What might the length of your personal piece of string tell you about where you stand in society’s present unequal distribution of wealth?
Dorset’s local Green Party branches have continued successfully engaging with residents, discussing common concerns, challenges and solutions. The Blandford branch’s regular market day stall, with its welcoming ‘Meet Your Greens’ banner, displayed an intriguing graphic illustrating the depths of inequality that exists in the UK.
It equated a level of wealth to the length of a piece of string, and invited curious passers-by to compare the length of their personal piece of string with that of others – especially with those who have far more than they could possibly need for a comfortable life, and those who have far less than they need.
The typical wealth of people in the 25-34 age group is around £110k. If we represent this by a 1.0 metre piece of string (the length of a long stride) then a homeowner with a mortgage would have a 3.7m length, and a homeowner without a mortgage would have a 5.9m length. Whilst a millionaire’s piece of string would be greater than 9m long, a billionaire’s would be greater than 9km long, or nearly 6 miles.
On the same scale, almost half the UK population is calculated to have savings equivalent to less than a 1cm (1/2”) length of string. The relentless increase in the level of UK child poverty is a national scandal, accompanied as it is by the steady increase in the number of excessively wealthy individuals. In 1990, 15 UK billionaires held £27bn. By 2024 their number had swollen to 165 with a combined wealth of £670bn.
The so-called trickle-down theory of economics claims that wealthy people share their wealth by creating jobs and paying tax – but in reality much extreme wealth is actually generated through property speculation, financial markets, inheritance laws and tax avoidance schemes – extracting wealth, rather than creating it.
Exposing all this is far from a ‘politics of envy’ as some try to portray it. It is actually a politics of care, fairness and concern for all of our fellow citizens.
Ken Huggins for the Green Party
