Page 13 | To think the problem with wealth inequality is that rich people don't know how rich they are?

Neeroy · 2025-11-17T09:04:06+00:00

Article in the Times today saying that people earning six figures 'don't feel rich'. Because they are surrounded by six figure earning peers they are comparing themselves to people who have more rather than the 90% of the population that have far less. This is why the budget is poorly received in the news, because rich people think they already shoulder too high a burden when in fact compared to everyone else they still have far more disposable income. Even if they have to cut down on the number of holidays they go on. They aren't sitting in the dark under a blanket. Or only making food that doesn't require turning on the oven. I don't think they realise how so many people have to live. https://www.thetimes.com/article/1fb46414-8f65-436f-8f95-451d69626148?shareToken=8061d939633164c0dfbd805240c8e008

MarvellousMable · 18/11/2025 00:00

SalmonOnFinnCrisp · 17/11/2025 09:22

Yabu....

And falling for the rhetoric.
Susan and Doug making 130k each working 60 hour weeks and juggling like fuck trying to raise two kids isnt the problem.

This is the problem...
50 families own more more than 50% of the uks total wealth

Which 50 families? I’ve seen ZP saying this online but he hasn’t named them. I’m genuinely interested in who they are so that their tax v income/ capital gains can be compared. Happy to look into.

Ahfiddlesticks · 17/11/2025 23:59

Neeroy · 17/11/2025 23:45

Reading more of the thread, people saying e.g. £2k on nursery fees and e.g. £400 on car finance. I couldn't afford £2k of nursery fees so I had to use a cheaper childminder and get help one day a week from a family member. Thank goodness I had that because essentially it was double pay that day. I have also NEVER had car finance. I can't afford that per month! I bought a car when I got my first job and then saved immediately for the new one. So when the old one needed fixing I used the car savings to fund it. When it got to the end of its life and became costly to fix I would part ex it for a new one. I've only ever bought and driven what I could afford. My car is currently 11 years old and because it's a boringly reliable brand it'll last me a good few years more. Is it desperately dull? Yes. Would I love a shinier, newer one? Yes. But when you don't earn £100k you don't get to make the nice choices.

Someone called it lifestyle creep. The more you earn, the more you spend. So then the credit or outgoings obligations feel like a millstone around your neck. But if you lived in my house, drove my car and used my childminder you'd have a lot more money to spend!

Great if you can get a childminder. They're like rocking horse poo around here and about £50 a month less than nursery when you can get one.

And family members looking after kids are great if you have them.

So a lot of luck there.

Differentforgirls · 17/11/2025 23:58

Differentforgirls · 17/11/2025 23:57

Thank you 🤣🤣🤣

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Random Z in your post 😆

Differentforgirls · 17/11/2025 23:57

percypiggy200 · 17/11/2025 22:37

Ok so you are not a net contributor - and you haven’t been - to the country. How lucky that other people are motivated by money and have subsidized you. I’m sure they’d love to know that you pity them.

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Thank you 🤣🤣🤣

Differentforgirls · 17/11/2025 23:56

Digdongdoo · 17/11/2025 22:55

Where do you think that cushy pension comes from then?

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Me and my employer. I paid 6% of my salary for 42 years and they topped it up.

Original poster

Neeroy · 17/11/2025 23:45

Reading more of the thread, people saying e.g. £2k on nursery fees and e.g. £400 on car finance. I couldn't afford £2k of nursery fees so I had to use a cheaper childminder and get help one day a week from a family member. Thank goodness I had that because essentially it was double pay that day. I have also NEVER had car finance. I can't afford that per month! I bought a car when I got my first job and then saved immediately for the new one. So when the old one needed fixing I used the car savings to fund it. When it got to the end of its life and became costly to fix I would part ex it for a new one. I've only ever bought and driven what I could afford. My car is currently 11 years old and because it's a boringly reliable brand it'll last me a good few years more. Is it desperately dull? Yes. Would I love a shinier, newer one? Yes. But when you don't earn £100k you don't get to make the nice choices.

Someone called it lifestyle creep. The more you earn, the more you spend. So then the credit or outgoings obligations feel like a millstone around your neck. But if you lived in my house, drove my car and used my childminder you'd have a lot more money to spend!

OP posts:

hamstersarse · 17/11/2025 23:44

Differentforgirls · 17/11/2025 21:00

Private School.

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Sounds pretty resentful to me

Why do you care where people send their kids to school?

hamstersarse · 17/11/2025 23:42

SquareEyedSue · 17/11/2025 23:35

Perhaps the saying “money doesn’t buy happiness” is true and they are experiencing that but tell themselves that if they just earn more then they will be happy.

Greedy cunts.

Edited

It’s just envy you are experiencing

SquareEyedSue · 17/11/2025 23:35

Perhaps the saying “money doesn’t buy happiness” is true and they are experiencing that but tell themselves that if they just earn more then they will be happy.

Greedy cunts.

Joeydoesntsharefood25 · 17/11/2025 23:26

Wealth inequality doesnt mean that people cant fathom how others live. It means the gap between the richest and poorest in society is getting bigger. I am a health care professional NHS middle earner, and I know very well how others live. I have worked in the homes of some of the most deprived families in the most deprived areas. I have volunteered in areas of Africa and Vietnam which made those deprived areas look like palaces. I still dont have any disposable income at the end of the month whilst living a modest lifestyle. I dont think I should pay a lot more tax than I do. I think millionaires and billionaires who have vast wealth should definitely pay more. I think the personal allowance should be raised so those on low incomes should pay less. I think saying people should just get better jobs is ridiculous because there will always be lower paid jobs that are essential to society such as carers and bin men and cleaners and teaching assistants etc. These jobs should pay a wage that affords those doing the job a decent quality of life because we should be thankful these jobs are being done and we should want everyone to live with dignity and respect their contribution to society.

SquareEyedSue · 17/11/2025 23:12

hamstersarse · 17/11/2025 18:56

Communism is childish, as is the attitude of wanting what someone else has just because

I think that is objectively true

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Okay…your views are simplistic.

Original poster

Neeroy · 17/11/2025 23:11

A quick post fired off whilst eating breakfast has certainly taken off!

In my haste to post and go to work I don't think I worded my OP necessarily how I would have with more thought.

Wealth inequality means people cannot fathom how others are living. I do agree with the distinction between rich and mega rich. But it's interesting that people are caught up on the disposable income part. Giving examples of £3k mortgage and £2k childcare and that's where the £100k goes. Without any awareness that if you don't have the money for a deposit and don't even earn £3k a month that 'only' having e.g. £900/month left as disposable income seems a privilege only afforded to 'rich' people.

It is obscene the amount of power billions can buy. E.g. Elon Musk and generations of family wealth who never need to work and live off their investments. And that is mega rich. But honestly, earning £100k year means you then expand your lifestyle to fit your earnings. And fair play to you. You do what you want with your hard earned money. But you are considerably richer than c.90% of the population.

Try using this calculator. £100k household income. 2 adults. 2 children aged 0-13. £300/month council tax. Your income is higher than 89% of the population. Even when you add in £3k housing costs you're still richer than 71% of the population.

2 adults earning £40k each and you're still in the top 69%. Rich is relative.

ifs.org.uk/tools_and_resources/where_do_you_fit_in#tool-results-section

OP posts:

Digdongdoo · 17/11/2025 22:55

Differentforgirls · 17/11/2025 22:25

No one. I retired early. When I was employed - the people. I worked in LG.

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Where do you think that cushy pension comes from then?

bumptybum · 17/11/2025 22:48

What you earn isn’t the whole picture. Someone in one part of the country could live in a grand house whereas someone in London or the south east would, for the same money be able to afford a maisonette or middle of terrace in a very ordinary suburb.

one would feel richer than the other. But the maisonette person might earn significantly more.

percypiggy200 · 17/11/2025 22:37

Differentforgirls · 17/11/2025 22:25

No one. I retired early. When I was employed - the people. I worked in LG.

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Ok so you are not a net contributor - and you haven’t been - to the country. How lucky that other people are motivated by money and have subsidized you. I’m sure they’d love to know that you pity them.

Arran2024 · 17/11/2025 22:31

percypiggy200 · 17/11/2025 21:16

What’s the difference between inheriting £30m and accumulating £30m through earnings? Why is one more likely to dry up? I mean obviously one person sat on their bottom and got the money and the other worked no doubt very very hard for it. But it’s not more unstable if it’s earned

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Earned wealth is taxed more highly for starters. Inherited wealth is in trust funds, tax avoidance schemes. People with inherited wealth know how to retain it.

Most rich people inherit. Not many people earn £30 million and many people who earn wealth struggle to keep it as they mostly stop earning at some point, but still have the huge expenditure.

Differentforgirls · 17/11/2025 22:25

Icebabyice · 17/11/2025 22:08

Why use the word greedy - if no one aspired to create companies to employ people - what do you think would happen? Who employs you?

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No one. I retired early. When I was employed - the people. I worked in LG.

Differentforgirls · 17/11/2025 22:18

cupfinalchaos · 17/11/2025 22:08

Of course having money is aspirational as it gives you choice. Doesn’t mean one shouldn’t also aspire to the other things you mention. Dh is in 0.1% due to his business, always been aspirational to give his family a good life and certainly doesn’t need your pity.

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My post doesn’t apply to you then does it?

Icebabyice · 17/11/2025 22:08

Differentforgirls · 17/11/2025 21:14

I’m not smug. I’m also not greedy.

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Why use the word greedy - if no one aspired to create companies to employ people - what do you think would happen? Who employs you?

cupfinalchaos · 17/11/2025 22:08

Differentforgirls · 17/11/2025 16:15

Why is money “aspirational”. Why isn’t having enough to live on, with a great partner and children, being happy with a nice social life and a comfortable home, great relationships with your wider family and friends, having great ways to relax and laughing everyday due to all of these things “aspirational”. I have the latter and feel pity for people who think the former is what life is about.

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Of course having money is aspirational as it gives you choice. Doesn’t mean one shouldn’t also aspire to the other things you mention. Dh is in 0.1% due to his business, always been aspirational to give his family a good life and certainly doesn’t need your pity.

TheQuirkyMaker · 17/11/2025 21:42

CasperGutman · 17/11/2025 15:20

Wealth inequality is a massive problem, and counting Elon Musk's net worth a dollar at a time would be an unapproachably challenging task for any realistically size team of people to achieve, but I think this post overestimates how much a billion is.

A million people counting one billion dollars would only have to count 1000 dollars each. A teller counting votes in an election would be expected to count a thousand in a few hours at worst - at best perhaps only around one hour.

Yes, be angry, but don't exaggerate.

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Thanks for correcting me, I overdid the hyperbole! Though I did read a responsible journalist saying Musk could do a LOT to alleviate poverty without impoverishing himself, instead he has cut USAID, so becoming the world's richest man who has purposely made the world's poorest even poorer.

FellowSuffereroftheAbsurd · 17/11/2025 21:41

There are those that are clueless, and it can be a barrier to a serious conversation on wealth inequality, but I don't think it's a major part of the problem.

Yes, the people on six figure have wider shoulders than those making 20k, but they're still tiny compared to those who make 6 figures or more from investments and other assets who have a long standing history of bending the laws to their whims.

The only way to have any form of a functioning society is to have competitive capitalism.

And how do we have truly competitive capitalism in a country where a significant amount of the land ownership and asset wealth is connected to having an ancestor who was mates with William the Conqueror?

Having centuries of laws to protect that small group is distinctly anti-competitive and fairly damaging to the country.

MrsKeats · 17/11/2025 21:30

SalmonOnFinnCrisp · 17/11/2025 09:22

Yabu....

And falling for the rhetoric.
Susan and Doug making 130k each working 60 hour weeks and juggling like fuck trying to raise two kids isnt the problem.

This is the problem...
50 families own more more than 50% of the uks total wealth

100% this.

Differentforgirls · 17/11/2025 21:19

dottiehens · 17/11/2025 20:51

May be they can’t afford their own children and still pay for the children of people on welfare?

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They don’t.

percypiggy200 · 17/11/2025 21:16

Arran2024 · 17/11/2025 21:05

There is a big difference between earned wealth and inherited wealth. Those with inherited wealth are the real rich. Those who have earned their money can see it suddenly dry up and then they are unlikely to still be rich.

This is one of the reasons it was so tone deaf for Kirstie Allsop (inherited wealth) to go after Michael Rosen (earned wealth).

What’s the difference between inheriting £30m and accumulating £30m through earnings? Why is one more likely to dry up? I mean obviously one person sat on their bottom and got the money and the other worked no doubt very very hard for it. But it’s not more unstable if it’s earned