http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSL1777256220070717
“The divide between rich and poor in Britain has widened to its greatest gap for more than 40 years, a social policy research charity said”
It has happened because “average households” have become poorer: “The proportion of average households fell from around two-thirds of families in 1980 to just over half by 2000”. There are fewer extremely poor people now, but far more near the poverty line, with 27% of families in 2001 being “breadine poor”. The number of “asset-wealthy” households has gone up “dramatically” and stood at 23% of households in 2003.
The root of the problem, according to the report’s authors is “people on higher incomes being overpaid, rather than those on low incomes being underpaid”. And people don’t like it, as this survey from February 2008 shows:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/jun/20/globalisation.ukeconomy
“75%, say the gap between high and low incomes is too wide in Britain”
And 54% of people think taxes don’t make society fairer. So what’s the answer? Increased pay for the lower paid is one possibility. Perhaps the minimum wage should be raised.
The major political parties in this country all seem to be debating taxation at the moment and I see that as a very good thing. I hope we get some sensible and radical suggestions, but I suspect we won’t.
Personally, I’d like to see VAT scrapped and income tax increased to compensate, and more of the tax burden being paid by the high and very high earners. Get rid of National Insurance too and put that on income tax. The tax rules should be so simple that they could be written on a single sheet of paper and be understood by a child. It’s harder to fiddle an incredibly simple system.
Cheers, Tom.
P.S: Only 36% of voters want tax cuts, but 67% think they pay too much tax. Perhaps we just like to moan!.
jenray
Pro 
since bloody when ever?...they won't upset their main supporters by making them pay more taxes, and they're certainly not going to give any more money to the poor they already consider to be cheating the government out of millions...so have no idea how this current divide is going to be resolved...I don't think it is...the tide has flowed in the direction of the obscenely wealthy few and they control so much now, I can see no way the poor are going to find a way of reducing their power...the capitalist West made sure the communist countries in the East failed, and China is moving slowly but surely towards a capitalist system and will eventually be similar to the USA in its division of wealth I suspect....it's something China should watch very carefully if it does believe in a fair distribution of wealth amongst its peoples....the USA certainly doesn't and neither do most European countries anymore...hmmm...armchair revolutionaries are at it again...with no solutions alas...
Big hugs...XX
The whole world is out of kilter between the obscenely rich and the obscenely poor, the latter of which make up the majority of the world's population...this is a disgrace and something must be done to balance the discrepancy more fairly....we in the UK cannot even be called poor even on the bottom of the ladder compared to the poverty in other parts of the world, but, relatively speaking, in an affluent country like ours, the distribution of wealthy is not fair and that causes discontent and strikes and discord. We do like to moan, but we are also loathe to rise up and protest too strongly as would happen in France for example because we are definitely armchair revolutionaries rather than public ones...perhaps a bad thing, but then again we've always been a more passive people than the Europeans until driven to the edge then we fight...obviously we're not on the edge just yet, but might be getting nearer it...big hugs..XXX