Reducing Inequality: Reasons for Hope for 2017

Reducing Inequality: Reasons for Hope for 2017

If high and growing inequality is benefitting fewer and fewer people in the UK and the USA we should be glad that more people now recognise this and not be surprised that when offered a binary choice between business as usual and change a large number will vote for change, almost irrespective of the nature of that single alternative option that is offered to them.

In the USA ‘The life expectancy at 40 years of age in the top income percentile of the United States is better than the mean in any other country for life expectancy at 40 years of age. However, not by a lot, and likely not better than the top percentile in Sweden or the Netherlands. In contrast, the life expectancy at 40 years of age in the bottom income percentile of the United States is located between the mean for Pakistan and Sudan for life expectancy at 40 years of age.’

In the UK in 2016 an annual survey of wellbeing for young people aged 16 to 25 recorded its worse results since it had first been taken in 2009. It found that more than a quarter no longer felt in control of their lives. A third said they expected to have a worse standard of living than their parents. More than a third did not feel in control of their job prospects. A fifth said they did not have the ability to change their circumstances. A sixth said that they thought their life would amount to nothing, no matter how hard they try. And fully 42% said that traditional goals like owning a house or getting a steady job are unrealistic.