By Tom Wilkes of Spirit of Swindon
First the bad news: the gap between the richest and the poorest in a country damages everyone.
It is not just those at the bottom, the gap damages those at the top, too. People living in countries which are less equal in economic terms do worse across a range of social and health-related issues than countries which are similar but more equal. Rates of divorce, mental illness, alcohol and drug addiction, life expectancy and crime are all increased. The poorest may suffer the most but economic inequality also afflicts the affluent. Everybody is affected either directly or indirectly.
So what about the UK? In a world ranking of developed nations where do we stand in terms of the gap between the richest and the poorest in society? Uncomfortably for us it turns out that the UK is among the most unequal developed countries. When the gap between the 20 per cent poorest and 20 per cent most wealthy were compared in 2011 we were the third worst; only Portugal and the USA ranked higher. It has narrowed a little since then but the more affluent have, on average, seven times that of the less wealthy. In Japan and the Scandinavian countries it is around four times. In the UK we have now levels of inequality of wealth not experienced for 100 years and the gap has particularly widened over the last four decades.
Income and economic inequality is present in every town and impacts every single person.
The good news for us in Swindon is that we look better placed than most to do something about it. One reason for this is our strong economic base. We have relatively high levels of employment and a broad range of businesses, including major companies and organisations.
The second reason is the strength of our community networks and the spirit it embodies. Across Swindon there is a multitude of groups supporting and serving their local communities; there is a long tradition of looking out for one another and those who are facing difficulties. It is the spirit of being good neighbours – including people we have never met.
There is no quick fix to address economic inequality and dealing with its impact. Its causes and solutions are complex and debated. Yet that does not mean there is nothing we can do. Over the coming months Spirit of Swindon will look at some of the issues, sharing stories, and giving every Link reader an opportunity to become involved in being part of a change most of us want to see.
This will start from having confidence as people who live in Swindon that we can bring about change – not by complaining and blaming, but recognising everyone has a part to play. Is that true of you? Our individual part may be relatively small but together the impact could be significant. This is not about party politics or grand strategy – it is about seeing what emerges when we each realise that changing the future starts small and starts with me.
Each month there will be one thing you could do to make a difference with some possibilities. We start here with the ‘one thing’ of finding out more about the impact of inequality. A book called The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett is very significant. Go to www.bit.ly/2fFp9jo or www.bit.ly/1EOmngh for info.
There are people in Swindon who are choosing between eating a meal and having the central heating on – fuel or food. Buying something to contribute to the collection for a foodbank at your local supermarket might be that ‘one thing’ which helps them.
You may well have better ideas. Please email them to [email protected] with ‘Spirit of Swindon’ as the subject.
Spirit of Swindon has emerged from a gathering of people who want to raise consciousness of the impact of economic inequality and help Swindon offer a lead to other towns and cities in the UK.
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Your Comments
The idea that inequality is the root of the UKs problems is palpably false as can be readily proven. Just because there has been rising inequality over a time when divorce rates have been rising does not imply causation. As an example the article mentions divorce rates. Divorce rates have been rising ever since the 1969 Divorce Act made divorce easy and marriage worthless – it has nothing to do with the Duke of Westminster having a few bob. For decades now we have been sold the lie that resolving inequality by taxation – taking money from the rich to give to the poor – would make us all better off. It clearly hasn’t. Most of us are living in the same type of houses as our parents were – obviously we are not significantly better off despite the expansion of tax credits over the last few years. What has happened is that the price of houses has gone up and so have rents. So all that tax credit money has simply gone on paying more for living in the same housing, making us more dependent on government which in turn is more dependent on taxes paid by rich people. This is madness.
We simply need to build more houses to push the price down. For a town like Swindon, people live here because there are jobs here – if we ensured there was a house for every job in Swindon we would have a 20% surplus of housing and prices for quality homes would be low, low, low – probably a quarter of what they are today. We’d all be materially better off and less dependent on government hand-outs of our OWN money. Housing is low-impact development compared to industrial space, so there is really no excuse for not building more. It is nothing to do with inequality – Roman Abromovich doesn’t want to live in a 4 bed detached Persimmon home, so he isn’t getting in your way of owning one. It is all to do with the corruption of politicians selling ordinary people the dream of a better life knowing they have absolutely no intention of changing the status quo that put them in power in the first place. Good quality housing at lower prices would leave us all with a higher net disposable income to spend on holidays, UHD TVs or even just more food of better quality. We could all hold our heads high knowing we could provide properly for our children without relying on state benefits.
Posted: 30 November 2016, 2.16PM by: Philip Hoy
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