I CAME across a somewhat heart-warming tale this week.  Almost 50 New York millionaires have written to Governor Andrew Coumo stating they should be facing higher… yes higher, taxation.
The group, including Steven Rockefeller, Abigail Disney, and Agnes Gund are proposing a hike in their taxes to pay for better state infrastructure. Having benefitted from accumulated wealth they say they have both the ability and responsibility to pay more. Refreshing eh?
Are you listening Lloyds Bank boss, Antonio Horta Osario? £11.544 million last year and counting. Or Shell CEO Ben Van Beurden (£19.56 million) or even top of the UK pops, Martin Sorrell at WPP Advertising with a whopping pay packet at £42.9 million, which is 1,591 times the average UK salary.
If you popped into the TUI shop in the Parade this week to book your week in Benidorm, spare a thought for the charming young lady working for Peter Long, who has to scrape by on a miserly £13.333 million, but this is still 493 times her salary!
And Wayne does not even need to hit the back of the net to stop his £16.5 million pay cheque regularly hitting his bank account.
I have always worked hard and long hours and have been generally lucky so I cannot pretend to be in the poor house, but how would you even begin to spend these sums? And not just in one year… every year! How many houses can you live in, servants can you employ, Ferraris can you drive? But there is a serious point.
In 2010, while the top 10% received 31% of all income, the bottom 10% received just 1%.  In terms of wealth, in 2010 (the latest year for which data is available), 45% of all wealth in the UK was held by the richest 10%. The poorest 10% held only 1%.
The huge increase in boardroom pay has been driven mainly by share incentive schemes. Nowhere has that been more apparent than in the US – the benchmark lovingly relied upon by UK bosses to explain why their key and not so key executives must be paid ever larger sums dreamed up by remuneration committees (i.e, their closet “you scratch my back” buddies) famously and exactly characterised by that great investor Warren Buffett as Ratchet, Ratchet & Bingo!
The UK now is one of the most unequal countries in the developed world. The average pay for top directors is £4.5 million per year but relative earnings for most people in the UK are not appreciably higher than they were in 2005.
People in more equal societies live longer, have better mental health and have better chances for a good education regardless of their background. Community life is stronger, children do better at school, people trust each other more, there is less violence and rates of imprisonment are lower.
As the world’s economy begins to come to terms with the fact capitalism probably cannot continue to deliver exponential economic growth (negative interest rates in Japan and Europe have failed to stimulate activity), will this stagnating growth do anything to slow down unfettered greed at the top of British Industry?
Poor old Vince Cable was the only politician who seemed to have even a passing interest in this subject … and look what happened to him.
JOHN STOOKE
Haydon End
Swindon