Looking at the incidence of relative poverty across different groups its clear that after decades of policies favouring pensioners, the UK has reduced their relative poverty...
So that was the good news, but child poverty has nearly doubled, as have relative poverty of those of working age.
Perhaps more notable the real deterioration took place under the Thatcher/Tory regime.... not so much under the current lot, who've caused other problems!
The science is clear — people in more-equal societies are more trusting and more likely to protect the environment than are those in unequal, consumer-driven ones.
Bigger gaps between rich and poor are accompanied by higher rates of homicide and imprisonment
Greater equality will reduce unhealthy and excess consumption, and will increase the solidarity and cohesion that are needed to make societies more adaptable in the face of climate and other emergencies.
Frances Ryan on the reorientation of the Labour Party:
'There is much discussion about how Reeves wants to make Britain attractive for the rich, but perhaps it is time to focus on making it appealing for the poor. In a parallel universe, there is a Labour party that is putting as much effort into courting the votes of benefits claimants as bankers. In the end, some people matter & others don’t'!
An unsparing report on Massachusetts' administration of public housing, from #ProPublica and #WBUR. More than 180,000 people are on the wait list, while more than 2,000 apartments sit empty.
"...now is not the time to move away from fossil fuels when the country is still reliant on them"
🤔
Let's try that logic in another domain:
'Now's not the time to kick my opiate addiction, while I'm still reliant on it'
😔
-Wouldn't we suggest a variety of measures to wean someone off it?
And in the context of the article, if there were measure available for pain control in the longer term that were not addictive, wouldn't we be recommending them for new situations?
A Radical Plan to Win Back the Left Behind and Achieve Prosperity for All
In this original, engaging book, Martin Sandbu argues that economics remains at the heart of our widening inequality and it is only by focusing on the right policies that we can address it. He proposes a detailed, radical plan for creating a just economy.
#Budget#UKPolitics This article by Gary Stevenson is so good, please read every word of it.
“Whatever Jeremy Hunt says, traders know the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer. And they’re paid millions to bet on it.”
This is what the world is - it is run by a minute elite for a minute elite and the rest of us, the masses, the natural world, we just don’t count. It is a #TragedyOftheNonCommons (will reshare my own piece on this below 1/n)
#FollowTheMoney 🧵 7/n Now something different - this really is a rag bag, really just adding things as they come along, occur to me, no careful crafting! Just things that enable you to trace and understand how money flows to the rich, how accumulation works. So here, a piece, with this fantastic map, of second homes in the UK, in #Cornwall in particular. Key arena of widening #WealthGap#Inequality
India's ‘zero-food’ children shame: 6.7m kids have nothing to eat for entire day
A study that used data from the Union health ministry’s national family health survey for 2019-2021 has estimated India’s prevalence of zero-food children at 19.3 per cent, the third highest after Guinea’s 21.8 per cent and Mali’s 20.5 per cent.
Now would be a great time to resuscitate a reasonable estate tax. This is an easy way to help ensure wealth outcomes are not (almost) entirely a function of whether you happened to win the birth lottery.
"Over the next twenty years, Millennials are poised to inherit some $90 trillion of assets and become the richest generation in history – but only the ones who already come from affluent families, potentially deepening wealth #inequality further."
It's bad enough the wealthy are responsible for the vast majority of #ClimateChange and bringing us nearer to tipping points like excelerated melting of artic ice and ocean currents shutting down.
But, apparently, that isn't enough. A company is now harvesting and transporting glacier ice from Greenland to the coctail glasses of Dubai so the elite can more directly enjoy the environmental damage they cause.
In a world of global supply chains, why aren't workers paid the same no matter their location?
Economically, I get it. I get why production is outsourced to wherever costs are cheapest.
But morally? Just because that's how the system operates doesn't mean that's how it should operate.
New law: every person involved at any stage of a company's supply chain must be paid, at a minimum, the minimum wage of the country in which the company operates.
If you wanted a reason to expand #inheritancetax (form the 3% of estates its currently levied on), this would be it.... a massive consolidation of #wealth is about to really accelerate as the Baby Boomers continue leave the stage (putting it delicately).
A lady runs with a pram along the Sea Point Promenade as The World, an exclusive private residential ship during its 2024 journey to six continents, arrives in Cape Town, South Africa. REUTERS/Esa Alexander
Norwegian salmon farms are taking huge amounts of wild fish from West Africa, mining the food security of the region, according to a report from the U.K.-based NGO Feedback. The analysis comes as the industry faces a wave of public opposition after revelations of high mortality rates and the sale of fish deemed unfit for human...
Is America a Democracy or an Oligarchy? Edited by Eamon Doyle
The viewpoints in this volume examine the development of the country from political, social, and economic perspectives to determine whether the country can still be considered a democracy.
I chair the campus committee that selects the annual “Community Read.” This book is assigned to all incoming first-year students, but faculty, staff, alumni, and the entire learning community are encouraged to engage. It’s one of the cooler parts of my job.
This year, we’ve narrowed things down to these three:
Norwegian salmon farms gobble up fish (from coastal West Africa) that could feed millions in Africa: Blue Empire Report (news.mongabay.com)
Norwegian salmon farms are taking huge amounts of wild fish from West Africa, mining the food security of the region, according to a report from the U.K.-based NGO Feedback. The analysis comes as the industry faces a wave of public opposition after revelations of high mortality rates and the sale of fish deemed unfit for human...