Distribution of Wealth, Poverty, and Income in the UK
The distribution of wealth, poverty, and income in the UK refers to the unequal allocation of financial resources among the population. It encompasses the disparities in assets, earnings, and living standards across different socioeconomic groups. This topic is of significant interest in understanding social and economic inequalities within the UK.
8 Key excerpts on "Distribution of Wealth, Poverty, and Income in the UK"
eBook - ePub- Martin Bronfenbrenner(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...CHAPTER TWO Variations on the “Distribution” Theme Economics vs. Business: Income vs. Wealth 1. The distribution of income, of wealth and of such related entities as “wages” or “liquid assets,” means, in economics, its division among various social groups and classes, usually in consequence of the workings of an economic system. This usage contrasts in a confusing way with the meaning of the term distribution in business administration. There it relates to the physical process of distributing goods from their point of production to their points of consumption, and may be used synonymously with “marketing.” In these chapters, we follow the economic usage; from this viewpoint, such questions as “Does distribution cost too much?” are meaningless. It is important to distinguish between the distribution of income and that of wealth, although academic practice used “wealth” in both senses as recently as World War I, and popular practice still does so. Income is conventionally regarded as a flow of returns from human and nonhuman assets alike, while wealth is a stock of nonhuman assets (plus slaves, a human asset, where the institution of slavery survives) and an increment of wealth is a component of income. 1 The distributions of income and wealth differ widely, depending (chiefly) on the importance of “human capital” as an income-earning asset, and on the rate of return obtained as income in different societies. Comparing the United States and the United Kingdom, for example, the distribution of income, as commonly measured, is more unequal in the United States, while the distribution of wealth is more equal there. 2 An incomplete and superficial explanation of this disparity is the greater concentration of British wealth in residential housing and other forms of “consumer capital” whose returns, if any, are not recorded as income...
eBook - ePub- David McCrone(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications Ltd(Publisher)
...7 Inequality, Poverty and Power So much for looking at who runs Scotland. But who gets what? How are wealth and income distributed in Scotland? Note too our use of ‘power’ in the title. It is not an alliterative afterthought to poverty and inequality, but central to understanding Scotland, indeed any society. Nor is power a zero-sum game which you either possess or not, and, in any case, it works most effectively when it is opaque. In capitalist societies, money makes the world go round. Martin Wolf, the economics commentator, observed: ‘In a society dominated by wealth, money will buy power’ (Financial Times, 15 April 2014). Chapter aims To analyse the distribution of wealth and marketable assets in Scotland, and how it has changed over time. To focus on what the most and least wealthy own, if anything, and how particular kinds of assets are distributed. To examine how income is distributed in Scotland, given that for most people it comes from wages and benefits. To review poverty in Scotland, treating it as the other side of the coin of ‘affluence’, and asking who is most susceptible to being poor, and in what senses. To treat ‘poverty’ not simply as something which attaches to individuals and households, but which has spatial dimensions. To explore the extent to which Scotland has particular features with regard to wealth and income, and set our understanding of these in a wider, global, context. The power of money By looking at how material assets, specifically wealth and income, are distributed, we are assuming that money, in the form of wealth, assets or income from labour, is what makes the world go round. In his influential book Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty commented: For millions of people ‘wealth’ amounts to little more than a few weeks’ wages in a checking account or low-interest savings account, a car and a few pieces of furniture...
eBook - ePubThe Economy of Ireland
National and Sectoral Policy Issues
- John W. O'Hagan, Carol Newman, John W. O'Hagan, Carol Newman(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Gill Books(Publisher)
...When the value of housing is excluded, the distribution of financial wealth is more unequal, with the top 1 per cent controlling 34 per cent of all wealth. These numbers suggest that wealth is more unevenly distributed than income in Ireland and this conclusion is consistent with international experience; even in countries with relatively equal income distributions such as Germany and Sweden, the distribution of wealth is very unequal. Despite the fact that some older people in Ireland tend to suffer from relative poverty, a second group of older people enjoy significant personal wealth, such divergence reflecting the outcome of a lifetime of divergent income paths and investment decisions. This divergence occurred during Ireland’s economic expansion between 1994 and 2007 as significant increases in returns to employment occurred in some professions and at management level in the private sector, while stock market and property investments early in the period produced very high returns. As property prices and the stock market have fallen significantly since 2007, inequality in wealth will have reduced somewhat in Ireland. Poverty Outcomes Absolute Poverty Poverty can be described as the state of not having enough money to take care of basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter. At a broad level, poverty can be measured in either absolute or relative terms and is generally calculated as a head count indicator; the fraction of the population falling below a minimum standard of income. Absolute poverty is defined as the fraction of the population below some threshold of income. The simplicity of absolute poverty, and its specified income level, is undermined by the need to change the threshold income level as countries grow and the cost of living rises. For example, a measure of absolute poverty in 1960s Ireland would be out of date in the 21st century. The theoretical distinction between inequality and poverty is worth noting...
eBook - ePubUnderstanding Society
Poverty, Wealth and Inequality in the UK
- Carlo Morelli, Paul Seaman(Authors)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...4 THE TOP 10% Income and wealth inequality DOI: 10.4324/9781315179957-4 Introduction In Chapter 3, we demonstrated how the use of the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS), Understanding Society, could be utilised to examine the characteristics of households in extreme poverty and test for the validity of the policy discourse around a deserving and underserving poor. The evidence derived from the data demonstrated the structural nature of extreme poverty in which specific household characteristics not only increase the likelihood of a household falling into the lowest 10% of the income distribution but also ensure the household’s ability to escape extreme poverty is severely curtailed. The conclusion drawn from these findings was that extreme poverty is a socially constructed structural phenomenon within the UK, developed through specific ideologies aimed at creating an ‘undeserving’ pool of extreme poverty. Poverty and inequality are therefore not simply due to differences in human decision-making but instead linked to structural features of the UK economy whose influence differentially impacts upon those at the bottom of the income distribution. However, it is not sufficient just to locate the existence of extreme poverty as structural poverty when examining inequality. We have to be able to examine the extent of similar structural inequalities existing elsewhere within the income distribution, and in particular in the area of extreme wealth for the highest income households. The extent of poverty and inequality then is a social decision in any society and those at the bottom of the income distribution are required to suffer the consequences for this decision-making while those at the top benefit from these social decisions...
- Peter Flora(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Part Four Economic Equality: The Distribution of Incomes Chapter 6 The Historical Development of Income Inequality in Western Europe and the United States Franz Kraus I. Problems in Examining Income Inequality A. Defining Income Distribution Today material welfare is much less dependent on market incomes or rewards for labor and property in the production process than in earlier times. Direct and indirect taxes, transfer payments, and the provision of public services—all consequences of the growth of the welfare state—have clearly weakened the importance of wages and assets in determining economic status. To analyze income inequality with respect to the development of the welfare state, we must distinguish between a producer inequality that simply refers to market incomes, and a consumer inequality that reflects the final distribution of income after taxes, transfer payments and the consumption of public goods have been taken into account. To assess income inequality from a comparative and historical perspective, we must ask how these two fundamental aspects of economic inequality differ from each other, how they vary between countries, and how they have changed over time. Furthermore, we want to examine the relationships between producer inequality and consumer inequality: who finances, and to what extent, public expenditures, and who benefits, and to what extent, from transfer payments and public goods? Because of the shortcomings of available sources, particularly for previous periods, quantitative assessment of the extent men benefit from public goods is most difficult. 1 Similarly it is difficult to estimate the impact of public expenditures on income inequality through changes in factor demand and supply, such as the extension of public education or the civil service...
eBook - ePub- Harlan M. Smith(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...It does not suffice simply to say so in so many words, because it is likely to be taken as a norm unless at least a few of its difficulties are presented. And since distribution is so important to everybody, and such concepts as the ability concept tend to be tied to the marginal productivity concept, a word about such is also needed to stimulate students to think about parts of accepted ideology—not to provide a different normative answer, but to disabuse them of the notion that economics has given a definitive answer to a question that involves a variety of ethical issues. 25. More on the Distribution of Income and Wealth The marginal productivity theory of distribution deals only with the functional distribution of income by purportedly explaining the pricing of productive services in the factor of production markets. That pricings however done and explained, is only the first step in determining the income of any person, household, or family. The textbooks usually say that that income, the personal or size distribution of income, is determined by the pricing of productive services and the distribution of ownership of such productive services. And so it is. But there is no textbook explanation of the distribution of ownership of productive services, as important as that is. The reason for the omission is that there is no economic theory to explain it. Only history explains it, that is, describes its evolution. Clearly it is partly a result of the operation of an economy over time, the results cumulating. As popular ideas have it, not incorrectly, it takes money to make money, so to some extent inequality tends to grow. “Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations,” another popular saying, indicates that excess stupidity can crop up in any family line at times. It can happen, but even moderate prudence would enable the wealthy to become wealthier if their gambles were confined to half their wealth while the rest was invested safely at compound interest...
eBook - ePubInequality and Stratification
Race, Class, and Gender
- Robert A. Rothman(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...In one sense the income gap can be seen as a working out of the American Dream, with wealth going to those who work the hardest—wealth is a just reward for effort and talent. And yet, most Americans express some reservations about the current distribution of money and wealth. A full 62 percent of Americans feel that money and wealth “should be more evenly distributed among a larger percentage of the people” (Gallup Poll, 1996). The rest feel that current economic patterns are “fair” or have no opinion. Forty-nine percent of Americans in one poll went so far as to agree that the income gap was morally wrong (Smiley, 2000). As would be expected, opinions on the fairness of the current system are shaped by class, race, and gender. Women are somewhat less likely to endorse the fairness of the current situation, as are minorities. Judgments of fairness are directly related to the size of income, with one-half of the people in families earning more than $40,000 seeing the distribution of financial resources as fair, with the percentages declining to only 16 percent of those in the $10,000 or less income bracket. It is not surprising that perceptions of the fairness of the stratification system are defined by the size of the rewards people earn from the existing system. Key Concepts annual income chronic poverty deinstitutionalization earnings gap homelessness living wage movement net worth poverty poverty thresholds working poor Suggested Reading EileenApplebaum, AnnetteBernhardt, and Richard J.Murnane, eds. Low-Wage America. New York: Russell Sage, 2003. The authors in this collection show how technology and globalization have prompted employers to cut wages in order to compete, although they also provide examples of firms that offer decent pay and benefits. DennyBraun. The Rich Get Richer: The Rise of Income Inequality in the United States and the World, 2nd ed. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1997...
eBook - ePubSocial Work and Poverty
Attitudes and Actions
- Monica Dowling(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...1 The relationship between social work and poverty This chapter defines the concepts of poverty and social work as they will be used throughout the book and traces the past and present connections between poverty and social work. It is suggested that although there is a historical, factual, objective relationship between poverty and social work, there is also a subjective interactive relationship between social workers and those in poverty which is based on professional traditions, the casework model, and social workers' own attitudes and actions. These attitudes and actions are influenced by social workers' training and personal backgrounds and the larger political environment. Relevant to the relationship between poverty and social work, and therefore also included in this chapter are an analysis of the relationship between the income maintenance system and the functions of social services departments, and a summary of the issues concerning social workers as providers of income maintenance and as advocates/advisers on income maintenance matters. A definition of poverty A 'poverty line' which divides those who are poor from those who are not poor could be useful in defining what percentage of the population are poor. However there is a continuing debate about where such a 'poverty line' should be set and to what extent poverty is relative to the society in which it exists (Oppenheim and Harker 1996, Townsend 1979). There is no official UK government 'poverty line' but two sources of government information are Low Income Families statistics and Households below Average Income statistics, both derived from the Family Expenditure Survey. Households below average income (HBAI) statistics are the government measure of low income while 50 per cent of average income is used by CP AG, the European Community and international studies as a measure of poverty...
