Britain will soon become as unequal as America

The ever-increasing social inequality in Britain is of great concern to Nobel laureate Sir Angus Deaton. The country is at risk of heading in the same direction as America and becoming one of the most unequal countries in the world. The chief economist is leading a major study into inequality in the UK. The country fears it has reached a turning point after British workers' wages have not risen for at least a decade. Deaton fears the UK risks catching up with America, leading to extreme inequalities in wages, wealth and health. “You can seriously question whether democratic capitalism is a good idea if it only works for a portion of the population,” the Nobel laureate told The Guardian. Deaton continues sharply: “There are things that Britain still does much better than the United States. What we have to prevent is that the same horror that happened in the United States does not happen to the United Kingdom.” The Princeton University professor confirms that geographical inequality plays an important role in the United Kingdom, where Londoners live disproportionately well-off. “People feel that not everyone is being treated fairly anymore,” the US-based economist said. “They feel that if you live in a part of England, far away from the capital, you will be much worse off, while all the good things happen in the capital. They don’t understand why they are so deprived.” In some ways, the United States is one of the most unequal countries in the world. The wages of unskilled men have not risen for fifty years. Over the past three years, life expectancy for middle-aged and low-skilled Americans has declined, something that has not happened in a hundred years. Similar patterns are evident across the Western world, with Britain leading the way. The richest 1% of Britons have seen their share of total household income almost triple in forty years. The average CEO of FTSE100 companies earns 145 times what the average employee earns. In 1998, the number was 47 times higher. While the income of Britons working in the lowest income bracket has barely increased since the mid-1990s.