying race to nab my future property in time before I was priced out the market. My wages stalled and had only risen by about a quid in around ten years. Finally got my property, but instead of a bungalow or house, I could only afford a cheap one bed flat. It's annoying, but I had some comfort in the end. I may never own a house now, and I certainly would not be able to afford cutting my hours down to return to college, but I have my little nest for retirement - even if my boiler doesn't work. Cold showers and appeasing the blod sucking bankers who I mortgaged with are a bitter worthwhile price to pay when I consider I am no longer enriching some sit on his/her backside landlord.
Really... guys, just guys... hold on... stop it... I'm an immigrant here in the UK. Yes it is good to ask for better conditions and better opportunities but not when you are after others people money. Have you ever though how is the UK standard of living is vs other parts of the world. Here in the UK just by earning minimum wage you can enjoy luxuries than most countries in the world, more than 80% PLUS of the countries. There is always going to be differences un salaries as not everyone is as talented and hardworking as others. In every country there is people with the same education and same ages/sexes/etc and they both have different outcomes when talking about wages just because at some point the made different choices. So just cut it.
Most of this problem can be traced to a handful of causes: * Centuries of centralization in London have concentrated the non-survival industries in a single area, which has left other areas barely able to survive economically. * Thatcherism seriously damaged a lot of the regional economies of the UK. London got lucky in that its biggest industries, such as banking and insurance, are the sorts of sleaze that survive in that sort of regime. The rest of the UK was not lucky. * When a significant percentage of your economy is pure gambling and money movement "hello insurance and finance", and the other industries are barely surviving, it creates this exact type of income disparity. The same thing has been happening for years in the US. It happened in Hong Kong as well.
What does "disposable income" mean? Is that after all your basic necessities are paid food housing utilities or is that your total income for the year ?
@@bri1085 The dictionary agrees with you. I was taught that income before taxes was "gross"; income after tax was "net" (aka "disposable"); and "disposable" was what was left after paying for bills and everything essential and non-discretionary stuff, but apparently this is called "discretionary".
Another reason is how the trade unions destroyed there base with extremist self serving leaders leading to a massive fall off in union power ,eroding any collective bargaining power on wages . Business leaders either encouraged this or at least were not believing there luck especially with government onside.
Why is it bad that the rich have gotten richer? Wealth isn't a finite resource, it's created. The rich have gotten richer over the years but so have the poor, the rich are just getting richer faster. If you found a dollar on the ground and Bob found 10 dollars are you being oppressed? No both you and Bob are better off than you were before.
Inequality is worse than being poor. That's why people in third world countries are happier. Inequality gives people above you a lot of power over you. They can get stuff like women and other resources more easily than poor people. Money is not the only resource.
As a Londoner I deeply resent people suggesting that London is some kind of bubble. As a more right leaning friend of mine once complained on this trope "I invite those people to come down here to try and live. They'll see the streets aren't paved with Gold." Loads of UK social problems are evident in London. If you live in London and don't see them, you're doing your damnedest not to pay attention.
I am not familiar how the income differentiates between regions in the UK. But whenever I see these videos on germany and they say that in the south they earn the most money. They never mention that the most expensive citys are in the south. Munic, Nürnberg, Stuttgart etc.
@@elalcazar7374 A complaint I have heard from Germans, particularly women, is that labour law and companies are more sexist in Germany than in France. As in, in France there is a lot more support at the government and even company level for mothers. In Germany there is more scope for being professionally punished for becoming a mother.
@@dewittbourchier7169 Depends. Once you are hired this is not an issue( I had 3 colleagues getting pregnant and entering back into work after their parental leave). But young woman are certainly under some scrutiny before they are hired. Or so I heard at least(I am only 29 and have yet to experience or witness this). Though i highly doubt this will be staying this way in the future, since germany is facing a serious shortage of skilled workers and employers will not have the luxary to be picky.
Roy Rosales one based on equality of opportunity, whereby those who reap the greatest benefits pay a reasonable amount towards raising the potential of others. (An MD MBA who knows he wouldn’t be where he is without the good fortune to grow up in a safe area with good schools, and who also knows he’ll never have the same wealth as many of his classmates will inherit despite never substantively working)
Roy Rosales The effective multiple for income inequality that is sustainable is where those in middle class roles earn about 7 times what those who work on the shop floor do. Before Thatcher and Reagan there was an informal agreement to keep to that ratio as being a fair incentive to better yourself and improve.
The greatest contributing factor to wealth inequality is uncontrolled mass immigration, in the UK's case especially from Eastern Europe. An unlimited supply of unskilled labour ensures there is no upward pressure on wages, which is great for the owners of capital but a disaster for the poorest and stupidest in society.
A thought experiment: Scenario 1 You earn 24k a year. 2k a month. You spend: -700 a month on rent - 250-350 a month on food - 150 on bills Making a conservative guesstimate, you spend 1200 ish a month on staying alive. That's at least 60% of your monthly income (before taxes) on basic living expenses. Not a lot of room for saving. Scenario 2 Now let's say you earn 500k a year. 40k a month. You spend: - For a 170 grand house you pay about 700 a month towards the mortgage. - let's say 400-500 on food - let's say 300 on bills Here the basic living expenses tally up to roughly 1500. Let's round that up to 2000 because we like to live extravagantly. That's only 5% of your monthly income, leaving LOTS of opportunity to save, invest, and further develop your wealth. And, of course, if you have the opportunity to invest and grow, you will.
@@Flanker-NineZero Indeed. Also see the vimes theory of boots. If you have money you can afford better quality stuff that needs replacing less often, so being poor can be very expensive!
I'd also like too point out that a lot of the problems creating income inequality are furthered by income inequality, creating a positive feedback loop that may be difficult to break. The education gap will become worse as poorest people won't be able to live near good school worsening their children's grades, and for housing as everyone tries to give their children the best advantages that they'll now need and to escape worsening schools they'll do their best to live near the best schools driving up housing prices, all further worsening wealth inequality and wealth inequality further worsening them.
The regional imbalance is an example of Ricardo's Law of Rent in operation. There is a more detailed analysis in Progress and Poverty, by Henry George. I was hoping that these authorities would have been referred to in the explanation.
Sadly the UK moved away from a better paid manufacturing base to poorly paid service sector jobs in the early 1980s and this has led to a decline in individuals financial standards. As a nation public services were funded by North sea oil & gas + the banking sector in the City of London, so UK governments didn't worry too much until the global financial crash in 2008. The divide is growing and is being made worse by directors bonuses, shareholder dividens, off shoring, cheap imports and individuals with huge property portfolios.
As a guy who was broke a couple of years ago, a guy who's family never had anything, wealth disparity is such a biased topic. You can change you wealth so well, yet for some reason blaming wealth disparity is more comfortable than changing your own habits. We're told to go to school get a good education so you can earn more but then end up hating on the people that do earn more? Hypocritical right? The UK is one of the easiest countries to make money in. You just got to know how. The UKs main export is financial services, and the hub for financial services is London. So how could you expect the rest of the country to have as such a high gdp as London? We don't export goods, we don't produce that much, but living costs outside London is great, the pound goes way further up north than in London. 80k for a house in the Midlands is too much in some people's eyes, yet that couldn't buy you a 1 bed house in London. Hence why the gdp is much less in the North, they literally don't need to earn as much.
@@wb9957 I disagree, I live near Brighton and regularly visit places like Leeds, Derby and Nottingham - the prices for bills, food and so on are significantly lower than where I live. Differences in prices for accommodation is the most apparent thing though. You can struggle to buy a flat in Brighton and yet buy yourself a nice sized family home up north with money to spare. The argument regarding cars and computers etc, you may be correct to an extent in regards to retail pricing (even though I tend to notice much more discounts up north). But, second hand items tend to be significantly cheaper. The point is that the cost of living up north, generally speaking, is significantly lower overall and wages reflect that.
Aya yaya yaya yaya Ya..... this plonker dont know wtf he is on about.... in Somalia you can only earn a £1 a day... but its ok as the house cost £200 to buy... and of course their GDP is low as they need less money to live.. Because if I make money than that is a proof all people without money are lazy cunts.. If those fucking northerners pulled their fingers out of their arse and moves to London they would be rich too.... You see.. my success is down to my work ethic.. which is why those that work harder then me earn less... because they are stupid...
The causes: 1) Fair equalisation of wealth between global regions. We used to import wealth by cheap labor produced goods. Increased wages mainly in Asia is equalising labor. This means lower wages and less spending power here for those who compete. Those who have scarce skills can now service more globally and see wages go up. 2) demographics The older generation accummulated wealth and rights, while the young are confronted with a wealth protecting old generation. Italy eats it young the most in Europe. 3) central bank policy (low interest rates) pushes up asset prices and that increases the wealth gap. This is temporary as inflated prices are illusionary.
Don't forget the older generation will have to sell off their inflated assets at some point. It should be obvious they'll have too few buyers with too little money to sell them to.
When I lived in Liverpool and worked as a forklift driver I made £18k/year and paid £400 for a nice small furnished flat. Now I live in London. I make £23k and pay £1550 for the same flat... But I make "more" :D
If you are on Universal Credit you are only allowed 6,000 pounds in the bank before they start taking money off you, so there is no legal way of having the money necessary for a mortgage. It's called the benefits trap for a reason.
Income inequality is not that difficult an issue from a practical standpoint, it's just difficult politically. Heavy investment in education, support for SMBs and entrepreneurship, a social security system which can secure against most bumps in life (sickness, pregnancy, etc.). And taxing the housing market. This last one might seem counter-intuitive, but the reason why you have such exaggerated housing prices is because there's huge capital pressures on property, and if people are able to resell too easily with profit you just add more capital pressures to the housing market as now they got more money to outspend other buyers, and of course all of this is fuelled by ever growing debt, so by taxing the housing market you alleviate the capital pressure by punishing people from taking on more debt than they can pay for out of their salary (instead of by reselling the property).
And yet those earning a poverty wage will work much harder than the majority enjoying a wealthier lifestyle. I would have to criticise education, taxation of those earning less than £25k p.a, American consumerism, bad eating, drinking and smoking habits. And then we have student fees for those who aspire academically, punished for wanting to escape their poverty. One of the benefits of wealth is the ability to never have to work for the greed of others. Another benefit is ability to exploit the tax system. The poor will subsidise the tax evaded by billionaires and corporations which then pay them a poverty wage to work for them. Many profitable companies in the UK exploit taxpayers to subsidise their costs and then simply funnel their profits elsewhere to evade tax.
I find it very irritating when people say that rich people can employ someone to find loopholes in the tax system and pay less tax... It shows a complete lack of understanding of how tax works. It is impossible to pay less tax if your only earnings come from an employer since PAYE handles the calculation and payment. Everyone with a salary pays tax through PAYE; you can only adjust the amount of tax you pay on investments. The people that avoid tax at a higher rate of their savings than any other are the middle class through the use of ISAs. The lower and middle class can invest most of their annual savings in tax free ISAs, thus avoiding tax. Why is this any different to someone with more wealth moving it to any other legal vehicle to lower their tax bill legally?
But Britains regions outside the capital are also poorer than the EU 15 average, which includes say... Greece. A country that has been though a great depression in the last decade. In fact if we exclude the UK and do the same for Greece comparing it with Northern Europe we would get exactly the same result with exactly 9 regions of the country making the top 10 of poorer regions. And it's fair game. We use EU 15 and northern Europe as benchmarks because the east is a different story, we already know that everything is fucking better than the 10 regions in Romania where people make 2000 euros per year. No offense to Romanians.
What I would like to see are income inequality statistics that are controlled and look at things like social class upon birth, change in social class over time, level of education, type of career, etc.
Well I lived in both Northern Ireland and south east England at the momento. The income in NI might be less, however, the cost of living is WAY WAY cheaper, I used to earn less there that I do here, but I surely feel poorer here in South East England.
I am from the UK and I live in the north "West midlands ", and as you go south to London along the M 1 motor way, you can literally see the way the country work's change. Down there it goes brighter, and then as you go north it goes dull , but that's my observation ! . The best indicator of how devided the UK is "Richest and Poorest " the Grenville tower desater in London is the best indicator of how bad it is ! . I am going to make a prediction if and when the covid 19 takes a real hold in the UK watch the poorest areas and neighbourhoods , if they loose control those part's of the UK will be come fire breaks, that's we're you will see the highest number of cases first and probable death's, and that will show that the UK government has lost it. But I could be wrong, just have to wait and see, Every one be safe.
Because it kills democracy and turns it into a plutocracy through buying up of the government. Plutocracy then puts it's own best short term interest in mind instead of the society as a whole leading to socio-economic collapse. (Great depression is a massive example). Also tho not always it does not help that in most cases the richest are the most ruthless who got it all from daddy and spent their money killing competition and keeping monopolies through lobbying instead of actually adding value to the society. e.g Scientists
One thing that shouldn't be overlooked is the increased living costs of living in and around London combined with the fact you're going to be paying higher taxes as a result of what income bracket you're going to be in. For example if you £30k in the north of England you'd like need to be earning £65k in London to make it worth your while to move down there.
What makes me laugh is all the people who want to be back in the eu don’t relise that the uks inequality started the same year you went in the eu. Got worse until the crash of 2007. Dropped back and bit then got to it’s highest just before 2016. It’s dropped again since you have left. And you wonder why the rich remainers want you back in the eu. Where it costs them less to ship you your goods. Where they made far more profits.
Inequality leads to resentment and hatred. It also leads to poor education. When those two things combine you get angry citizens. That's why governments pay for more facilitation of surveillance which is quite apparent in the UK would you not agree? Problem is, at some point that boiling point will be reached and people with nothing to lose and much to gain often revolt against the system. It's so obvious, even a child could grasp this concept.
The rich gets richer by spending like the poor and always investing without stopping while the poor stay poor by spending like the rich without any investment...
Questions arise. What produces the differences in income? When and why is a difference in income a problem? What changes do you suggest? Many subsidiary questions arise. For example, do you take into account geographic mobility?Do you take into account economic mobility? Do you take into account age? Is the average income in a region really a useful indication of anything? Rich people will move to nice areas. In most countries, those in the top income ranks frequently are only there for a few years, falling back to middle or even lower income brackets. Sometimes due to such a thing as selling a house or some such. Middle aged folk are usually richer than those just starting out because middle aged folk have been working for a couple decades.
I spent two years in the midlands and south Wales. As someone from Vienna, I have never seen such poor areas.
Take it you never went to Asia:Philippines?
If the video convinces you that London in some respects doesn't have poor areas, well you would be mistaken
Dakkaron To see English speaking poverty at its finest, visit one or more of the following American cities: Camden NJ, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, Flint, Gary IN, East St. Louis, St. Louis, Memphis, New Orleans, Stockton/Visalia/Merced CA. Worse than the poverty is the violence and drug use. In these cities, the American Dream has turned into a great enduring Nightmare.
Most of all visit Appalachian Kentucky, where many lily-white families subsist on $5K-10K/year. The only decent jobs were in coal mining, but the mines have closed because coal burning power plants pollute the air and emit a lot of CO2. When unemployment runs out after 1-2 years, all that is left is food stamps, Medicaid and living in an unheated mobile home.
Well yes. If you lived in Vienna all your life, most places in the world are going to seem poor in comparison.
I live in the midlands 😔
There is a simple answer to this video, income inequality is due to the Lack of Financial education and London centric government investment, eg 51% of all transportation funding is spent in London.
Ben Young ok, run for prime minister
UK: we have a serious income equality problem that we need to do something about.
US: Hold my beer
Except nothing is going to be done about it in the US.
@@tygonmaster Nothing is being done in the UK either, but at least it is a known issue rather than the US who continues to believe their fantasy of the "American Dream".
@@agilemind6241 a house of cards that's going to fall.
US: Hold my beer
Mexico: Hold up bro hold my teqila
Another complete twat who thinks the US is going to do something about pay inequality. If Britain has pay inequality, in the US, unless you live in cloud cuckoo land, is even worse. And they don't have the minimum pay laws like we do, so what makes you think the US is the problem solver. You fucking twat
We have known for quite some time that income inequality is inefficient for the economy. The greatest problem is that the wealthy don't necessarily spend in the UK as they will invest abroad, buy property abroad or just save.
My family live outside of London and may be poorer but have a better quality of life. Rent and mortgage is London is choking us to death and we are just about keeping up
I blame poverty more on housing costs than on low incomes.
@@lylecosmopolite I'd say it's a mixture of both, wages have stagnated while costs of living have increased with inflation
yh, its disgusting that the conservatives arent doing more to build houses and reduce the increase in housing prices. During covid they have lowered taxes on houses and therefore house prices and rents are increasing, which is really hurting businesses due to the higher rent. It seems so illogical but makes sense when you relise these guys are absurdly rich and just want to protect their and their friends property and wealth.
If people are to poor to live in London they should just move? I’ve never understood why the people who moan about the living prices in London don’t just move?
You make out that people who live in London or the south east are more well off. Most use the majority of their income on rent or mortgage repayments, meaning they are just about scrapping by each month. I have friends who live further north on salaries far less but have a much greater quality of life because they have more disposable income due to their cheap housing.
That's very true, living in the country side is one of the best things I've ever done. I save an average of £10,000 a year!
the idiot renters guarantee ever rising rents. a person will never even in theory crawl out of poverty without first stopping rising living costs for self = owning a home.
If we.
Well from everyone I’ve spoke to I know it’s anecdotal and looking at house prices they seem to get on the property ladder easily compared to south east. Even if your salary is ten/fifteen grand less, rent or mortgage costs can usually be half what they are compared to southern regions area depending. For example I live in Kent in a 1 bed terrace. My mortgage is £1250, add bills on that, not much left afterwards.
It’s a fair point, opportunity may be less. I still don’t see wages being much less for similar roles. Like I said maybe 15k. Anecdotal again but I knew a guy from Edinburgh who managed to get a mortgage whilst on an apprenticeship salary of 13k a year, the property was under 100 grand. That don’t happen further south.
How are people even physically able to survive on £5000 a year???
I imagine they shoplift / do anything possible to live
Benefits
G M My dad came to this country from Pakistan when he was a baby. He didn’t get a free house but rather got one that had an outside toilet. Migrants work so hard doing jobs in which most people don’t want to do. Migrants help this country a lot and make up a significant percentage of NHS workers. This country needs migrants.
They don't... people die of being poor every year. And our government knew and knows this. They don't care.
@@mohammedmakhdoom1207 that was then, this is now (Covid)
I appreciate that there is a channel that is putting time and effort into analysing UK politics and economy, this deserves so many more views
Good thing I live in the US!
wait
I lived in both countries, and yes UK is bad, but not as bad as the USA, lol. You are f$$ked mate.
@@smellslikethinice1107 LOL X(
When you talk about the extent of the inequalities, it would have been nice to see it compared to other countries. Otherwise you really don't get an idea what those numbers mean and how bad it is.
6:20 ...no?
Yes. I got THAT comparison.
There is little use for me to know where the UK is in the general ranking if I don't know how it translates to the specifics.
I'd be really interested in how the graphic at 5:30 would look in other countries. Or the one at 4:10.
For example: Austria and Denmark have very little income inequality according to the graph at 2:25. Does their equivalent of the 4:10 Diagram look the same percentage-wise within the top 10% with the difference being, that the top 10% are generally closer to the 9th part of the population, or is it, while also far over the 9th just more uniform within the highest 10%
In other words: is the UK just especially bad in the extent of inequality, or is it also different in the way inequality manifests?
@shlibber correct figure?
@@thecashier930 fair point. I would say this is a UA-cam video, so it'll only have very limited information in it. And looking into it, a real lack of citation, so I couldn't tell you where he got these figures from, how correct they are or where you could go for comparable information. Better citation appears to be needed.
@shlibber I was pointing out there was a graph that shows where the UK reportedly sits with inequalities. But OP wanted details on wealth distribution in other countries as you can see by their reply. Which is a fair point, the video is lacking in lots of areas but the overall point that the UK is an unequal place is certainly true - a train ride from Central London to most sea side towns will show you that. Really we should be asking "What can we do about it?"
Some decent points, but income inequality doesn't paint an accurate picture. Just look at the costs of living in London to say Northern Wales.
It would be interesting to compare "Discretionary income" instead of "Disposable income" but I guess those numbers are much difficult to get
It doesn't add up. If the cost of living where that expensive and only 20 % of the people earn an above average income, 80% of the people couldn't afford living there.
Even using PPP as income measure does not make the image look any better.
Property prices in London escalated when people/companies from afar started buying up property, our people have had to move out to suburban/country and that's put up prices there so locals cannot buy or rent,staying home with parents.
Yeah but look at what you GET in London. World famous museums, Broadway shows, vastly better entertainment and opportunity improving your quality of life.
Averages hide the real depths of poverty in the UK; It's off the charts.
G G, sorry but that is not accurate. Most EEA migrants come to the UK because they have the skills the UK workforce lacks, and thus need. It would take the UK many decades to restructure the education system in the UK to produce a workforce with more relevant skills for the British economy. More astonishing is the lack of political will to do so. Politicians rather fight over Brexit (or whatever is fashionable at the time) than fix the structural problems the UK economy sorely needs. Think why?
@Nspnspker
Laughing stock,so why is the eu begging us for money instead of telling us No Deals,your people voted Leave,you don't need us ,you have 26 other countries to prop up your club.
@@powg183 they move for money why would they move to help another nation.
if poverty is of the charts why is it at an all time low or are we so privileged not having a good car is poverty?
@@billyosullivan4514
1) Poverty in the UK is OFF the charts - ref UN, JRF, CPAG, etc reports.
2) 'all time low' based on - AVERAGES &/or selected groups with NEW lower poverty criteria indicators.
3) 'not having a new car' 😶
Hundreds of thousands of (working) families no longer have a permanent home to live in.
Thousands of bedridden elderly & disabled don't receive vital social care & end up in hospital or DEAD.
Millions more (working) have to use food banks.
I heard a good saying the other day 'You know monopoly is an old game because there's a luxury tax, rich people can go to jail and you can own a house.'
It’s crazy most incomes in Australia are 30% higher than LONDON
an electronics engineer earns 20-30k gbp in the uk
an aldi's employee earns 18k, a store manager's assistant earns 25-30k
yeah, it's true....aldi's can pay more than becoming an electrical engineer
"gdp" means "gross domestic product" and doesn't refer to individual earners.
but the good news is you don't need to know that to be an assistant manager.
@@kitjones89gbp is the uk equivelant to usd
he just didn't use the £ sign and you didn't use your eyes
@@will6416 ...... and you can see the "(edited)".... ye?
sorry you're late to the thread.
*Read more*
Aldi get it right. More workers and less management.
I have a masters degree in mechanical engineering, I only got one job offer and it was paid 18k...
Such an amazing channel ! Thanks for all this work, crazy fan of it !
Thats the problem when your economic relied heavily on the service sector which is normally clustured in one region and need very highly qualified personal
And when "we" regain controle Westminster will do even more to help its owners in central London at the expence of the rest of us.
This was what happened before the great depression, imbalance in supply and demand. Don't know what the rich is hoarding their money for, can't take it to the grave.
The elite can always move their money
Mikko Tenhunen the elite are stateless; national identity is for "little people".
Congratulations. You have find out that nationalism is for poor people. If you want to grow big, think global. If you want your country to be poor. Think national.
If they take more money from the people than they contribute, then why have them?
Define "wealth."
That might sound like a stupid comment. But after I tracked down the method being used to figure wealth inequality in the US, it became obvious that the equation was skewed to maximize upper income level wealth and to minimize lower income wealth. For example (if I remember correctly), the stocks and bonds owned by Michael Bloomberg count toward his wealth, while the stocks and bonds in my 401k do not count toward my wealth. Also, a large part of upper income is based on real estate, and a very large part of the population live in apartments.
And then there are the assumptions that are allowed to be assumed. For example, it's assumed that the rich are living in expensive homes, eating expensive food, and driving expensive cars (which they certainly are) while the poor are feeding their children cat food because it is all they can buy. But the wealth calculations don't include any government assistance monies (rent subsidies, food stamps, SNAP funds etc).
I'm not saying I inequality doesn't exist or isn't a problem. I just wish that the discussion (in the US at least) were a little more truthful.
@@sifridbassoon And yet, for about every definition and methodology I've heard about (Gini index, wealth concentration, real estates, offshore accounts, cost of living, crime rate, subsidies level, etc...) the USA is often below par on nearly every one of them.
Basically, they are the top in absolute numbers in a lot of things because a very small number of persons and/or corporation skew things sky high, messing up averages. When you divide those numbers in smaller parts (like for example, using states as "countries"), you unskew these extremely high statistics aberrations and realize that there is a lot of squalor and ineffeciencies in the USA at a lot of levels. It's just hidden behind the very few who have everything.
It's mainly why I mostly (personnaly) use MEDIAN research as my baseline of understanding instead of AVERAGES (as well as other stats tools such as variances) in nearly every empirical studies I read.
For this interested in a full analysis of this problem, I’d highly recommend Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the 21st century”
Bought the book a few years ago. Found it to be a little dry, but not too complex.
This strikes me as a very arbitrary selection of countries, This is not Northern Europe. Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Noway are Northern Europe. Britain and France and arguable Belgium and The Netherlands as well as Spain and Portugal are Western Europe. Germany and Austria are central Europe.
What you are looking at is a group of EU countries, excluding Eastern and Southern Europe. This strikes me as selective. Why is Spain not it? Why is Germany in?
Is it possible that if we include all EU countries from the former "Western Block", adding portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece, that the narrative can no longer be supported?
I am actually also very surprised the some areas of East Germany don't qualify among the poorest but I am not doubting the data in general.
Secondly a mere comparison of income is rather problematic. And here is where Eurostat would have to do loads more work to make an actual staement. First of all to measure the actual buying power of an income you need to display it in PPP (purchasing power parities) Meaning adjusting what a € or a pound can actually buy you in your area. Now there is data for that for countries, but I am pretty sure that there is no PPP statistics for regions within a country. And that is the problem that make the whole statement about income equality very weak. Housing prices, for example, vary wildly between rich and poor regions and need to be accounted for. As well as a lot of other things.
Thirdly I am pretty sure this data is looking at average income. Which is very misleading. London is a rich place because a relatively small portion of the population make relatively much money. Which massively boosts the average income, without many people participating in it. What really matters is the median income, the amount that 50% of the population earn either less or more than. Aka the income the majority of the population will be very close to.
Unless data is provided - for all countries, in PPP, for the median income - your video is sadly close to pointless. It is still indicative aof a problem. And I agree with the message. But it's a pretty weak backup.
PPP, median - yes, those are serious issue.
Nevertheless: "This strikes me as selective." - actually this part is more or less fine. For benchmark for a rich country you only pick other rich EU countries. Greece and Portugal are already below (in GDP per capita in PPP) quite a few new EU members.
Was thinking the same. "Northern europe" but then excludes Sweden for some reason. And we know southern Europe is buggered.
Then uses EU13. Then uses OECD.
If was a 14 year old's essay would say good that uses lots of sources. If was an 18 year old's would say reeks of selective bias.
East Germany is poor in comparison with the West but West Germany also is very wealthy so maybe East Germany isn't actually that bad but only looks like that because of the wealthy West ?
I live in Berlin, there are several areas in the East which are very wealthy and extremly beautiful, very clean and charming and property in east germany is half the price as in the west.
idk how that compares to some of the places in the UK tho.
@@LegendNinja41 The whole issue is a non-issue. Income inequality is not a bad thing in on itself. If you look the countries that have the richest people also have the best well off "Poor" people. As an example, you can take any African country and compare rich and poor in both locations and you will notice easily that Income inequality also results in higher standards of living for the poor. It's a basic concept really that people that are unfamiliar with economics seem to ignore.
With all this in mind, how about stop focusing on statistics like income inequality that don't actually hold any real value or issue and instead focus on ones that do matter. Rich people are not the problem. Rich people getting richer is not a problem either. What is a problem is the restrictions imposed on both Rich and Poor by government regulations that restrict development and improvement and as such restrict financial mobility in combination with completely useless higher level of education in an age of free access to information.
@catriona very informative comment, thanks
2:18 Did you mean to say “disposable” income?? I’m paid fairly well in London, and I can’t imagine scraping up 10k yearly of “disposable” income.
Compared to other people in Londen you are paid poorly then. Everything is relative as Einstein once said.
Disposable income is just income post tax. You don't deduct rent or utilities when calculating disposable income. Everyone with a salary greater than 10k has that more than that much disposable income (due to the 12k tax free allowance)
I agree. The definition of disposable income I learnt in first year economics is not the same as net income.
I have trouble understanding a few things...I just go "Is there a number there?"
That's because you believe the lie.."I'm paid fairly well"...or "I'm middle class now". Lol
It's a lie...even slaves had a story to believe they are doing well and free. It's a scam you like believing to feel good about yourself, but it's still a lie.
Now that the general election has happened, this disparity will get worse when the cons force a no deal brexit. The irony is that the poorest voted for BJ.
Very good video, living in London and being part of the 10%, I didn't realize the situation was like that in the UK.
And yes it's easier to optimise income tax when you start earning over £100k. I only pay £30-40k tax a year instead of the £60k I would with a normal salary.
What legal optimizations do you employ if you don't mind me asking?
@@bernarddebotte5902 when you get over 70k it's fiscally beneficial to open your own company and become a contractor instead. You then pay yourself minimum wages (£160 per week). Then you take the remaining as dividend.
On top of that you declare every expenses you have (computer, phones, electricity, dinners, etc.) In order to lower your profits, and you do not pay tax on it (20% off everything).
What you can do on top of that is to keep your earnings (dividend included) to the lowest 46k a year, and after a couple of years you close the company and pay only 10% of tax on everything.
Ok there are even more tax optimisation than that when you earn more than I do, but this can lower your tax, and it's legal.
Could you describe a time in Britain when these numbers were a more desirable ratio between the classes, or if there are no figures that represent that balance a scheme that works in other countries currently? In the US we are actively having this discussion but no one has proposed how these things would be in a healthy economy.
You might wanna have this discussion about what your country seens ( from a foreign country ) to hate a lot : taxes. It's the 1st tool to redistribute the wealth of a country in most of healthy economy. So as the US work a lot about capitalisation, and you tends to get that low taxes ( i think you dont see it this way, but compared to any others develop country, you get that low taxes), that will be a good topic of discussion. Hope this help
In the US you need only look North, Canada has far lowed income inequality and far higher social mobility than the US. If you want the "American Dream" move north of 48.
PS I disagree with Misterkint, taxes in the US aren't that low compared to other countries what is low is workers rights & protections. Unions are one of the few things that are consistently associated with slowing growth in income inequality. The destruction of unions by the US and the UK in the 70s-80s is a large part of their inequality issues. Another problem is often privatization of gov't services (gov'ts generally pay higher wages & more stable work often b/c of strong public sector unions). And a capstone is the CEO-game that has seen salaries for top people at all large organizations to explode.
4:13 how does this math even remotely make sense? You took the entire population of the UK and got 0.1%? that doesn't account for any variables at all like children, elderly people that don't work, unemployed, disabled people etc etc
If you’re taking a fraction of the population.... you take a fraction of the population. Assetless(or not) children are equally spread, Because they’re just population.
@@MrCalls1 the top 0.1 highest earners is based on working people, not the entire countries population.
Fmentz Editz in theory that would be lovely, but that’s a really hard number to nail down, so any statistician will use total population, and using the total pop for all, makes the number comparable between countries.
@@MrCalls1 were not comparing across countries in this example. This is for calculating the top 0.1% of earners in the UK, and the stats/method in this video are just bad and not even remotely reflecting reality.
Never mind the disparity’s - what is it that people of the uk can do spread the money Arround , how spend money in places which are owned by local independent establishments rather than big corporate company’s..you have change people mind set first.......
This is interesting.
It’s also sad.
I grew up in an east London council estate. First generation immigrant even... came to the U.K. when I was 8 years old. My parents both worked but did awful menial jobs.
I’m between 25 and 30 years old now, earn around £65k, and getting higher ever year. I own a small flat in a commuter town.
I did it. Britain offers opportunities like no other. It’s amazing. It’s never puzzled why the native working classes seem to be such failures because I grew up amongst them - they basically don’t want to work hard or strive for more. It’s a deep, deep cultural issue. I’m not special, neither are my siblings who just like me have done really well. The only thing we had was parents who pushed us and prioritised our education and made sure we stayed out of trouble... this was severely lacking amongst our peers and it shows. It always frustrates me because the native working class Brits deserve better but they just have a culture of not striving above their station - maybe it’s centuries of class conditioning. I don’t know.
My story is anecdotal obviously but it actually reflects a lot of the stories of a lot of immigrants and as far as I’m concerned the data shows the cultural problems of the U.K. which then manifest in the earnings gap, rather than any government policy or whatever else.
Years of negative conditioning and shaming help no-one and it is part of the problem
Another excellent, clear, informative video ... great work!
On a related note, I remember reading that the value of privately owned property in London is worth 10 times more than all of the privately owned property of the rest of the UK.
@shlibber hey thanks for yr response! True property in London is v expensive compared to other EU regions, but €600m? I dont think there are many of those ... a tiny fraction of a percent of all privately owned real estate for a population of > 8m.
My understanding is that the current average purchase price of a residential London property is around €4-500,000. There are indeed very many properties with a purchase price over €1m.
The important figure (I think) is less the price of property, but more how many multiples of average income this represents. In the last 30 yrs, this has ceaselessly risen.
Well what was it David Cameron said after the riots of 2011. Some people have an entitlement issue, and feel they get something for nothing.
Hmmm that sounds like the financial sector. The banking sector - that helped destroy the worlds economy.
You have no idea what your talking about. Please stop.
I was expecting you to also address the inequality in terms of tax contribution in the UK. Progressive taxation has some implications, doesn't it?
Hi, nice video which I can use for my intro to A-level sociology classes, but an improvement would be to include a section on references to data sources both in the description and at the end of the video.
The main problems we have here in west Wales are jobs and housing. One thing that upsets pretty much everyone here is that people from rich cities like London move here when they retire. They claim their massive pension here and buy up all the cheap houses and rent them out at high prices, bumping up property value and the cost of rents. Between my wife and I, we earn around 23k per year. Our rent is just over £7k and we will never own our own home as we will never be able to get a mortgage. We have 4 children, 2 of which are going to university soon which will bleed us dry. We dont expect the rich to support us but we dont expect to be raped by the rich English like we were back in medieval times. Something needs to be done to stop outsiders coming in and keeping us poor. All we want is the opportunity to work hard and own our own homes.
Two people on minimum wage would earn much more than the 23k.... sound like a typical 'bitter' welshman
I love your videos! They have such a high quality!
Note: when you say "are things getting better over time" you should remember there are people for whom gross inequality is a positive, is the system working as it should and they pledge money and influence to keep this cycle moving.
They are called Conservatives. Watch for them.
UK: 9/10 of the poorest cities in the EU15 are in the UK? Easy solution, just leave the EU!
200iq, ladies and gents
And the UK who are net contributors to the EU can keep its money.
And then get more poorer due to idiots like you who don't understand simple economics. The whole reason why the UK politicians and 17.4 million stupid people want to leave is because the tax haven loophole is going to be closed, and richer people, like Johnson, Farage, Rees-Mogg etc... are getting scared of their wealth being taxed even more
@@ruthbashford3176 and you will see the money Ruth?
plezx29 it’s a joke
Remember cost of living goes up and down drastically depending on the areas too. Central London has high incomes but you need a high income just to live there, and even then most people can't afford it. Compare that to somewhere like Birmingham or Manchester and the housing is very affordable and cost of living is generally much lower. London is a beast of its own, it is unfair to compare it to anywhere else in England. The fact that it a financial hub is a great thing for the country, but it will create a huge gap in incomes. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. If London didn't exist, the income gap would be a lot smaller, but the high end would be lower, the low end would remain the same so no one would really benefit. Not to mention Englands global presence in the world would also be a fraction of what it is. So stop complaining about what other people are earning. No one is stopping you from doing the same, other than yourself.
Not to derail this discussion, but it is striking how this video could very well be a video made about the United States if you replaced London/Southeast with New York/Washington DC/Northeast/Bay Area, the Northeast and Northern Ireland with the South, and Brexit with Trump.
Unfortunately, as your graph showed, income inequality in the United States is even worse than that of the United Kingdom, and there is not overwhelming political will to do anything about it.
But ... but ... you live in The Land of The Free ...
Ryan McCartney Bernie sanders though . He should have won . Get him in 2020
Well things are actually going astounding well in most regions, despite Trump's ignorance. Affordable health care is a major concern and higher education should be more affordable even if many choose not to use it. But the regional difference cited is very inaccurate. "The South" has many prosperous cities along with the poorer areas as is true of every region in the US. It isn't at all like UK in those terms. However, a true view of things is we need improvement, things could get much better and yes, it is better than any point in history.
@@marconatrix , no matter your politics whether right left or other you have no idea what an American feels about the Land of the Free. Fast trains and healthcare are not what Americans calculate in freedom. You'd have to live there a bit to get it, as has been said by many Brits of different political persuasions who have done so and then spoken quite eloquently about it. Freedom in America has nothing to due with money or services.
Bernie 2020
your production quality is excellent, your channel deserves atleast 100k more subscribers
Unfortunately, because of the UA-cam Subscriber Inequality Crisis, the top 1% of channels have 67% of the subscribers and the the bottom 10% have just 7 subscribers between them.
@@frmcf Clever humor mate
Spelt 'inequality' wrong though!
I mean just because it looks good doesnt mean that the guy has any IQ when he says that germany is in Northern Europe. CHINA IS IN OCEANIA AND AUSTRALIA IS IN EUROPE
@@guppy0112 you both spelt it the same
We Americans laugh at you thinking this is bad
Because it's worse in the States or because that's what you generally want the world to be like?
About time we have the French version of sorting this out.. what happened? Heads rolling
Another awesome video thank you! however, I agree, the sound was really offputting... I kept looking around my room for the clicking/tapping sounds... it was the video...
Please keep making these amazing vids! I can use them to teach my students about the UK!
Inequality is NOT a problem when you have economic growth. In Cuba, Venezuela and North Korea, they’re all equally miserable. The UK needs more freedom, not equality.
You seem to have left out New Zealand from your graph of OECD countries; c. 6.22. Are things now so bad in NZ that it's finally dropped out?
In 1941 Shoghi Effendi (The Guardian of the Baha’i’ Faith) castigated the prevalent trends of society in no uncertain terms:
“Although Europe was the cradle of a "godless", a "highly-vaunted yet lamentably defective civilization",
the foremost protagonist of that civilization was now the United States and that, in that country, at the present time, its manifestations had led to a degree of unbridled materialism which now presented a danger to the entire world.”
This was a nice and welcomed break from Brexit. Also quite detailed explanation, thank you.
I love your simple and elegant animation explanations.
The disparity is worse in the UK because London is such a powerhouse. The main thing with the UK is that wages have barely increased in the past 10+ years, yet rents and house prices have sky rocketed, leaving the less well off struggling to pay rent or get on the housing ladder.
2 bed homes near where I live have gone up £100,000 in 10 years.....it's a struggle to save that amount, it's basically impossible for people on lower wages to save at a quicker rate than house prices increase at.
That was my problem. For more than five years I was struggling desperately on minimum wage, paying my rent (which was continuing to rise in itself), whilst saving for a minimum deposit whilst house prices were rising further put of reach. It was frustrating because for every grand I saved, I found the properties had risen by two grand. It was a soul destroying race to nab my future property in time before I was priced out the market.
My wages stalled and had only risen by about a quid in around ten years. Finally got my property, but instead of a bungalow or house, I could only afford a cheap one bed flat. It's annoying, but I had some comfort in the end. I may never own a house now, and I certainly would not be able to afford cutting my hours down to return to college, but I have my little nest for retirement - even if my boiler doesn't work. Cold showers and appeasing the blod sucking bankers who I mortgaged with are a bitter worthwhile price to pay when I consider I am no longer enriching some sit on his/her backside landlord.
Really... guys, just guys... hold on... stop it... I'm an immigrant here in the UK. Yes it is good to ask for better conditions and better opportunities but not when you are after others people money. Have you ever though how is the UK standard of living is vs other parts of the world. Here in the UK just by earning minimum wage you can enjoy luxuries than most countries in the world, more than 80% PLUS of the countries. There is always going to be differences un salaries as not everyone is as talented and hardworking as others. In every country there is people with the same education and same ages/sexes/etc and they both have different outcomes when talking about wages just because at some point the made different choices. So just cut it.
Where did you get the data for GINI coefficient?
Most of this problem can be traced to a handful of causes:
* Centuries of centralization in London have concentrated the non-survival industries in a single area, which has left other areas barely able to survive economically.
* Thatcherism seriously damaged a lot of the regional economies of the UK. London got lucky in that its biggest industries, such as banking and insurance, are the sorts of sleaze that survive in that sort of regime. The rest of the UK was not lucky.
* When a significant percentage of your economy is pure gambling and money movement "hello insurance and finance", and the other industries are barely surviving, it creates this exact type of income disparity. The same thing has been happening for years in the US. It happened in Hong Kong as well.
Sleaze is a word I haven't heard in a long time, it's over due a revival!
What does "disposable income" mean? Is that after all your basic necessities are paid food housing utilities or is that your total income for the year ?
It's after paying just taxes if I'm not mistaken.
@@bri1085 The dictionary agrees with you.
I was taught that income before taxes was "gross"; income after tax was "net" (aka "disposable"); and "disposable" was what was left after paying for bills and everything essential and non-discretionary stuff, but apparently this is called "discretionary".
Not even it’s the money left over from taxes. Excluding food, hygiene and clothing items.
Another reason is how the trade unions destroyed there base with extremist self serving leaders leading to a massive fall off in union power ,eroding any collective bargaining power on wages . Business leaders either encouraged this or at least were not believing there luck especially with government onside.
Really interesting and well prepared presentation!
Why is it bad that the rich have gotten richer? Wealth isn't a finite resource, it's created. The rich have gotten richer over the years but so have the poor, the rich are just getting richer faster. If you found a dollar on the ground and Bob found 10 dollars are you being oppressed? No both you and Bob are better off than you were before.
Inequality is worse than being poor. That's why people in third world countries are happier. Inequality gives people above you a lot of power over you. They can get stuff like women and other resources more easily than poor people. Money is not the only resource.
These people live off benefits
That's right...because the under class economy called the gig economy cannot sustain them. What would you have them do??? Die under a bridge.
As a Londoner I deeply resent people suggesting that London is some kind of bubble. As a more right leaning friend of mine once complained on this trope "I invite those people to come down here to try and live. They'll see the streets aren't paved with Gold." Loads of UK social problems are evident in London. If you live in London and don't see them, you're doing your damnedest not to pay attention.
I am not familiar how the income differentiates between regions in the UK.
But whenever I see these videos on germany and they say that in the south they earn the most money. They never mention that the most expensive citys are in the south. Munic, Nürnberg, Stuttgart etc.
@@elalcazar7374 A complaint I have heard from Germans, particularly women, is that labour law and companies are more sexist in Germany than in France. As in, in France there is a lot more support at the government and even company level for mothers. In Germany there is more scope for being professionally punished for becoming a mother.
@@dewittbourchier7169 Depends. Once you are hired this is not an issue( I had 3 colleagues getting pregnant and entering back into work after their parental leave). But young woman are certainly under some scrutiny before they are hired. Or so I heard at least(I am only 29 and have yet to experience or witness this). Though i highly doubt this will be staying this way in the future, since germany is facing a serious shortage of skilled workers and employers will not have the luxary to be picky.
Please describe what kind of income inequality you would prefer to see?
Roy Rosales one based on equality of opportunity, whereby those who reap the greatest benefits pay a reasonable amount towards raising the potential of others.
(An MD MBA who knows he wouldn’t be where he is without the good fortune to grow up in a safe area with good schools, and who also knows he’ll never have the same wealth as many of his classmates will inherit despite never substantively working)
Roy Rosales The effective multiple for income inequality that is sustainable is where those in middle class roles earn about 7 times what those who work on the shop floor do. Before Thatcher and Reagan there was an informal agreement to keep to that ratio as being a fair incentive to better yourself and improve.
Uk public: ahh! why is income inequality getting so big!
Conservatives: *slowly pass money to their friends*
Uk public: Austerity will fix it!
Thought I was going loopy looking at that tax code.
The greatest contributing factor to wealth inequality is uncontrolled mass immigration, in the UK's case especially from Eastern Europe. An unlimited supply of unskilled labour ensures there is no upward pressure on wages, which is great for the owners of capital but a disaster for the poorest and stupidest in society.
It's almost as if the more money you have, the more money you can get.
A thought experiment:
Scenario 1
You earn 24k a year. 2k a month.
You spend:
-700 a month on rent
- 250-350 a month on food
- 150 on bills
Making a conservative guesstimate, you spend 1200 ish a month on staying alive. That's at least 60% of your monthly income (before taxes) on basic living expenses. Not a lot of room for saving.
Scenario 2
Now let's say you earn 500k a year. 40k a month.
You spend:
- For a 170 grand house you pay about 700 a month towards the mortgage.
- let's say 400-500 on food
- let's say 300 on bills
Here the basic living expenses tally up to roughly 1500. Let's round that up to 2000 because we like to live extravagantly. That's only 5% of your monthly income, leaving LOTS of opportunity to save, invest, and further develop your wealth.
And, of course, if you have the opportunity to invest and grow, you will.
@@Flanker-NineZero Indeed. Also see the vimes theory of boots. If you have money you can afford better quality stuff that needs replacing less often, so being poor can be very expensive!
I'd also like too point out that a lot of the problems creating income inequality are furthered by income inequality, creating a positive feedback loop that may be difficult to break. The education gap will become worse as poorest people won't be able to live near good school worsening their children's grades, and for housing as everyone tries to give their children the best advantages that they'll now need and to escape worsening schools they'll do their best to live near the best schools driving up housing prices, all further worsening wealth inequality and wealth inequality further worsening them.
The regional imbalance is an example of Ricardo's Law of Rent in operation. There is a more detailed analysis in Progress and Poverty, by Henry George. I was hoping that these authorities would have been referred to in the explanation.
Sadly the UK moved away from a better paid manufacturing base to poorly paid service sector jobs in the early 1980s and this has led to a decline in individuals financial standards. As a nation public services were funded by North sea oil & gas + the banking sector in the City of London, so UK governments didn't worry too much until the global financial crash in 2008. The divide is growing and is being made worse by directors bonuses, shareholder dividens, off shoring, cheap imports and individuals with huge property portfolios.
As a guy who was broke a couple of years ago, a guy who's family never had anything, wealth disparity is such a biased topic. You can change you wealth so well, yet for some reason blaming wealth disparity is more comfortable than changing your own habits. We're told to go to school get a good education so you can earn more but then end up hating on the people that do earn more? Hypocritical right? The UK is one of the easiest countries to make money in. You just got to know how. The UKs main export is financial services, and the hub for financial services is London. So how could you expect the rest of the country to have as such a high gdp as London? We don't export goods, we don't produce that much, but living costs outside London is great, the pound goes way further up north than in London. 80k for a house in the Midlands is too much in some people's eyes, yet that couldn't buy you a 1 bed house in London. Hence why the gdp is much less in the North, they literally don't need to earn as much.
Cars still cost the same, fuel still costs the same, computers, tv's and food still cost the same in the north.
What da fuq
@@wb9957 I disagree, I live near Brighton and regularly visit places like Leeds, Derby and Nottingham - the prices for bills, food and so on are significantly lower than where I live. Differences in prices for accommodation is the most apparent thing though. You can struggle to buy a flat in Brighton and yet buy yourself a nice sized family home up north with money to spare. The argument regarding cars and computers etc, you may be correct to an extent in regards to retail pricing (even though I tend to notice much more discounts up north). But, second hand items tend to be significantly cheaper. The point is that the cost of living up north, generally speaking, is significantly lower overall and wages reflect that.
Aya yaya yaya yaya Ya..... this plonker dont know wtf he is on about.... in Somalia you can only earn a £1 a day... but its ok as the house cost £200 to buy... and of course their GDP is low as they need less money to live..
Because if I make money than that is a proof all people without money are lazy cunts..
If those fucking northerners pulled their fingers out of their arse and moves to London they would be rich too....
You see.. my success is down to my work ethic.. which is why those that work harder then me earn less... because they are stupid...
@@dinsel9691 ???? No one is questioning your work ethic apparently you are so butt hurt.
Very interesting and elucidating! Thank you!
The causes:
1) Fair equalisation of wealth between global regions.
We used to import wealth by cheap labor produced goods. Increased wages mainly in Asia is equalising labor. This means lower wages and less spending power here for those who compete. Those who have scarce skills can now service more globally and see wages go up.
2) demographics
The older generation accummulated wealth and rights, while the young are confronted with a wealth protecting old generation. Italy eats it young the most in Europe.
3) central bank policy (low interest rates) pushes up asset prices and that increases the wealth gap. This is temporary as inflated prices are illusionary.
Don't forget the older generation will have to sell off their inflated assets at some point. It should be obvious they'll have too few buyers with too little money to sell them to.
@@Mitjitsu and just like that the bubble bursts.
England has a housing shortage. As difficult and unpopular as it may be they need to build more houses and apartments for people to live in.
1:55 Central London average household income is 24k? You mean roomhold?
It was "disposable income" at 24k.
Later in the vid when he shows areas of the uk the one including london has an "average income" of £47k
When I lived in Liverpool and worked as a forklift driver I made £18k/year and paid £400 for a nice small furnished flat. Now I live in London. I make £23k and pay £1550 for the same flat... But I make "more" :D
If you live in London and have a decent job your literally working to survive !
If you are on Universal Credit you are only allowed 6,000 pounds in the bank before they start taking money off you, so there is no legal way of having the money necessary for a mortgage. It's called the benefits trap for a reason.
So, given by the tone of the video you hold the belief that income inequality is a legitimate issue - how would you propose solving it?
Income inequality is not that difficult an issue from a practical standpoint, it's just difficult politically. Heavy investment in education, support for SMBs and entrepreneurship, a social security system which can secure against most bumps in life (sickness, pregnancy, etc.). And taxing the housing market. This last one might seem counter-intuitive, but the reason why you have such exaggerated housing prices is because there's huge capital pressures on property, and if people are able to resell too easily with profit you just add more capital pressures to the housing market as now they got more money to outspend other buyers, and of course all of this is fuelled by ever growing debt, so by taxing the housing market you alleviate the capital pressure by punishing people from taking on more debt than they can pay for out of their salary (instead of by reselling the property).
And yet those earning a poverty wage will work much harder than the majority enjoying a wealthier lifestyle.
I would have to criticise education, taxation of those earning less than £25k p.a, American consumerism, bad eating, drinking and smoking habits.
And then we have student fees for those who aspire academically, punished for wanting to escape their poverty.
One of the benefits of wealth is the ability to never have to work for the greed of others.
Another benefit is ability to exploit the tax system. The poor will subsidise the tax evaded by billionaires and corporations which then pay them a poverty wage to work for them.
Many profitable companies in the UK exploit taxpayers to subsidise their costs and then simply funnel their profits elsewhere to evade tax.
1:20 - spellcheck on "inequality"?
Couldn't help but notice how economically equal everyone is compared to the US. Our bottom 80% make up only 7% of our wealth.
1:19 Typo
Ineqaulity
I find it very irritating when people say that rich people can employ someone to find loopholes in the tax system and pay less tax... It shows a complete lack of understanding of how tax works. It is impossible to pay less tax if your only earnings come from an employer since PAYE handles the calculation and payment. Everyone with a salary pays tax through PAYE; you can only adjust the amount of tax you pay on investments. The people that avoid tax at a higher rate of their savings than any other are the middle class through the use of ISAs. The lower and middle class can invest most of their annual savings in tax free ISAs, thus avoiding tax. Why is this any different to someone with more wealth moving it to any other legal vehicle to lower their tax bill legally?
The key here: NORTHERN Europe, not just Europe
But Britains regions outside the capital are also poorer than the EU 15 average, which includes say... Greece. A country that has been though a great depression in the last decade. In fact if we exclude the UK and do the same for Greece comparing it with Northern Europe we would get exactly the same result with exactly 9 regions of the country making the top 10 of poorer regions.
And it's fair game. We use EU 15 and northern Europe as benchmarks because the east is a different story, we already know that everything is fucking better than the 10 regions in Romania where people make 2000 euros per year. No offense to Romanians.
They have not mentioned education and the the low $5000 are unemployed and little mention of the top 1percent over $250
Let’s just seize the means of production, seemed to of worked well in Russia 🤔
Or you could try cutting through red tape to have more houses built.
Or just follow Sweden or Germany’s lead.
What I would like to see are income inequality statistics that are controlled and look at things like social class upon birth, change in social class over time, level of education, type of career, etc.
Not even gonna lie I wanna be part of that 0.1% one day
shlibber preferably a Wednesday
Out of interest, how would you like wealth to vastly change your life? What is it that you’re after?
Everyone does
You won't.
VwertIX I bet you have a lot of friends
This vid is only about a year old! TLDR's production quality has improved a lot in that time. Well done.
Is this income numbers before Tax or after Tax. Don't forget the rich pay alot of Tax also reduce their income
Definitely need an update of this
Well I lived in both Northern Ireland and south east England at the momento. The income in NI might be less, however, the cost of living is WAY WAY cheaper, I used to earn less there that I do here, but I surely feel poorer here in South East England.
Jean Tavares
Exactly.
I am from the UK and I live in the north "West midlands ", and as you go south to London along the M 1 motor way, you can literally see the way the country work's change. Down there it goes brighter, and then as you go north it goes dull , but that's my observation ! . The best indicator of how devided the UK is "Richest and Poorest " the Grenville tower desater in London is the best indicator of how bad it is ! . I am going to make a prediction if and when the covid 19 takes a real hold in the UK watch the poorest areas and neighbourhoods , if they loose control those part's of the UK will be come fire breaks, that's we're you will see the highest number of cases first and probable death's, and that will show that the UK government has lost it. But I could be wrong, just have to wait and see, Every one be safe.
Why does income inequality matter?
Because the 1st world should not be like the third world. Mexico and Brazil have ridiculous inequality.
wealth inequality increases restlessness and violence
Ask the last Czar of Russia.
Because it kills democracy and turns it into a plutocracy through buying up of the government. Plutocracy then puts it's own best short term interest in mind instead of the society as a whole leading to socio-economic collapse. (Great depression is a massive example). Also tho not always it does not help that in most cases the richest are the most ruthless who got it all from daddy and spent their money killing competition and keeping monopolies through lobbying instead of actually adding value to the society. e.g Scientists
Jimsy Very good point...
One thing that shouldn't be overlooked is the increased living costs of living in and around London combined with the fact you're going to be paying higher taxes as a result of what income bracket you're going to be in. For example if you £30k in the north of England you'd like need to be earning £65k in London to make it worth your while to move down there.
Is this all including taxes or no?
yes
What makes me laugh is all the people who want to be back in the eu don’t relise that the uks inequality started the same year you went in the eu. Got worse until the crash of 2007. Dropped back and bit then got to it’s highest just before 2016. It’s dropped again since you have left. And you wonder why the rich remainers want you back in the eu. Where it costs them less to ship you your goods. Where they made far more profits.
Lincolnshire represent 😂
I love in Lincoln and our household income is around 250k so not all people live on benefits round here 😂
"5000 pounds a year"
Those numbers smell like bullshit
It's not it's true
3:13 its not tenth, its decile...
why is this a problem exactly...?
Inequality leads to resentment and hatred. It also leads to poor education. When those two things combine you get angry citizens. That's why governments pay for more facilitation of surveillance which is quite apparent in the UK would you not agree? Problem is, at some point that boiling point will be reached and people with nothing to lose and much to gain often revolt against the system. It's so obvious, even a child could grasp this concept.
The rich gets richer by spending like the poor and always investing without stopping while the poor stay poor by spending like the rich without any investment...
Wise words dear
You're right Lucas Moore...... thanks for introducing me to Expert Posten Amanda
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Questions arise. What produces the differences in income? When and why is a difference in income a problem? What changes do you suggest?
Many subsidiary questions arise. For example, do you take into account geographic mobility?Do you take into account economic mobility? Do you take into account age? Is the average income in a region really a useful indication of anything?
Rich people will move to nice areas. In most countries, those in the top income ranks frequently are only there for a few years, falling back to middle or even lower income brackets. Sometimes due to such a thing as selling a house or some such. Middle aged folk are usually richer than those just starting out because middle aged folk have been working for a couple decades.