Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Industrial Revolution. Despite the negative effects at first, the latter subsequently
led to huge progress in reducing the inequalities in society and in cities, while new
ideas about the rights of man led to the eventual creation of democracy in the west-
ern world.
For much of the twentieth century the trend in inequality reduction continued in
developed countries, often under the label of progressive policies. But by the late
1960s it was realised that many individuals and groups had not shared in this prog-
ress and, sadly, were unlikely to do so. Indeed the condition of the most disadvan-
taged deteriorated in the next three decades, in part because of the results of dein-
dustrialisation, globalisation and technological change, which has led to increasing,
not decreasing levels of income inequality, a situation exacerbated by neo-liberal
policies favouring the market. The resultant growth in inequalities is seen in many
developed countries but is increasingly stark in Britain (Mount
2012
), a country that
was a pioneer in so much progressive legislation. By the fourth quarter of the twen-
tieth century the post-World War II trend of rapidly decreasing inequality in Britain
ended, as shown by several studies (PG
2009
; IFS
2011
; Portes and Riley
2011
). The
Gini coefficient based on disposable household income in Britain was 0.26 in 1979,
but under the new Conservative governments reached 0.35 a decade later. Despite
a small reduction during the 13 years of the Labour government due to new tax and
benefits policies which prevented major increases it resumed this high level, reach-
ing 0.39 by 2009 which was the highest for 30 years. Focusing upon the amount of
wealth obtained by the lowest and highest income groups provides an even starker
picture of inequality. In 2009 the poorest tenth of the population had only 1.3 % of
the nation's income and the second poorest only 4 %. In contrast the richest tenth
have 31 % and the next richest tenth 15 % of the national income. In a more personal
sense for employees it has been calculated that the average pay ratio of a chief ex-
ecutive officer to the average employee in Britain has risen from 47 to 128 in the
last decade (Mount
2005
). Recently the French economist Thomas Piketty (
2014
)
in his book
Capital in the Twenty First Century
has tried to explain this inequality
by arguing that it is a consequence of the fact that wealth rises faster than economic
output, a view based on his detailed analyses of returns to owners of wealth, wage
earners and economic growth. Like Marx, Piketty sees the concentration of wealth
as an inevitable consequence of capitalism, except in conditions of either great tech-
nological progress, or when governments intervene, which has happened since the
post World War II period, but has now been reduced by neo-liberal policies. This
structural inequality in global capitalism led Piketty (
2014
) to the view that there
should be a global tax on wealth, a recommendation that has sparked controversy,
although this view is mild when set against the belief of Marx and Engels (
1845
) that
only a transformational change in society can alter the inequality.
Fortunately, the persistent problems of the disadvantaged in this trend of greater
inequality have not gone unnoticed. A series of pioneering topics have gone beyond
the specifically poverty issues and stressed the need for greater social justice, of-
ten focusing on the role of societal influences in maintaining the difficulties of the
disadvantaged (Harvey
1973
,
1989
; Lefebvre
1968
; Claval
1978
; Wilson
1997
and
