Super-rich are topic for professor's talk (From York Press)

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Super-rich are topic for talk by Professor Richard Wilkinson

7:51am Wednesday 15th February 2012 in News Photograph of the Author By Kate Liptrot, kate.liptrot@thepress.co.uk

ALL advance tickets have been snapped up for talk by a celebrated academic who believes that the inequality symbolised by bankers’ bonuses is at the root of almost every social problem.

Professor Richard Wilkinson, of Colton, near Tadcaster, who has travelled around the world speaking about his theory, is due to deliver his talk Inequality: The Enemy Between Us’to a sell-out audience at Clements Hall in South Bank tomorrow.

The academic suggests that the greater the gap between the rich and poor in a developed society, the worse off its people are overall.

Countries with higher levels of inequality, such as the USA, Britain and Portugal, suffer from a higher level of social problems including teenage pregnancy, crime rates, drug addiction, reduced life expectancy, mental illness and obesity, which has a negative impact on everyone within society, irrespective of wealth.

Countries without such a significant gap between rich and poor, such as Japan, Norway and Sweden, have lower rates of such social problems.

Speaking about bankers’ bonuses, Prof Wilkinson said: “The reason why we have become so unequal is those at the top have run away from the rest of us. It’s the rich running ahead and I think it has to be stopped. We have to deal with tax evasion. We also have to have employee representatives on company boards, as happens in most of Europe.

“The bonus culture is a reflection of a complete lack of democracy. These people feel they can do what they like and we must make them accountable.”

He said the difference between the lowest and highest paid people working for companies in the FTSE 100 differed as much as 300-to-one whereas in the public sector it was not more than 20-to- one. The retired professor, who currently has a visiting professorship at the University of York, is the co-author of The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, along with Professor Kate Pickett, also of the University of York.

They have spoken around the world to audiences including religious groups, Government groups and charities.

Doors at Clement Hall open at 7.30pm tomorrow. All the advance tickets have been taken but a very small number of tickets is expected to be available on the door.

Comments(10)

Amoco Caditz says...
8:32am Wed 15 Feb 12

‘a celebrated academic who believes that the inequality symbolised by bankers’ bonuses is at the root of almost every social problem.’
A bit of a broad statement that one! There has to be some input from the victims of inequality into their own social problems.
‘The academic suggests that the greater the gap between the rich and poor in a developed society, the worse off its people are overall.’
This issue is the basic Milton Friedman (Chicago School, Neocon) economics model that was trialled in Chile under Pinochet (with hefty aggression to control the populations resistance to put it mildly), Argentina & Bolivia. The model was further developed and tested in post communist Poland and the USSR and the ultimate clean sweep test bed was ‘free Iraq’. The new test bed is recently ‘free’ Libya and coming soon to Syria & Iran!
‘Countries with higher levels of inequality, such as the USA, Britain and Portugal, suffer from a higher level of social problems including teenage pregnancy, crime rates, drug addiction, reduced life expectancy, mental illness and obesity, which has a negative impact on everyone within society, irrespective of wealth. Countries without such a significant gap between rich and poor, such as Japan, Norway and Sweden, have lower rates of such social problems.’
There has to be some input by the victim. Norway and Sweden have completly different kinds of government and commerce; they are much more social capitalists with stronger community values and a high minimum wage. There is extreme pride in working and severe embarrassment in claiming benefits.
“The bonus culture is a reflection of a complete lack of democracy. These people feel they can do what they like and we must make them accountable.”
Well at the minute it seems that they can! I do not agree with it but one professor is not going to change the present status quo.
All the people who have attempted to radically change the existing status quo within western capitalism have suffered or been silenced one way or another due to the corporate interest backed state security services/ smear campaigns/ Spin Dr’s/ PR/ minor offences turned into political trials or worse. Think of Dr David Kelly!
To problem is for the majority is that there is too much money and power to be had by the minority to allow real change to happen and they will hang onto that by any means at their disposal…. And that includes your elected so called democratic government, past and present!
Further reading one this very subject:
Naomi Klein - The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
George Monbiot - Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain
Norman Baker MP – The strange Death of Dr David Kelly

Its not my system and I don’t believe in it but its up to us to change it before it really is too late!

‘a celebrated academic who believes that the inequality symbolised by bankers’ bonuses is at the root of almost every social problem.’ A bit of a broad statement that one! There has to be some input from the victims of inequality into their own social problems. ‘The academic suggests that the greater the gap between the rich and poor in a developed society, the worse off its people are overall.’ This issue is the basic Milton Friedman (Chicago School, Neocon) economics model that was trialled in Chile under Pinochet (with hefty aggression to control the populations resistance to put it mildly), Argentina & Bolivia. The model was further developed and tested in post communist Poland and the USSR and the ultimate clean sweep test bed was ‘free Iraq’. The new test bed is recently ‘free’ Libya and coming soon to Syria & Iran! ‘Countries with higher levels of inequality, such as the USA, Britain and Portugal, suffer from a higher level of social problems including teenage pregnancy, crime rates, drug addiction, reduced life expectancy, mental illness and obesity, which has a negative impact on everyone within society, irrespective of wealth. Countries without such a significant gap between rich and poor, such as Japan, Norway and Sweden, have lower rates of such social problems.’ There has to be some input by the victim. Norway and Sweden have completly different kinds of government and commerce; they are much more social capitalists with stronger community values and a high minimum wage. There is extreme pride in working and severe embarrassment in claiming benefits. “The bonus culture is a reflection of a complete lack of democracy. These people feel they can do what they like and we must make them accountable.” Well at the minute it seems that they can! I do not agree with it but one professor is not going to change the present status quo. All the people who have attempted to radically change the existing status quo within western capitalism have suffered or been silenced one way or another due to the corporate interest backed state security services/ smear campaigns/ Spin Dr’s/ PR/ minor offences turned into political trials or worse. Think of Dr David Kelly! To problem is for the majority is that there is too much money and power to be had by the minority to allow real change to happen and they will hang onto that by any means at their disposal…. And that includes your elected so called democratic government, past and present! Further reading one this very subject: Naomi Klein - The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism George Monbiot - Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain Norman Baker MP – The strange Death of Dr David Kelly Its not my system and I don’t believe in it but its up to us to change it before it really is too late! Amoco Caditz