Equality Trust News

Inequality: a threat to social cohesion

Bill Kerry — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:41:24 +0000

As Edmund Conway comments in today's Daily Telegraph:

"It is not merely, as Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett point out in their book The Spirit Level, that this damages health and encourages crime; in times of austerity, inequality can tear apart the social fabric."

Labour is running up a down escalator to tackle inequality

Kathryn Busby — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:38:42 +0000

Tackling society's inequalities is what Labour governments are supposed to be about, and this one has quietly redistributed billions worth of tax since 1997, much of it paid by those fatcat bankers, to alleviate the plight of the poorest.

How much has it got to show for it?

Read Michael White's Guardian article

The five-star lifestyle: "horrible, soulless and without feeling"

Bill Kerry — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:15:14 +0000

Austrian millionaire Karl Rabeder is giving away every penny of his £3 million fortune after realising his riches were making him unhappy. Read more here...

Lynda Gratton: The business case for greater income equality

Kathryn Busby — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:08:33 +0000

Read Lynda Gratton in the Financial Times

[Wilkinson and Pickett's] argument is that societies which are very unequal have all sorts of problems, and I have a feeling that the same is true for companies,” she says. “I think one has to be very careful about what you pay people ... We’ve put far too much emphasis on remuneration and not enough emphasis on, for example, designing jobs that people find interesting, the creation of autonomy, all the things that we know make for interesting work ... There’s a huge emphasis on who gets paid what, and that, in a sense, is the fuel of the consumer society, and I think we’re beginning to realise how dangerous that can be.

Broken Britain due to Broken Families?

Kathryn Busby — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:30:56 +0000

Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson on Comment is Free

Comment Is Free: Inequality harms all of us

Kathryn Busby — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:50:19 +0000

Lesley Riddoch writes that it's not only the poorest who suffer from inequality – in an equal society, fulfilment and health improve for everyone.

Read her article on Comment is Free

Unequal Britain

Kathryn Busby — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:14:05 +0000

Richest 10% now 100 times better off than the poorest.

Read the Guardian report

See the data behind the story

Read other news coverage

How economic democracy would have prevented the Cadbury sell-off

Kathryn Busby — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:15:44 +0000

A letter in today's Guardian points out that employee ownership would have prevented the Cadbury sell-off.

Had the Cadbury family followed the examples of the families behind John Lewis, Ove Arup, Tullis Russell, Scott Bader, the Baxi Group and others in selling their shareholdings into employee ownership, the tragedy of the acquisition of Cadbury by Kraft would have been avoided. If enlightened owners want to avoid the short-term interests of institutional investors always trumping the long-term interests of employees and customers, they know what they have to do.
Andrew Gunn
Former chairman, Employee Ownership Association

Harriet Harman puts class at the heart of election battle

Kathryn Busby — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:50:27 +0000

Labour deputy leader to make inequality a key dividing line with Conservatives.

Harriet Harman will reopen the politically explosive debate over class tomorrowby insisting that it remains the single biggest factor in determining individual achievement.

In a speech designed to put the fight against inequality at the heart of the general election campaign, the Labour deputy leader will unveil a new "inequality bible" which admits that the government has merely slowed the trend in rising inequality despite more than 12 years in office.

Memo to the mainstream: where's the vision, where's the courage?

Kathryn Busby — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:15:53 +0000

Bill Kerry's guest blog at Left Foot Forward

Economics is the real divide

Kathryn Busby — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:19:28 +0000

Daily Mail comment piece

Caroline Lucas: Where now for Social Democracy in Europe?

Kathryn Busby — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:57:54 +0000

...according to the groundbreaking work by British authors Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, the key to reducing the cultural pressure to consume is greater equality. In their book The Spirit Level they set out how greater equality makes growth much less necessary, revealing research which shows that many people would rather trade as much as half their real income if they could live in a society in which they would be better-off than others – showing the extent to which we value relative status over actual material wealth....

Read the full article by Caroline Lucas

The ills inequality brings

Kathryn Busby — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 10:52:00 +0000

It is possible to improve the lives of the poor, the middle class and the well off, by addressing one big problem.

It turns out that reducing economic inequality can reduce a whole range of social problems, from teenage pregnancy and youth violence, to heart disease and depression.

The authors of a new book say the world's rich countries have benefited about as much as they can from economic growth. Improvement in the quality of life now hinges on increasing economic equality.

Read Jerry Large's column in the Seattle Times

Should Wall Street execs be required to donate to charity?

Kathryn Busby — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 10:27:26 +0000

You know things are out of whack when an investment bank is considering forcing its employees to donate to charity.

That plan is reportedly in the works at Goldman Sachs, with bonuses, some as high as eight figures, being paid to bankers this week.

Read the full article in The Seattle Times

The importance of economic equality - Time.com

Kathryn Busby — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:15:06 +0000

Read the Time.com Q&A with ichard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett.

Call for fundamental rethink of the value of work

Kathryn Busby — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:06:08 +0000

Hospital cleaners are worth more to society than city bankers, according to a new method of calculating the value of different jobs published today.

The new economics foundation (nef) called for a "fundamental rethink" of how the value of work was recognised and rewarded.

The think tank said its study shattered some of the myths used to justify high pay and argued that workers such as hospital cleaners or waste recycling workers created more value to society.

Read the rest of the report in the Independent

Read nef's report A Bit Rich

The Spirit Level - New Statesman book of the decade

Kathryn Busby — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:40:52 +0000

Wilkinson and Pickett's study gave scientific weight to a long-held claim of the left: that people are happier and healthier when they live in societies where wealth is distributed more equally. But the book's influence stretches across party lines and its findings are likely to shape political debate for many years to come.

New Statesman's Top 10 books of the decade.

Levelling the bankers' bonuses

Kathryn Busby — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:53:58 +0000

Read a letter by Malcolm Clark, Director of the One Society Campaign in today's Guardian, about the positives for bankers of losing their bonuses.

Peter Preston (The rewards of banking, 7 December) has a point: bankers are human too. Most of them want exactly the same as us: a decent quality of life. But bankers are not islands: they have to deal with (or are inconvenienced by having to avoid) the same challenges and problems in society that we all face. In fact the huge salaries paid – and the beauty-contest "I'm worth it" factor that perpetuates these salary levels – actually make the situation worse: bankers, along with the rest of us, struggle to keep up.

Dr Lynne Friedli on the impact of inequality on mental health

Kathryn Busby — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 09:23:26 +0000

Dr Lynne Friedli talks about the impact of inequality on mental health, in a discussion with John Humphrys on the Today Programme - scroll down to 07.33

Listen to the discussion