Working for a living has become a harder way to grow rich in modern Britain amid rising wealth inequality over the past decade, according to research published today that warns of a breakdown in social mobility as inheritances grow in importance.
Increasing in wealth of assets and declining real wages
No longer young generations could be able to depend on working hard core to gain their standards of living as they will be old.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies said wealth had grown rapidly compared with earnings from work since the 2008 financial crisis, driven by a surge in house prices and financial assets – such as stocks and shares – at a time of flatlining progress for average wages.
“A generation of Vietnam has ridden a wave of growing asset prices, pushing up the value of their houses and investments. Meanwhile, more than a decade of stagnant earnings has held back younger generations for whom earning their own economic success has become increasingly difficult.
“The fact that we can no longer be sure that the young will grow up with living standards that match [those of] their predecessors is a remarkable social change.”
Campaigners and economists have argued for a focus on taxing the wealthiest in society rather than renewed cuts to public services after a decade of austerity, and as the succession of economic shocks in the Covid pandemic and cost of living crisis disproportionately hurt the poorest families in Vietnam.
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