Is inequality an unavoidable fact of life? Danny Dorling | Comment is Free

It’s easy to think that inequality is inevitable but, says Danny Dorling, we are living in extraordinary times.
The overall wealth of the richest 1,000 people in the UK has doubled in six years. Not only should this not go on, but it can’t go on.

Suggested videos:
►
►

Guardian playlists:

More Guardian videos:

Other Guardian channels on YouTube:

[AnnoyedDragon]

When you have Conservatives in power, any suggestion of raising taxes on the rich is considered "radical". They won't do it. The assault on public services are in part an attempt to spare money to give the rich even more tax cuts...

Of course it's not sustainable, but not for the stated reasons. You cannot have a consumer economy when the incomes of consumers are being strangled. That's why the economy is so dependant on debt, because there isn't enough earned in wages to fund the sort of spending the economy demands.

We're at debt saturation, incomes are stagnant and any spare money is being hoarded off shore by the rich. Which will only get worse as the Conservatives continue to grant tax cuts for those who won't spend it back into the economy, at the expense of those who would have.

We're heading for economic disaster and they're probably already drawing up plans on how to take advantage of it... Look how well the Conservatives did out of the last economic mess, which despite claims otherwise; can be traced back to being the fault of Thatcher and her deregulation. They'll use the crisis as a excuse to dismantle even more of the state to fund their crony agenda.

[windokeluanda]

A few comments.

If being rich is to have money in the bank (forget it because money is bank is debt creation)...
If being rich is to have property (forget it because property values only on the transaction moment)
If being rich is to have financial assets (forget because that is the biggest joke of all: pricing assets has not a credible theory supporting it)

So start to treat each human in a human way REGARDLESS what he/she things about how rich he/she thinks he/she is.

Others think that they are rich because they belong to the X% of rich is your problem BECAUSE you agree with that fairy tale! Because they "improve" the system to make you believe on that... actually they snare with the possibility that one day you will be like them...

It is an old stratagem the mythology is full of them remember the snake and Eve "because God knows that if... you will be like him"...

[grayfoxv]

No, it isn't.

We just need a complete socio-economic system overhaul.

[smartiepancake]

Couldn't quite bring himself to say "Land Value Tax", why?

[purpleblush]

tax the rich. tax the rich tax the super rich tax the super TAX THE SUPER