Keith Sansum1 wrote:
I, and many like me are not in envy of those earning millions but want some kind of justice.
Here's a graph showing the Gini Coefficient for the UK historically ,from the excellent Our World in Data, the Gini Coefficient being a measure of income spread varying between zero (equality) and 100% (one person has everything)
The coefficient remained fairly stable over hundreds of years with even a game changer like the industrial revolution making very little difference.
The changes [U]towards[/U] equality have come with the two World Wars where, for the very survival of the nation, Parliament was able to authorize taxation to support unprecedented levels of wartime expenditure (The standard rate of income tax, which was 6 per cent in 1914, stood at 30 per cent in 1918 - and much the same happened with the 39-45 conflict, and when you tax people you tend to tax those with money)
One could argue that with the lack of serious conflict since 1945 inequality is generally rising towards a more normal level.
One could also argue that professional workers have become a lot more productive than people in the same profession even 20 years ago with the use of technology so should be rewarded better - whereas the unskilled overweight tattooed morlocks are no more efficient at serving me coffee or cleaning my house so don't deserve any more.
On a happier note, if you look at the Gini coefficient for age at death it was about 50% in the mid nineteenth century. It's now 10% so at least more of us are living to roughly the same ripe old age.
