I look up (a little) to him, and down (just a fraction) on him…
We Britons don’t understand the levels of income inequality in our own country. A quick & dirty web poll, as part of the ToUChstone Middlebritainometer tool shows that the poorer you are, the more you overestimate your position on the UK incomes scale, and the richer you are, the more you underestimate it. People in the top 20% of incomes see themselves as being pretty close to the average.
Stewart Lansley has a good blog post on ToUChstone about this, as it echos his work on the pamphlet “Life in the Middle: the untold story of Britain’s average earners”, and it also chimes well with Tom P’s ‘bestest ever blog comment‘.
TUC Gen Sec Brendan Barber said:
‘It is depressing but perhaps not that surprising to learn that the rich think that they are poorer than they actually are. But we also find that people on really low wages don’t appreciate just how badly off they are compared to other people. Everyone seems to think they live in Middle Britain, and that our country is more equal than it actually is.’
‘But when most commentators talk about Middle Britain they get it wrong, making the same mistake as the rich in our survey, thinking that people well up the income scale are in fact middle earners. For all the talk of Middle Britain being the key group that decide elections, they have not had a fair share of economic growth since 1979. If people knew the truth about just how unfairly distributed income and wealth is in Britain, then they would be angry.’
PS: For international readers wondering what the piccy is, I’d suggest that 1:40 spent checking out this legendary Frost Report sketch from a more certain age may be time extremely well spent.
Tags: income inequality, Middle Britain
