Social class inequalities in wealth

Question 1

What is wealth ?

Answer 1

• is a ‘stock’
• it’s your economic resources at a fixed time like what you own
• e.g. property, land cars and paintings

Question 2

How do the official national statistics define wealth ?

Answer 2

Property wealth = house/ land
Physical wealth = valuable assets e.g. jewellery, cars
Financial wealth = money e.g. bank accounts, savings
Private pension wealth = pension fund

Question 3

What are the problems with measuring social inequalities ?

Answer 3

• defining wealth isn’t straightforward
• Calculating value of assets is difficult
• Organising data about wealth isn’t easy
• Distinguishing wealth from income can be difficult
• e.g. gift of money or property can be seen as both

Question 4

What are some evaluations for wealth ?

Answer 4

• Hugely unequal in distribution
• wealth is seen as less important (people can survive with no wealth but can’t survive with no income)
• large proportion of the population have little or no wealth
• Some people are in negative wealth - debt is larger than wealth owned

Question 5

What was the Birmingham Commission report ?

Answer 5

• Rowlingson and Mullineux
• Found a clear link between age and class
• Those aged 55-64 have the highest level of wealth
• Considerable inequality within this age group
• This reflects the fact that those on higher and middle incomes have more chance of accumulating wealth
• Larger gap opens as people have had more years to accumulate wealth

Question 6

How does meritocracy relate to wealth ?

Answer 6

Those with talent who save and invest get the rewards because they build up their own wealth
E.g Alan Sugar

Question 7

What did Atkinson say ?

Answer 7

Inequalities of wealth isn’t just based on meritocracy but inheritance.