The Little Handbook of Inequality: How It's Ravaging Western Society: Something's Gotta Give

By Rob Peach

In the wider context of life and risk management this book examines inequality in concise detail.

It looks at the real estate markets internationally and points out wealth growth, opportunity limits and geographical anomalies.

It goes over societal and individual behavioural traits and demonstrates how inequality is ravaging Western society as the book’s subtitle claims.

In Chapter 4 we look at micro facts that rob the poor to pay the rich and then in Chapter 6, macro facts that do the same.

There are a number of Appendices at the back of the book that give some appropriate examples of my points.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gatekeeper Press
• Release date: Jul 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9781662907159

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Inequality of Real Estate: Crucial Interrelated Markets and Prices.

July 2019

In places like West London, Britain, Western and Eastern Europe, and on the American continents – inequality thrives. The have-nots starve or are queuing up in food banks (often in or close to wealthy areas).

It goes without saying that asset distribution on the African continent is grossly uneven and inherent corruption is ubiquitous. This feeds across from Egypt into the Middle East where the oil-rich-producing countries still hold most of the cards and the poorer states are left to make do on the pitifully rare crumbs.

In September 2019 as the globe limped along still in post-crisis mode, there was a so-called terror attack upon Saudi Arabian oil fields. The oil price in the first quarter of 2020 fell through a technical floor of $30.00, however the Saudis are making a decent margin as we well know.

Just to give the reader a clue about where wealth congregates unashamedly, the price of oil in the spot market dipped far more than 30%. The swathe of energy providers and transport industries which are switching long-term out of fossil fuels into electricity have still some way to go before electricity becomes the default source of power. There is a considerable concentration risk here as well; power-cuts would / will be calamitous and highly fraught with peril right across the globe; Is electricity a sustainable transportation solution?

Themes and Geography UK REAL ESTATE (one month before Coronavirus Crisis)

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Tackled in the following section are places, with which I am familiar and have visited – with one exception, the Yorkshire Richmond. All statistics are taken in Summer 2020 from reputable, local estate agents’ websites.

Kew: In Southwest London, property prices have hit extraordinary highs with the average being £1,001,700, which in itself is down 6.22% since 2017. This clearly means that the 20-year olds that I will refer to below are living with the old age pensioners, by and large their parents. These same adults are funding their student offspring’s accommodation and often their tuition fees to boot as they go off to live elsewhere at the various UK universities. Thanks to Mr. Tony Blair, an Oxford-educated, privately schooled former Prime Minister who has since become a peace envoy in the Middle East (OMG!) and Gordon Brown’s governments, the expansion of the state and its emphasis on education; - the standard now is for almost all corporate and public sector positions to demand a degree-qualified graduate. Many of the former entities (private and multinational companies) go further and specify in their advertisements red brick university names: Oxbridge, Durham and King’s College London for example.

St John’s Wood: This is an area with which I am familiar it being the home province of the England & Wales Cricket Board, the England team itself, the UK Cricket Academy, a rather plush gymnasium frequented by Sir Paul McCartney among others and the prestigious Marylebone Cricket Club (The MCC⁵). The exact site in question of course is the Lord’s Cricket Ground London NW8, around which the average property price is some £1,494, 609 which is a staggering 49.2% more expensive than the not quite so exclusive Kew Gardens area of the previous paragraph. The reasons are manifold but one chief cause is the influx of foreign (buy-to-let) investment and the purchase of course of cosy boltholes for offspring who are very heavily indulged. The same is true of the new car markets but this is to digress; I’ll stay with the property theme for now as it feeds so hungrily into the haves in the have/have-nots equation.

Richmond Yorkshire vs Richmond Surrey

Now here lies an interesting comparison since the southern district of Richmond (in Surrey) is home to the Attenborough family and the site of Richmond Park, Kew Gardens itself and of course the renowned Richmond Theatre.

£709,056 was the average property valuation in 2018 and had fallen a small percentage amount since something of a peak in 2017, whereas £252,768 is the mean price of a property in the Richmond in North Yorkshire. Again, my emphasis is placed here upon inequality, more specifically the North/South divide that is so plain to see. Prices down south are some three times higher, much greater than the North’s cost of living discount differential. It is a moot point whether salaries are keeping pace with this, ‘the ultimate test of time’.

Edinburgh v Glasgow

Both Edinburgh and Glasgow are centres of excellence in the UK Headquarter domicile for the British financial services industry. So, this comparison may be as controversial as it is interesting. Again, the inflation being caused by external monies coming in from external sources (Big London Banks and Insurance entities).

You will note the disparity between these and prices south (in London and suburban areas) the cost of living is significantly lower and the property sizes in the medium range are smaller.

The Edinburgh average in the year to February 2018 was £250,986 whilst the Glasgow equivalent exchange price was £126,216 - almost a 98% variance in price.

Given Kew and Richmond prices this does indeed triply emphasise the North/South divide.

Hackney v Harrogate

In 2005-6 I had a great job of work as the Trust Director at The Challenger Trust (UK Registered Charity No. 1068226), an education charity that uses outdoor experiential learning to build character and make the transitions of 9-19-year-olds easier. As we all know, if we can remember (!) these can be tricky times, one finds one’s hormones dictate decision-making and behaviour. This is when impulsive becomes the norm because we’re all maximising enjoyment with the all-abiding assurance that we’re all going to live forever.` The transition from child to teenager followed not too long afterwards by the transition (a much larger and more precarious one) from teenager into fully-fledged adulthood.

The schools that the charity worked with were, in this order of priority:

Waltham Forest* We were herewith supported by a London property magnate, Mr Jack Petchey through his charitable foundation: The Jack Petchey Foundation

Hackney

Lewisham

Shoreditch, and finally

Camden

We also serviced Easington, a disadvantaged town in the Northeast of England, delightfully pleasant to stroll through but not good if you need full time work, it is quite remote as well. This doesn’t help.

In Hackney, the roads were major-league congested, the schools were largely attended by black, mixed race and Asian backgrounds but born in UK. Hackney didn’t appeal to me. However, since this time it has been gentrified and property prices have roofed as we used to say in the City. The average price of property way back in 2005 was £225,000 or thereabouts. Just 24 years later the average