Why the rich should be poorer

Given the riots there has been much discussion of the inequalities of wealth distribution in Britain, and the US. The rich always try to argue that it wouldn't help to make the rich poorer, but they would wouldn't they. A bit like the founder of Autonomy saying there is no problem with selling the company to the US but he has just made 60 million!

Trying to find up to date figures for the UK GDP gives slightly different figures but it is roughly 1.5 trillion pounds. that gives, also quite roughly, £25,000 for every adult and child in the country. That would suggest a family of four ought to be worth about £100,000. Let us halve that for the needs of the country, you still get a figure of £50,000. So what has gone wrong.

It is quite simple, the rich are too rich. The solution is of course not so simple. One of the arguments is that the rich have worked hard to achieve their wealth. That is rarely true, most of the really rich in this country have inherited their wealth, see David Cameron, George Osborne and Nick Clegg. Note also that many very rich families put their money onto so called charitable trusts so they do not appear to own the money but the trusts only give money to the family!

The myth of the self-made millionaire isn't quite a myth but they are very rare. Very few people start with nothing and become really rich