9. Some questions about inequality
• Does it exist?
• Is it increasing?
• If yes, why is it increasing?
• Does it matter? If yes, for whom?
• What can be done?
10. Is it true?
• Economic inequalities between rich and poor
countries are decreasing
– In 1990, almost half of the population in
developing regions lived on less than $1.25 a
day. This rate dropped to 22 per cent by 2010,
reducing the number of people living in extreme
poverty by 700 million (UN Millennium
Development Goals Report, 2014)
• But, what about economic inequalities within
countries?
13. The rise of the 1%
Source: http://www.oxfam.org.uk/media-
centre/press-releases/2016/01/62-people-own-
same-as-half-world-says-oxfam-inequality-report-
davos-world-economic-forum
14. In the UK
Source: Income inequality in the UK (House of Commons Briefing
Paper)
15. In the US
Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/03/how-you-i-
and-everyone-got-the-top-1-percent-all-wrong/359862/
20. International real hourly earnings
growth, 2008-13
Source:
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/real-
wages-and-living-standards-the-latest-uk-
evidence/ after OECD, 2014
23. Why is it happening?
• Piketty’s theory
– Income
• Labour income: wages, salaries, benefits, …
• Capital income: dividends, interest, retained profits
of companies, house price inflation, rental income,
…
– r > g
• Return on capital is rising faster than the growth of
national economies
24. The capital/income ratio in Europe,
1870-2010
100%
200%
300%
400%
500%
600%
700%
800%
1870 1890 1910 1930 1950 1970 1990 2010
Marketvalueofprivatecapital(%nationalincome)
Aggregate private wealth was worth about 6-7 years of national income in Europe in 1910, between 2 and 3 years in
1950, and between 4 and 6 years in 2010. Sources and series: see pike y.pse.ens.fr/capital21c.
Figure I.2. The capital/income ratio in Europe, 1870-2010
Germany
France
United Kingdom
Source: piketty.pse.ens.fr/capital21c
26. Well worth reading
• A beautifully written rally
against the “unjust and
dysfunctional mechanisms that
allows the 1% to siphon off
wealth produced by others
through the control of property
and money.”
29. Tax and spend?
• “No advanced economy achieved a low
level of inequality and/or relative income
poverty with a low level of social spending,
regardless of how well that country
performed on other dimensions that matter
for poverty.”
– Marx (not that one!) et al., quoted by Atkinson
(2015)
51. AN UNEQUAL SOCIETY: WHAT
MUST CHRISTIANS DO?
Session 2: Responding to inequality
52. The price of inequality
• Undermines social cohesion, create spaces of
exclusion
• Fuels resentment, encourages cynicism
• Disengagement (from politics; from the church?)
• Wealth, power and undue influence undermine
democratic processes
• Unproductive capital as a cause of crisis in
capitalism; inequality hinders economic growth
• Environmental costs
• Undermines notions of meritocracy and fairness
(social trajectories become determined by
privilege and place – accidents of birth)
54. The price of inequality
• Affects different groups of people
differently
– Gender divides
– Ethnic divides…
55.
56. The price of inequality
• Affects different groups of people
differently
– Gender divides
– Ethnic divides
– The marginalised low-income, White British
57. The price of inequality
• Childhood, education and debt
– Under some circumstances the cost
of University in the UK exceeds £100,000!
• Work and employment
• Wealth and poverty
• Health inequalities
– Age of male deaths in Kensington & Chelsea on average
14 years greater than in parts of Glasgow (12 years for
women)
• Injustice: we like to talk about choice systems but
choice is constrained and we then blame those most
constrained as having made ‘bad choices’
58. What can be done?
• OECD, In it Together:
why less Inequality Benefits All
• Recommends focusing policy
on four areas
– Women’s participation in economic life
– Employment promotion and good-quality jobs
– Skills and education
– Tax-and-transfer systems for efficient
redistribution
59. What can be done?
• See also http://www.tony-
atkinson.com/the-15-proposals-from-tony-
atkinsons-inequality-what-can-be-done/
• But what can Christians do?
60. Luke 4: 18–19
• ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because
he has anointed me to proclaim good
news to the poor. He has sent me to
proclaim freedom for the prisoners and
recovery of sight for the blind, to set the
oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the
Lord’s favour.’
61. But it continues!
• ‘Truly I tell you,’ he continued, ‘no prophet is accepted
in his home town. I assure you that there were many
widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was
shut for three and a half years and there was a severe
famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to
any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region
of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy
in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them
was cleansed – only Naaman the Syrian.’ All the
people in the synagogue were furious when they
heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and
took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was
built, in order to throw him off the cliff.
62. Mark 10
• As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up
to him and fell on his knees before him.
‘Good teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do
to inherit eternal life?’ […] Jesus looked at
him and loved him. ‘One thing you lack,’
he said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and
give to the poor, and you will have
treasure in heaven. Then come, follow
me.’ At this the man’s face fell. He went
away sad, because he had great wealth.
63. Luke 10: 25–29
• On one occasion an expert in the law stood
up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he asked, ‘what
must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘What is
written in the Law?’ he replied. ‘How do you
read it?’ He answered, ‘“Love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your strength and with all
your mind”; and, “Love your neighbour as
yourself.”’ ‘You have answered correctly,’
Jesus replied. ‘Do this and you will live.’ But
he wanted to justify himself, so he asked
Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’
64. Be the change you want to see in the
world
The
Kingdom
of God
Social
justice
Christ
incarnate
Change
65. What might Christians do?
• Christ in community
– Supporting Food banks
– Supporting Christian Aid, Oxfam, …
– Supporting Christians Against Poverty
• Etc.
• These are tackling the outcomes rather
than the cause
66. What might Christians do?
• Speak out
– e.g. the Bedroom Tax is a disgrace
• Write to our MPs
• Show solidarity with those affected
• Show that we care and are concerned
67. What might Christians do?
• Not be drawn in
– Welfare recipients (most of whom are
working) did not cause the banking crisis
– The language of the ‘underserving poor’
strikes me as, underserving
68. What might Christians do?
• Critically reflect and acknowledge
– givingwhatwecan.org estimates that I am in
the richest 4 per cent of the world’s
population, with an income 21 times the
global average
– Do our churches (unintentionally) have
practices of exclusion?
• Mine talks a lot about money (it wants more of it!)
69. What might Christians do?
• Behave ethically
– Do we need to always chase the cheapest
deal?
– Shareholdings in small companies we might
have some real investment in?
– Support and purchase from Cooperatives,
Fair Trade, etc.
70. What might Christians do?
• Welcome the poor
• But also the rich
• All are welcome in the Kingdom of God,
aren’t they?
71. What might Christians do?
• Nudge theory
– Little things can
make big differences
Source:
https://healthpsychology
consultancy.files.wordpr
ess.com/2011/07/4stage
s.jpg
72. Some questions
• Should the church campaign against inequality and, if
so, how does it do so without appearing political (or
should that not matter)? What about the Christian
Right (in the US especially)?
• As individuals is inequality too big a problem for us to
tackle or have you ideas for what we might do?
• Are there practices of exclusion within churches that
(unintentionally?) promote those with power, authority
and wealth? If so, how do we change that?
• How do we speak out against inequality without also
casting out the rich?
• Anything else that comes to mind and that you would
like to discuss?