Week 1 Book Report

Welcome to the first week of “The Weekly Book Report”, please appreciate that as the first post this will be the inaugural attempt to find the correct tone for these posts, so please bare with me. Anyway here goes.

In the world of inequality, the phrase “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer” is commonly cited, in addition to Scandinavian countries such as Finland being held up as a veritable utopia for social welfare and equity. Inequality and the 1% regularly addresses these tropes with the dominance of Scandinavia in equality being a regular conclusion in the variety of structures Dorling addresses. While largely focused on the US and UK, the book still emphatically argues for the wider hinderances that inequality can create in the pursuit of more equitable global prosperity.

Inequality is more than just economics – it is the culture that divides and makes social mobility so painful, both for those dropping down the income and wealth scales and for those going up.”

Inequality and the 1%, p.24

The book is organized around the structures that can aid the entrenchment of the 1%, namely, childhood, work, wealth and health. The angry style Dorling employs in Inequality and the 1% is not unreasonable at points but some significant considerations do need to be made. Being part of the 1% may consciously or unconsciously be a goal for some, a position from which helping the local community is possible and lastly a status that comes with significant achievement in some profession or interest. Inequality and the 1% largely sees this elite group as in some ways the sole active perpetrator of inequality in Anglo-American culture.

Childhood

Concerning education and childhood Dorling points to the wealthy not only paying significantly more for private education but subsequently also seeking a reduction of their funding toward the state education that they begin to see as sub par. Citing the example of parents bidding thousands of pounds for unpaid internships for their child is just one way in which the path to the 1% is kept within a specific community. Children in families within the 1% benefit substantially from their situation and this often serves to widen the gap to the 99%. The state that Dorling presents is an overwhelming pessimistic one in which parents effectively pay for their children to be trained as a member of the 1%.

Work and Wealth

This section flows smoothly from the factors addressed in childhood. A notable takeaway from this section being the insular nature of the 1%. Ideas that Dorling address inevitably lead into the section on wealth.

By 2012 the best off tenth in the US were taking over half of all personal income…by one estimate, the top 1 per cent saw its take rise to 22.5% of the national total.”

Inequality and the 1%, p.57

Income alone does not guarantee a consistent presence in the 1%. The truly super rich are often not just those with substantial incomes but also with historic assets and contacts and know-how that allows them to protect and hide such wealth. What is regularly noted though and is always a shocking statistic is the income inequality. However, this is not the only problem in inequality generally and should not be presented as such (Dorling does not fall into this trap which is to his credit).

Health

I won’t spend much time on this section, it is an interesting chapter but the correlation between wealth and better health to me at least seemed relatively common sense. Dorling points these out with ample evidence, notably that the lack of stresses of survival on lower salaries is just the foundation for the wider divide, that treatments, activities and healthcare can be more easily afforded simply extends this inequality.

Interestingly though recent studies have shown that this is the first generation of children in which those from the richer families in society have lower rates of obesity than the poor.

(This is part of an interesting historic narrative of a transition from nobility’s extravagant consumption, with obesity related diseases such as gout having been seen as a symbol of wealth)

Perspective Piece

Inequality and the 1% is fascinating as it provides ample evidence to support the conclusion that the 1% needs to have their influence curtailed. Dorling also highlights that the 1% is becoming increasingly stratified and this stratification is much more pronounced than toward the 99%. Effectively the book is less about the 1% and actually about the super rich (the 0.1/0.01%).

All the rich are doing very nicely, but since 2011 the divisions within the richest have been widening.”

Inequality and the 1%, p.91

With the current political climate there have been many questions that have arisen toward the treatment and existence of the superrich as well as the largest of companies. It is worth noting that personally I do believe that these individuals and companies should be held accountable. In a simplified understanding such staunch inequality should not exist, and taxes were a small way to attempt to rectify this. Financially much more needs to be done but in the other facets of life, more tolerance and understanding needs to take place, as harmful as the 1% and increasingly the top 0.1% can be financially, it is the insular nature of the community that leads to deeper social problems.

There may be a couple of posts over the next week about specific parts of this book that were interesting but for now, I hope you enjoyed the first report and look forward to the second week with the book linked on the “Book List” page.

Cheers, and as always feedback is much appreciated.