Inequalities Still Abound .... |
A study by the New York Times of 38 colleges, including Yale, Princeton and Dartmouth, showed that students from the top 1% income bracket, occupied more places than the students from the bottom 60%. Of this year's intake at Harvard, almost a third were the sons and daughters of alumni.
The Office of National Statistics says that the UK is wealthier than ever before. The net worth of UK households has increased by £1.7trillion, however the richest 10 per cent own 44 per cent of that wealth, with the bottom 10 percent only owning 9 per cent of that wealth. But between 1979 and 2007, household income in the top 1% grew by 275% compared to just 18% growth in the bottom fifth of households.
The figures were first collected in the period July 2012 to June 2014, and then the total UK wealth was calculated as £11.4trillion. The new figures cover the period from July 2014 to June 2016, show that figure as £12.8trillion. The worth of the average household is £259,000 (mostly property and pension values) - pension pot values rose 20 per cent in value, in line with the stock market rises and went from £4.4trillion to £5.3trillion. Property values went up by 17%, but nearly all of that because of the continued London housing bubble.
Conversely, Prudential Insurance researchers have found that 1 in 5 (19%), of people who are retiring will owe an average of £33,900 on mortgages and credit cards, or car loans. Most expected to pay it off within 3.5 years and 1 in 7 expected to it to take 7 years, and 1 in 16 (perhaps more realistically), believe that they will never pay their debts off. The proportion of those retiring with debts has actually fallen, but the average amount of debt has risen from £24,800 to £33,900 in just one year.
This may be the result of continued historically low interest rates meaning people are confident of servicing debt .... watch out for that first interest rate rise, possibly later this year, because a national wealth dependent upon mortgages, is a hostage to interest rates.
I think your illustration would be better if the rich guy was the same size as the other individuals but still tipping the balance.
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