I have written before of the damage to the economy caused by inequalities of wealth. Here I want to discuss both cause and effect.

The Guardian sheds light on the burden on the NHS resulting from poverty. The article reports that forgotten diseases are back as a result of bad diet, bad housing and, dare I say, bad education. This is not only bad for those who suffer, it is expensive for the nation.

The root cause is surely that too many people are trying to survive on too little money. This was the problem of the early nineteenth century. It then began to get better with the Factory Acts improving working conditions, the creation of local authorities able to address housing and as more people gained better paid employment.

As the basic industries declined we were saved by two world wars boosting production, albeit draining the national coffers. Between the wars, the basic industries suffered but new industries prospered. The fifties and sixties saw this pattern continue.

I suggest that the oil shocks of the seventies and market economy of the eighties destroyed good jobs. The faith placed in financial services in the nineties may have created wealth for the few but it did nothing to replace jobs. The consumer economy has only created low paid service industry jobs.

Jobs have been lost in the basic industries. Grangemouth is but one example. There are many more of which I write in Vehicles to Vaccines. Reform UK is reported as seeking support on the promise of restoring these areas of the previously great industries. There are a great many reasons why this will not work: exhausted reserves of raw materials and lower cost competitors in poorer countries, to name but two.

Government is seeking to grow the economy through the application of AI. This won’t create the lost jobs even if it creates more wealth, and so the problem remains. The number of unemployed graduates is perhaps evidence of this.

The truth is that there are too few well paid jobs and too many inadequately paid and this coupled with so many people struggling on benefits mean that too many people simply do not have enough to live on. It also has a knock on the revenue from income tax.

The national cake is still of a healthy size compared to other nations, but it is in the hands of the few and in non productive assets such a residential property, bitcoin and investment over seas.

The simplistic answer it to cut the national cake in fairer slices. A universal national income could be one route. What is certain is that the problem won’t go away.