All posts by diana Stone

About diana Stone

Diana Stone is a performing composer and musician playing Piano Violin & Guitar. She currently plays with Orchard and The Sonic Boomers. Previously with Rock/Roots band Elephant Shelf and also the Delta Ladies who mixed roots acoustic music and electronica until the death of Vicky Martin who formed the band which was active for 17 years. Diana composes in a variety of styles from pop to rock to Jazz and and classical music. Diana is also expert in multi-media recording and music production.

The Scale of Economic Inequality in the UK

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UK Income Inequality

The UK has a very high level of income inequality compared to other developed countries.

Households in the bottom 10% of the population have on average a disposable (or net) income of £9,644 (this includes wages and cash benefits, and is after direct taxes like income tax and council tax, but not indirect taxes like VAT). The top 10% have net incomes almost nine times that (£83,875). As can be seen from the graph, income inequality is much starker at the top of the income scale, with the group with the 9th highest incomes making only 61% of the top 10%’s income.

Inequality is much higher amongst original incomes than disposable incomes with the poorest 10% having on average an original income of £4,436 whilst the top 10% have an original income 24 times larger (£107,937)1.

UK Income Inequality The UK has a very high level of income inequality compared to other developed countries. Households in the bottom 10% of the population have on average a disposable (or net) income of £9,644 (this includes wages and cash benefits, and is after direct taxes like income tax and council tax, but not indirect taxes like VAT). The top 10% have net incomes almost nine times that (£83,875). As can be seen from the graph, income inequality is much starker at the top of the income scale, with the group with the 9th highest incomes making only 61% of the top 10%’s income. Inequality is much higher amongst original incomes than disposable incomes with the poorest 10% having on average an original income of £4,436 whilst the top 10% have an original income 24 times larger (£107,937)1.

Friedrich Engels in his book The Condition of the Working Class in England

“When society places hundreds of proletarians in such a position that they inevitably meet a too early and an unnatural death… its deed is murder just as surely as the deed of the single individual; disguised, malicious murder, murder against which none can defend himself, which does not seem what it is, because no man sees the murderer, because the death of the victim seems a natural one, since the offence is more one of omission than of commission. But murder it remains.”