Grenfell tower exposes stark inequalities in our society.

[thinkiamgoingcrazy]

In the new luxury block some of the Grenfell residents have been rehoused in, 3 flats put together are "worth" an eye watering 5 million pounds. The same amount of money as the government has pledged for the Grenfell victims.

What is the matter with our society that such vast inequalities are able to exist? When did London become an investment bank for the rich rather than somewhere for its citizens to live with dignity ?

[Why are there some "private" squares in London where the benches have plaques on them reading that they are only for the patrons of the nearby hotel ?]

Why are we such an unequal society in general with a massive gap in earnings, and a tiny precentage of our population owning such a huge amount of our wealth?

I don't think that this is a dignified or progressive way to live. Nothing against capitalism, but ffs it can't be allowed to do its rampant worst. IMO.

Obviously GT survivors are a completely diff kettle of fish though and as such should be treated entirely differently. They have been through trauma.

Squeelge, when you say that we pay a lot in tax but get a lot back too, what do you mean? I'm struggling to see what I get back other than free health care and schools and my bins collected, which I believe everyone else is entitled to as well, even those who have put diddly squat into the system, are entitled to as well? What more do I get? What more to justify the 60+ hours a week I put in and time away from my kids?

I am quite interested to know what more I get out of tax than someone who pays no tax gets in terms of state funded services. Everyone benefits from the same police force and army and emergency services. I am entitled to the same healthcare. If I want a better level of healthcare I pay for private insurance. So what extra service do I get by paying more tax?

My first post on this thread was to say that inequality was not just a London problem. I've thought more and actually among people who work I don't think levels of inequality are huge here in the North East. So I was wrong.

For different reasons I know quite a bit about the lives of two of the cleaners where I work. They live a very similar life to me, on a professional salary.
I suspect we have higher rates of families who have never worked though.

It's not really capitalism to be fair- inequalities like this exist in EVERY society. North Korea is a communist state an Kim Jong Un lives in fabulous wealth while millions of his citizens starve to death.

If you want a society in which there is equality then you need a society full of people who are selfless and generous. We are not that, so people are able to play on that selfishness and grow rich.

There is no extra service for paying more tax
Those with more money pay more tax to subsidise the rest of the population - and wealthy & poor are both mostly indigenous British.

Anyone reading this, who has kids and is earning under 35k (today's equivalent) most years will probably be a net taker over their lifetime

We want a society where there is more equality.
The scandanacian countries have an easier ride than us in terms of population but they have more equal societies and everyone benefits

A communist society doesn't work and I don't think a single poster was advocating this.

However, there is a huge range between commitment and returning to the Victorian pyramid structure of society.

Over the last 30 years or so, the inequality of income - and more importantly of wealth - has increased to a level that is actually harmful to a functioning society and economy:

Oxfam reported in 2014 that the wealthiest family in the UK, the Grosvenors, had more wealth (£7.9bn)
than the poorest 10% of the entire UK population (£7.8bn).

The wealthiest 5 UK families have more wealth than the poorest 20% of the population.

Inequality is rising globally too:
The wealth of 85 global billionaires is equivalent to that of half the world's population, 3.5 billion people.

huge range between communism < smacks ipad >

Wow. One family has the same as a tenth of the entire population

Im not saying anyone was suggesting communism. I was pointing out that in a social system designed to defeat inequality, it still happens.

My point is that inequality is not a product of a system or our social structure. Inequality is a product of the selfish heart of man who has been corrupted. Social engineering won't fix that.

I agree there are huge inequalities. Blaming the bankers won't fix that. They're a symptom, not a cause of inequality.

Inequality is in our hearts - but let's do what we can do to change it , we don't have to accept it. Just like it is a natural part of our hearts to be suspicious of other cultures and judgmental, let's fight to change it.

Just found this article.

"The only thing to take issue with, is Nick shouldn’t be sad, because if people aren’t clever enough to live in gated communities where the builders are paid to cover the dwellings in materials that don’t flare up at a moment’s notice, they’ve only got themselves to blame."

I enjoyed that thinkiam I couldn't believe it when I saw Nick saying about property prices I think I read that earlier this week

I took it as entirely sarcastic but looking at the comments I'm not sure everyone has

I fucking hate people sometimes. "Would you want them living next to you" yes I fucking would, actually. But then I live in social housing and smoke fags and occasionally have a beer so I can STFU until I somehow learn brain surgery with my total lack of GCSEs and buy a house and start drinking Merlot and smoking cigars instead.

My estate's really nice actually, there is one family that's loud, one. When I moved here my NDN brought over an old garden toy cos we had none, and brought me some spare carpet cos we had none, and there's a teen lad a few doors away who does sponsored events for charity and buys easter eggs for every kid on the estate. We're not fucking animals because we're poor.

So a carer, cleaner, shop assistant, or minimum wage worker would I imagine struggle as well without some assistance. But they are still vital to society working, how would you fill those jobs otherwise?

Perhaps the rich can pay more for their cleaners, nannies etc rather than expecting middle income and low wage earners to subsidise their employees with tax credits, housing benefits and low income housing?

The real elephant in the room (and the reason why this has been allowed to continue) is because a certain section of society benefits hugely from taxpayer subsidies in the form of benefits, that section is the rich (aristocracy, billionaires, landlords, CEOs, politicians etc). They can sell it as helping the poor etc but really it is about them not having to pay a living wage and making sure other taxpayers subsidies their second/third/fourth homes.

Interesting (and very sad) that one of the most luxurious tower blocks on the planet is up in flames and was also burned in 2015 when it had bad cladding. How on earth it remained a fire risk again in 2017! www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4759064/High-rise-residential-block-Dubai-bursts-flames.html If we cannot even stop these fires on very expensive blocks for the rich how even less likely for council tower blocks.

It is very sad OP , hopefully the inquiry will expose these inequalities & things may change.
It makes me feel sick to think how those poor people were being charged £200 + service charge per week (even after they had died) to live in a death trap
When Kensington & Chelsea Council were secretly subsidising a local opera to the tune of £1M