How many homes does the UK need to build to address the #Housingcrisis?
To be clear, of course, that not all the crisis is just about supply... there are issues of #socialhousing provision & #inequality wrapped up in the crisis too, so more building has to be part of a bigger strategic response.
But, nonetheless looking at international comparisons of dwellings per capita will give us some indication.
And the shortfall looks to be growing against international (OECD country) norms!
How are minorities stealing from white people when 70% of us are poor and 50% of all WOC earn below poverty wages? Sorry but the thieves are your own. They're stealing from you and you're literally opening the door for them and offering lemonade. #whitesupremacy#inequality#racism#minorities#billionaires
"Under the law, which dates to 1901, if a tenant’s rent is a day overdue, they forfeit their right to be in the property. If they don’t leave their homes within 10 days of getting a notice from their landlords, they can be charged with a misdemeanor and fined for each day they overstay." #inhumane#criminal#wealth#property#homeless#prison#housing#inequality
We would all be earning a 6 figure income without billionaires:
On average, extreme inequality is costing the median income full-time worker about $42,000 a year. Adjusted for inflation using the CPI, the numbers are even worse: half of all full-time workers (those at or below the median income of $50,000 a year) now earn less than half what they would have had incomes across the distribution continued to keep pace with economic growth. #inequality
#Capitalism#Inequality#JobMarket: "Capitalists acquire assets through frugal saving, hard work, or coming up with groundbreaking ideas, they might argue. Why should society deny them the freedom to use their justly acquired assets to start a business or acquire shares in an existing enterprise?
The first problem with this argument is that many capitalists do not become owners through thriftiness or honest work. Many simply inherit wealth from their families. Others acquire it through defrauding others — tricking other capitalists, for instance, into investing in questionable or downright fake business ideas. Being lucky enough to have a rich parent, or shameless enough to deceive others out of large sums of money, shouldn’t entitle one to decide how society disposes of its wealth.
Occasionally one comes across a true rags-to-riches story, where a person starts out at the bottom of the class hierarchy and manages to scrimp and save enough start-up capital to launch a successful business or invest in others’. But it doesn’t follow from stories like these that the superrich should be given the power of job creation and all that comes with it. Even if a person works hard to become a capitalist, why should that effort be rewarded with the power to personally decide how society’s resources are used and to rule over employees as despots? No matter how they got there, it’s unclear why owners should be able to acquire enough wealth to dominate the political process and effectively make a sham out of our democracy.
Socialists say: they shouldn’t. Everyone should have equal opportunity to contribute to major economic decisions — including what is produced and how — and everyone deserves to be rewarded for the fruits of their labor, including the workers who are mercilessly exploited under our current system. We should stop simping for parasitic “job creators” and demand that their wealth and power be shared with everyone."
For those of you/us who prefer #GDP per capita as a measure of #economic 'health', the recent flatlining of the UK's economy is all too obvious...
But what this also show is the relative lack of growth since the global financial crisis in 2008.
For the #DeGrowth crowd this (pragmatically) might be good news, but unplanned & chaotic degrowth is likely to have severe effects patterned by #inequality.
If degrowth is to be a thing its need to be planned not a reflection of a lack of a plan!
Every time a "conservative" says there is "no money" to make people's lives better the proper response is to thank them for calling for restoring pre-Reagan/Thatcher tax rates!
(Yes MMT, but we do need those high top tax rates to fight inequality and outsized political influence.)
It may be a little simplistic to say the poor have more compassion and honesty than the wealthy. But one things for sure, I trust the poor a whole lot more than I do the middle class and the wealthy. The things that class privileged people and whites of all classes say is straight cruelty. They are cruel people. They would be the ones to welcome Hitler had this been during his reign. They wouldn't even admit to being blinded by hate. #holocaust#hate#inequality#classism#racism#hitler#trump
The wealthiest spend under 4% of their salary on groceries and likely about that much more for fine #dinning. The poorest of us spend 25% of our salary on groceries and very little on dinning out. I spent 90% of my non housing expenses on #food. #Socialservices would not increase my #foodstamps to more than $23 a month despite rent being 70% of my pay. Meanwhile the medical professionals who drive #tesla & Audi demand we work harder. Who is the real welfare scrounger? #inequality#hunger
Oh, it was #Reagan. And it's now the #GOP. By gutting school lunch programs younger children are getting less nutritional food. Our health got worse and our health care costs got higher
And finally, 1980s is when the wealthy got wealthier with tax cuts that benefited corporations and the rich
"The beginning of the Reagan administration is a watershed moment in the economic history of the U.S.,” he told us, pointing to his book, “Foundations of Real-World Economics.” “It was the end of the New Deal philosophy and a turn toward the idea that the market can deliver a good life.”
By driving down #inequality, the New Deal and the Great Society literally lifted up the most vulnerable (and often shortest) Americans...."
One important aspect of being financially vulnerable is the amount of #savings you have for a 'rainy day'.
A new Resolution Foundation report suggest more than 11 million #workers (and working-age people) have a saving buffer of less that £1k... & less than a third of working-age households had more than three months income in reserve (saved).
This morning I'm posting two new reports on the labour market;
the second is from Economics Observatory which looks at 'labour market power' in the UK and concludes that its has changed little (although perhaps move in a positive direction for #workers).
The report examines differences in the #inequality of power between employers & workers by virtue of the differences (by concentration & dominant working practices) that pattern sectoral employment.