1% of the UK population owns 23% of the country's wealth.
read the full report here.
50% of the UK population is surviving on 1% of the wealth
Read the full report here.
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=2
Now think about the severe cuts in public spending, cuts to our frontline services and cuts to our benefit system, all in the name of reducing our budget deficit. The benefit system is an easy target, its big, clumsy, sometimes difficult to understand and sometimes open to abuse. What we are NOT told is that usually the ‘abuse of the benefit system’ is a young mum claiming benefit and also working a couple of hours in a pub or café and not, as we are led to believe, huge gangs of organized criminals making a fortune out of defrauding the system. Compare the income and wealth of the young mum who claims benefit and doesn’t declare a couple of hours work with the income and wealth of the top 1% of the population. I can’t think of anything any one could contribute to society or any degree of laziness that would justify such a massive inequality in wealth distribution. With this degree of inequality ingrained into our system no amount of tinkering around the edges and cutting back on essential benefits and services is going to make things any better. Virtually ALL of the proposed cuts in public spending will affect the 50% of the population who collectively own only 1% of the wealth, and I’m pretty dam sure the budget deficit wasn’t caused by them because if it was, there wouldn’t be so many of them who are still so poor. A system which allows inequality on this scale is not an equitable or workable system and so far, no political party has had the honesty or integrity to openly admit this, in fact they all seem terrified of any one who suggests it. Could this be because there are no poor politicians?
I remember our government being pretty keen on regime change when they saw what they perceived as an unjust society……………maybe someone should look at how ‘just’ our society is.
And if you think things are bad in the West, think a little about how much worse it gets on an international scale. If the bulk of the worlds poor ever decided to fight back I think we all need be very afraid.
The richest 10% of the worlds adults accounted for 85% of assets, the report said.
By contrast, the bottom 50% of the world's adult population owned barely 1% of the world's wealth.
Read the full report here.
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/28041-worlds-richest-2-own-half-the-wealth
We live off the fat of the world and we are not even ashamed. Please post in Political Soul if you would.
ReplyDeleteAre you certain you aren't talking about the U.S.? It's so similar it makes me shiver.
ReplyDelete"If the bulk of the worlds poor ever decided to fight back I think we all need be very afraid."
Do you mean the poor should be afraid? I've thought of that, & how it's impossible to fight such power.
We would immediately be ground meat.
A little gem in my bookmarks:
http://afgen.com/feudal2.html
I wonder...if we had comparitive figures for all the major civilisations and societies over the centuries, if we'd actually see much difference in the distribution figures? I very much doubt it.
ReplyDeleteMitchy, I doubt it.
ReplyDeleteGreat editorial comment, yes?
thats one of the saddest things, that we have learnt nothing from the injustices of the past and happily continue down the same road.
ReplyDeleteI've read that report about America before, it says top 1% of Americans own 90% of wealth, thats much, much worse than in the UK, what we have here is pretty awful but not in the same league as there, which is why I posted about here, even if we are not as bad as America, it doesn't excuse the inequality in our society.
ReplyDeleteI would be interested, and may have time now that my kitchen is done, to look at figures from countries such as Norway or Sweden, where there is more of a socialist government.
ReplyDeleteBennett, while I don't think any "ism" is immune to abuse, I'd choose Socialism any day of the week.
ReplyDeleteI'd be interested in what you find, & I hope you post it.
Any degree of inequality is worthy of posting about, Loretta. I was surprised to learn about England...somehow, I'd thought your were much better off.
ReplyDelete"What we are NOT told is that usually the ‘abuse of the benefit system’ is a young mum claiming benefit and also working a couple of hours in a pub or café and not, as we are led to believe, huge gangs of organized criminals making a fortune out of defrauding the system."
We hear the same arguments. We hear that people who are on any kind of benefits use them for drugs & alcohol, sitting on their arses when they could work. The worst is that women have one baby after another in order to get more money. I VERY much a woman would go through that for the pittance she'd gain.
Even if there is some abuse, that doesn't justify denying people who truly need it.
The old saying divide and rule applies as much now as it ever did. All the while those elite few who own the wealth and hold governments in their pockets can get the rest of us to fight amongst ourselves and bicker about who has a few pence (cents) more than they are entitled to, we are not addressing the real problem, which is inequality of wealth. And you were right to some degree, inequality os much much worse in America than it is here, but being 'less' bad doesn't make something right.
ReplyDeleteI'll never forget someone who posted on another web site, (now closed), & within his post he stated that he opposed 'benefits' of any kind, yet also said his wife was on disability & could never have made it on the small amount, if she hadn't married him. ????
ReplyDeleteAre these people brain dead?
So...the virus spreads, & what can we possibly do about it?
no not braindead, just tired of having so little and taken in by the hype, another example of divide and rule
ReplyDelete