Something on income mobility to consider
I am currently reading a book called Changing Fortunes by Stephen Jenkins and one of the main findings in the book notes that around one fifth of the UK population are poor at any one time – that’s the same as in Saudi Arabia.
(The figure confirms, though, that this is a static figure – see here)
But due to poverty dynamics in the UK, and bearing in mind tax-benefit changes since 1991, many more people are “touched” by poverty, though quickly enter out of it. On the plus side, persistent poverty is felt by very few and its prevalence has been felt less over time due to those tax changes.
Whether this result has been made in accordance to rising cost of living, I’m yet to find out. But it is quite an interesting picture – not, however, without its problems (pertaining to income mobility, excluding reference to wages, earnings or wealth).
What, of course, it does suggest is that government intervention to tax changes, namely in the form of tax credits, has helped many from falling into poverty. The welfare system does work, but the fact that one fifth of the population are poor at any one time shows us there is plenty more to be done.
I believe as a society we are getting poorer. We are losing our capacity to grow and are becoming stagnant. Our banks do nothing to help stimulate creative forward looking business and government is too busy creating new taxes to try and balance the books. For the average man in the street, we are worse off today than we were this time 10 years ago and there is no end in sight.
I think we will see a far greater proportion of our society plunging into the type of poverty than cannot be escaped. Like debt, joblessness, hopelessness and as a consequence crime will rise and Britain will slip quietly from being a first world country into being the new second world, while China advance steadily into poll position.