Poverty and Inequality

Labour’s failure on inequality

Gary Duncan has a really important and useful article in The Times today on the issue of persistent and deep-rooted relative poverty in the UK - something which transcends the political posturing of recent days and weeks over the furore about the abolition of the 10% starting rate of income tax.

“The stark truth is that after a decade of Labour Government, Britain is a nation of greater income inequality, in which the plight of the very poor has worsened. True, Labour has succeeded in lifting half a million children out of poverty since 1998. Yet the Government’s figures are based on a poverty line drawn at 60 per cent of average incomes. If it is placed, instead, at 40 per cent - officially defined as “severe poverty” - the picture looks much bleaker, with the numbers of children in such dire straits no lower than in 1997.”

This is a superb article to read for those students revising for exam questions on income and wealth inequality. A BBC news article from March highlighted the widening wealth gap and here is a reminder that inequality is not solely a question of disposable income.

The rest of Gary Duncan’s article can be found here

Well that camel ain’t gonna fit there…

Over the last few weeks it seems like I’ve been discussing nothing but competition policy so I’ve decided to omit the two new stories about the OFT challenging tobacco companies and supermarkets, and cover something else a little more miscellaneous: the annual bitch about the UK’s super-rich.

Revision: Income Inequality

In this revision note we recap some of the causes of income inequality in the economy and look at what has happened to income inequality / relative poverty in Great Britain in recent years. Aimed at AS and A2 students.

Revision note:
Revision_Income_Inequality.pdf

Malthus in The Moral Maze

I’ve long been waiting for a chance to plug one of the best radio shows on this blog, and now is the perfect opportunity. Yesterday aired one of the most economic topics on The Moral Maze yet: the allocation of most necessary resource: food. Philosophy took a back seat on this issue as the panel threw words like Malthus and de-regulated markets around like they had PhDs in Economics. Impressive.

Do have a listen, and don’t let the religion tag scare you. 

Money’s too tight to mention

Rising prices have reduced the average household’s standard of living by £5 according to various news sources today. The data for January 2008 shows how rises in the prices of food, petrol, transport and household bills have affected real incomes.

Poverty and Brain Development

This looks like an important report from University of Pennsylvania’s centre for cognitive neuroscience reported in the Financial Times last weekend. And an interesting piece to include when teaching about the longer term external costs and consequencea arising from increases in relative poverty within society.