One way to be clear about the geographic wealth inequality in the UK is to look at inheritance tax receipts (remembering that only about 5% of estates pay IHT at all).
What we see is that such wealth is skewed towards London & SE England, which is no surprise but what perhaps is, is that across the London region IHT tax receipts were higher than totals for Scotland & Wales, together!
No wonder the rich were quietly backing the Farmers 'farm tax' protests!
@ChrisMayLA6 London is more than twice the total for Scotland and Wales together; but, London has a larger population than Scotland and Wales put together. South West England, which probably doesn't, also has a larger IHT contribution. Those figures would be more interesting if normalised by population.
However, I don't believe this captures the full stratification of wealth in the UK. The fifty richest families are said to hold more wealth than 50% of the population.
@simon_brooke @ChrisMayLA6 This is what's called "envy porn" and its only purpose is to try and rally socialist voters.
The thing is.. we are more or less living in a socialist society with sky high taxes for everyone, so there no longer is an exploited "under class" to rally, and that is why socialist parties all over are collapsing.
The only way out is to find new areas for hatred and polarization. Environment and omo rights seem to be two areas, but I think people have started to see
If anything in the UK we're seeing exactly the opposite - the general impoverishment of over half the population has left the ground very open for left politics - and while some would no doubt characterise that as the politics of envy, others looking at the plight of the poor might regard it as the politics of necessity
@ChrisMayLA6 'The politics of envy' is just propaganda-speak for the politics of equity and justice.
@simon_brooke @ChrisMayLA6 This is actually incorrect, since it what the left talks about is stealing private property from people, and giving it to their supporters, and this theft, is backed, ultimately, by violence.
This contributes to polarization, and the productive part of the population slowly moving away.
The only ethical society possible, is built on voluntary, free exchange, markets and capitalism.
As long as the left does not realize this, we'll continue to have violence, hate,
@simon_brooke @ChrisMayLA6 and wars.
After all, if I threaten you at gun point, to get money, to give to someone else, this is not good. When a person does the same thing, while pretending to belong to an imaginary entity called "the government" it is good.
This is not consequent behaviour. Either we admit the rule of the strong, with argument backed by violence, or we do not.
If we do, we're no better than the authoritarians of the past.
What this all comes down to is the relationship between society, politics & taxation.... while you will fundamentally disagree with it, I think I've mentioned Liam Murphy & Thomas Nagel's great book The Myth of Ownership: Taxes & Justice, which starts from the position that as money itself originates with the state, rather than taxes 'stealing' money from voters, tax is merely the withheld portion of the money the state extends to voters as a benefit.... worth a read!
@ChrisMayLA6 @simon_brooke Well, there have been plenty of private currencies created throughout the world, and the reason it looks like it does, is that the state outlawed all competitors, so I do not quite buy that argument. But you and I know that, and I think we also know where are differences lie, from a philosophical point of view, but I was more interested in poking Simon a bit, to see what his philosophical and ethical foundations are. ;)
@h4890 @simon_brooke
Ha ha, yes I *did* figure that one out....