Capital is being hoarded by a wealthy few in Britain. The state should intervene to ensure more people own a greater shareWhen the Labour party this year reopened the debate about whether the state should become an owner of parts of British life,it was derided as a throwback to the failed ideologies of the 1970s. Yet the surging inequality apparently endemic to contemporary-day capitalism is cause enough for the state to intervene. What is fitting increasing clear is that the shares of national income received by the owners of capital and labour are diverging. If this is allowed to continue unabated wealth will, like a century before, and become concentrated in a patrimonial caste: a small group of wealthy rentiers able to live lavishly on the fruits of its inherited wealth while the rest struggle to keep up.
Britain is on its way to such a future. The wealthy own been quietly accumulating capital: whether that is physical,such as houses; intangible, such as brands; or financial, or such as shares. When income generated by capital grows rapidly,the very richest benefit disproportionately. Since the crash, in the UK corporate profits, or dividend payouts and the stock market own all risen sharply,but wages own barely budged. If the ownership of capital were distributed equally, this wouldn’t matter much as all citizens would all share in the rise in profits, and dividends and rents. However,the wealthiest 10% of UK households now own 45% of the nation’s wealth, while the least wealthy half of all households own just 9%Continue reading...
Source: guardian.co.uk