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We often frame societal risks in terms of immediate, visible threats: pandemics, climate disasters, or geopolitical conflicts. Yet one of humanity’s most persistent dangers—economic inequality—rarely occupies the same urgency in public discourse.
David Lay Williams’ compelling book, The Greatest of All Plagues: How Economic Inequality Shaped Political Thought from Plato to Marx, challenges this oversight by excavating an important truth: for over two millennia, the West’s greatest minds have sounded alarms about concentrated wealth’s corrosive effects on societies.
From Plato’s warning that inequality creates “two cities — one of the rich, one of the poor, eternally at war” to Adam Smith’s fear that vast income gaps erode mutual sympathy between classes, history’s sharpest thinkers have identified economic disparity as an existential threat to justice, democracy, and human flourishing.
At this event, David Lay Williams and an expert panel discussed what we can learn from the past about the threat of economic inequality, why philosophers considered it so disruptive and destabilising, and how we can make this threat more tangible to provoke action.
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UK politics is focused on short-term crises, at the expense of thinking about and acting on long-term problems. Among other things, this is a barrier to building a fairer society, undermining opportunity and growth and damaging our democracy and our society more broadly. Thinking and acting in the long term is possible, as the Welsh government has proven over the last decade, and brings multiple benefits. Many of today’s thorniest political problems in the UK would have been ameliorated, if not averted, had previous government paid more attention to long term issues. There are a range of institutional, systemic and psychological barriers to thinking and acting in the long term, but there are also many practical solutions that can help to overcome those barriers.
The Fairness Foundation and two expert speakers - Derek Walker, the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, and Cat Tully, Managing Director of the School of International Futures - discussed the need for UK politics and policymaking to focus on long-termism and on the welfare of future generations, the barriers to change, and how to overcome them.
hThis webinar marked the launch of the Fairness Foundation’s new report, Mission to the Future.
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President Trump is in power once more. His victory is complete but the business of understanding just what happened has only just begun as we seek lessons – and warnings – for UK politics and this year’s European elections.
Why were the Democrats defeated? Is America’s surging inequality the root cause of President Trump’s victory? What connections can we draw between growing inequality and the populists’ clarion call for a “revolt against elites”?
At this event as part of our Fair Society series, in partnership with the Policy Institute at King’s College London, we convened some of the leading thinkers and analysts who have studied the American campaign up close for a discussion about what is fuelling populist politics in America, what we can learn from what happened – and how the UK government should respond.
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What does the future hold for Britain, and how can we reclaim our prosperity? In his latest book, Great Britain? How We Get Our Future Back, economist and politician Torsten Bell offers his vision for revitalising the UK's economy and society.
A former Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation and now Labour MP for Swansea West, Bell dissects the economic stagnation that has gripped Britain for over a decade, exploring how this prolonged period of low growth has impacted various segments of society – and what we can do about it.
At this event in our Fair Society series with the Policy Institute at King’s College London, we discussed Bell’s book and his ideas for how to raise living standards and create a more equal country.
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On 15 October the Fairness Foundation published the Wealth Gap Risk Register, an online evidence resource on the impacts and risks of the wealth gap. The report is designed to address limited awareness among policymakers of the causal relationship between the wealth gap and these negative ‘spillover effects’, by communicating the evidence base as clearly and concisely as possible through a range of powerful and accessible data visualisations.
The report also looks at the evidence base for the policy solutions that will either reduce the wealth gap or mitigate its impacts on other areas, and at the evidence on public attitudes to both the problem and the solutions (including new polling and focus group research on public understanding of the impacts of wealth inequality).
During this webinar, the report’s analysis and recommendations were discussed and situated within the wider context of the debate about inequality, poverty and the government's priorities and choices by an expert panel. This event was run in association with the Policy Institute at King's College London as part of our 'Fair Society' series.
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What does declining prosperity mean for Britain’s next generation? In his latest book, author and professor Danny Dorling constructs seven “average” children from millions of statistics – each child symbolising the very middle of a parental income bracket, from the poorest to the wealthiest. Seven Childrenexplores the realities facing Britain's youth in the aftermath of the pandemic and the cost of living crisis.
Dorling's seven children were born in 2018, at a time when the UK faced its worst inequality since the Great Depression. As they turned five in 2023, their country had Europe's fastest-rising child poverty rates, and even the best-off of the seven is disadvantaged. The book provides insight into the lives of British children living between the extremes of wealth and poverty. It examines questions around parental income, the middle class, and the trends affecting the next generation.
At this event in our Fair Society series with the Policy Institute at King’s College London, Dorling discussed the key issues with our expert panel.
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In his bestselling new book, Failed State, Sam Freedman outlines how it feels like nothing works in Britain anymore. It has become harder than ever to get a GP appointment. Many property crimes remain unsolved. Rivers are overrun with sewage. Wages are stagnant and the cost of housing is increasing. He asks why it feels like everything is going wrong, at the same time?
It's easy to blame dysfunctional politicians, but the reality is more complicated, he says. Politicians can make things better or worse, but all work within our state institutions. And Failed State argues ours are utterly broken.
At this event, Freedman – a leading policy expert and writer of the UK’s most popular politics Substack – offered his analysis of how our governance has fallen behind and what can be done to pave the way for a fairer and more prosperous Britain.
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One of the new Labour government’s five missions is the opportunity mission, which aims to “break down barriers to opportunity”. It's clear that Labour understands that breaking down barriers to opportunity requires action outside the school gates as well as within them, to tackle barriers to opportunity such as poverty and poor housing. But there’s a risk that, as they start to implement this mission, the messy reality of governing means that the difficult cross-government and cross-sectoral work to tackle these broader barriers to opportunity falls by the wayside, with limited political bandwidth and economic resources focused on the ‘easier’ policy levers that can be pulled within a single government department.
On 9 July the Fairness Foundation published a report, Deepening the Opportunity Mission, that aims to demonstrate why the new Labour government needs to tackle inequality before they can make real progress on the opportunity mission, what kinds of policy goals might be useful in orientating government policy towards tackling inequality as a result, and how to work across government to make progress on tackling inequalities as part of a wider shift to mission-driven government and working practices.
During this webinar, the report’s analysis and recommendations were discussed and situated within the wider context of the debate about mission-driven government by an expert panel.
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The UK is a very unfair country. Inequality – whether socio-economic, regional, racial, gender, class-based, or disability-based – has got out of hand. This is morally wrong, but it's also bad for our economy, society and democracy. It's no surprise that 85% of people are concerned about inequality in Britain today. And the bad news is that most experts believe that inequality is going to get even worse over the next few years.
To address this, the next government has to take bold action to reduce economic inequality and build a fairer society. If we don’t make progress on this agenda over the next parliament, the 2029 election result might see the far-right making gains that we have never seen before in this country, as foretold in the results of the recent EU elections. The stakes for the next government, and for all of us, could not be higher.
On 30 June, as we look ahead to the general election, the Fairness Foundation published a report, 'The Canaries', that examines what the evidence tells us about how much more unfair Britain could become over the next five years, why this matters, and what we can do about it. It highlights the warnings made by experts from a range of sectors and disciplines about the trajectory that we are on, and what they think we need to do to get back onto a fairer, more prosperous and safer path.
During this webinar on 1 July, the report’s analysis and recommendations were discussed and situated within the wider context of the debate about inequality and poverty by an expert panel.
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Left behind places can be found in prosperous countries – from South Yorkshire, integral to the industrial revolution and now England’s poorest county, to Barranquilla, once Colombia’s portal to the Caribbean and now struggling. More alarmingly, the poorest countries in the world are diverging further from the rest of humanity than they were at the start of this century. Why have these places fallen behind? And what can we do about it?
World-renowned development economist Paul Collier has spent his life working in neglected communities and lays the blame for widening inequality on stale economic orthodoxies that prioritise market forces to revive left-behind regions, and on what he sees as the hands-off and one-size-fits-all approach of centralised bureaucracies like the UK Treasury. As a result, he argues that the UK has become the most unequal and unfair society in the western world.
The Policy Institute and the Fairness Foundation hosted the launch of *Left Behind: A New Economics for Neglected Places,* Collier’s new book in which he sets out why some regions and countries are failing, and a new vision for how they can catch up. The event was part of our Fair Society series, in partnership with the Policy Institute at King’s College London.
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Political philosopher Elizabeth Anderson argues that the 17th century concept of the Protestant work ethic has been perverted, and is now used to justify policies that promote the wealth and power of the richest in society, at workers’ expense. In her latest book, Hijacked: How neoliberalism turned the work ethic against the workers, Anderson says we should reclaim the original goals of the work ethic and better ensure that it promotes dignity for workers.
This webinar looked at how ideas of a work ethic informed debates among the political economists of the past, and how these ideas can help us in thinking about inequality today. The event was part of our Fair Society series, in partnership with the Policy Institute at King’s College London.
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In his new book, This Time No Mistakes: How to Remake Britain, political economist and Observer columnist Will Hutton analyses how the left and right have gone wrong over the course of the last century. He believes the nation’s continuing inability to invest in itself is at the heart of our problems, which have their roots in a fixation on free markets and a minimal state.
To ward off the wave of nihilist populism sweeping the world, we need an alternative economic and political philosophy, Hutton says. He argues that two great traditions, ethical socialism and progressive liberalism, can be brought together to offer a different way forward and help shape a better Britain. Through the reforming Liberal government of 1906-14 and, later, the 1945 Labour government that was influenced by Keynes and Beveridge, history has shown great things can be achieved when the two progressive strands fuse, he says. Now it’s time to do it again.
The Policy Institute and the Fairness Foundation co-hosted an event in our Fair Society series to mark the publication of This Time No Mistakes.
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We all take notice when the poor become even poorer – when we witness more rough sleepers and longer food bank queues. However, when the rich amass greater wealth, it often goes unnoticed in public, and for most of us, our daily lives remain ostensibly unchanged. In her book Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth, philosopher and economist Ingrid Robeyns sheds light on the alarming extent of our wealth problem, which has quietly escalated over the past 50 years.
From moral and political perspectives to economic, social, environmental, and psychological dimensions, she argues that extreme wealth is not only unjustifiable but is also detrimental to society as a whole, and proposes a radical solution - placing a hard limit on the wealth that any one person can accumulate. At this event, the Policy Institute and the Fairness Foundation hosted a discussion on 'limitarianism', Robeyns’ concept that challenges our current system by calling for a strict cap on wealth accumulation.
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The super-rich have never had it so good – but millions can't afford a home, an education or a pension, argues former Treasury minister Liam Byrne MP in his new book, The Inequality of Wealth: Why it Matters and How to Fix it.
He says that unless we change course soon, the future will be even worse. Much worse. But things don't have to be like this. In the book, Byrne explains why wealth inequality has grown so fast in recent years; warns how it threatens our society, economy and politics; shows where economics has got it wrong – and proposes five practical ways to rebuild an old ideal: the wealth-owning democracy.
This event was part of our Fair Society series, in partnership with the Policy Institute at King’s College London.
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What factors drive political turmoil and societal breakdown? How do elites sustain their dominance, and why do ruling classes occasionally lose their hold on power? Peter Turchin, an expert in researching the origins of political instability, uncovers a recurring trend in his book End Times. When the scales of power heavily favour the ruling elite, it leads to a surge in income inequality, enriching the wealthy and impoverishing the less privileged. As more individuals aspire to join the elite, dissatisfaction with the established order intensifies, often resulting in calamity.
The Policy Institute and the Fairness Foundation hosted a fascinating conversation about political upheaval, inequality, and the historical lessons we can glean. Are we truly living in "End Times," or can history provide a glimmer of optimism for breaking free from past cycles? Should we be more or less optimistic in the light of technological changes such as the advent of AI? And if the US is a plutocracy, to what extent is that also true of the UK?
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In their influential and award-winning 2009 book The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone, Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson argue that societies with the biggest gaps between the rich and the rest are bad for everyone, including those who are most well off. They contend that everything from life expectancy, mental illness and obesity to violence and illiteracy is affected not so much by the wealth of a society as by its level of inequality, and propose solutions to move towards a future that is both fairer and happier.
As part of our Fair Society series with the Policy Institute, we revisited The Spirit Level and its lasting impact on how we think about inequality.
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How do politicians from the Conservative and Labour parties think about what a fair society looks like? Are their differences intractable, or are there areas with as-yet unrealised potential for cross-party consensus? If we can find common ground between the fairness principles and priorities of those on the left and the right, what might this look like in terms of concrete policy solutions?
In his new book, Free and Equal: What Would a Fair Society Look Like?, Daniel Chandler builds on the philosophy of John Rawls to argue for a society that protects free speech and transcends culture wars, limits the influence of money on politics, and builds a more just economy that operates within the limits of the planet.
Daniel is joined by Anneliese Dodds MP, John Penrose MP and Ryan Shorthouse for a discussion chaired by Suzanne Hall from the Policy Institute at King's College London.
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In his book, Value(s): Building a Better World for All, former Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney argues that fundamental problems – such as growing inequality in income and opportunity, mistrust of experts, and the existential threat of climate change – all stem from a common crisis in values.
Drawing on the turmoil of the past decade, he says that “market economies” have evolved into “market societies”, where price determines the value of everything.
Radical, foundational change is required if we are to build an economy and society based not on market values but on human values, he says.
In this online event as part of our Fair Society series, hosted with the Policy Institute at King’s College London, Carney discussed his vision for a fairer and more human society with Nick Macpherson, former Permanent Secretary to the Treasury and Policy Institute Visiting Professor with the Strand Group at King’s College London.
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In May 2023, the Fairness Foundation published National Wealth Surplus, a report on public attitudes to wealth, based on polling carried out by Opinium.
The report launch webinar took place on 23 May 2023 and was chaired by Polly Toynbee (the Guardian), with contributions from Dr Lucy Barnes (University College London), Gary Stevenson (inequality economist and former city trader) and Will Snell (Fairness Foundation).
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