Inequalities

Month: June 2012

  • Car salesmen and disabled people unite!

    The drive to reduce inequalities can find allies in surprising places.  This is the message in this very quick post on the latest report from the We Are Spartacus campaign in the UK – a grassroots group trying to draw attention to the impact of austerity on disabled people.

  • Who’s afraid of John Maynard Keynes

    Who’s afraid of John Maynard Keynes

    The next few posts from Robert de Vries will cover some issues raised by a recent event held at the University of Westminster; ‘Increasing Inequality: Causes, Consequences and the Great Recession’. This past Friday, the University of Westminster held a day-long event on the causes and consequences of inequality, particularly as it relates to recession. […]

  • People’s experience of growing inequality: a closer look at the “middle”

     The next three posts from Charlotte Cavaille are based on the talks heard at a conference held by Cumberland Lodge on Attitudes to Wealth and Economic Inequality in the UK. Thanks to the Cumberland Lodge’s generous invitation, Charlotte spent a day and a half in the idyllic surroundings of the Great Park, Windsor, sharing with a […]

  • Addiction Treatment Works: Why Not Invest in It?

    What if I told you that your state could invest in a program that produced seven dollars of benefits for every dollar invested? What if I told you that this program improved quality of life, health, and economic wellbeing for disadvantaged people? Now, what if I told you that the program was substance abuse treatment? […]

  • Inequality and the Angry Society

    “I didn’t eat this morning. I’m wearing my niece’s clothes. I just was violated by my mom’s boyfriend. I go to school and here comes someone that bumps into me and don’t say excuse me. You hit zero to rage within thirty seconds. And you act out.” These are the words of Ameena Matthews, spoken […]

  • Perceived fraud in the benefits system

    It’s impossible to understand political attitudes towards the benefits system without thinking about ‘deservingness’ – that is, whether claimants are seen to be deserving. (Regular readers will know this is one of my abiding interests). This week I want to quickly look at a key aspect of this: how much fraud people think there is. To […]

  • Are Fragmented Cities Making us Unhealthy?

    In Chicago there are 1,492 separate local government jurisdictions, including 366 school districts. In Miami there are only 36 jurisdictions, and 2 school districts. The fragmentation of local government has real political consequences: smaller districts can compete for the advantaged by offering tax breaks. More school systems reduce the opportunity to mix students across racial […]

  • Social mobility and ethnicity in the UK

    In a guest post, Neil Smith reviews the evidence – including his own – on the links between ethnicity and life chances in the UK, and why this matters for the drive to improve social mobility. In March 2012, we heard that over a half of the UK’s Black youths aged between 16 and 24 […]