Lowest 10% Middle Top 10% Top 1% Annual income ($) Inequality of income

Corrosion 4: Opportunity The Great Gatsby Curve: More inequality is associated with less mobility across the generations

Bill English on housing costs: “It’s clear that the lowest-income households have been the most affected so our planning processes have probably done more to increase income inequality in New Zealand than most other policies and it does remain a challenge to make progress.”

John Key on child poverty: “The recognition I think we all have is that there are some extremely poor children who are missing out. And so then the question is, how do you resolve those issues? It’s not straightforward but there will be more you can do.’’

Connections How are poverty and wealth linked? Same factors: just think about bargaining power and the labour share But basically it’s about ideology

Health and well-being Index of health & social problems Income inequality

High inequality is not ‘necessary’, despite the claims IMF, February 2014: Over the long term, more equal societies have better growth rates and are more productive Giving low and middle income families a stronger foundation makes economic sense So inequality at current levels is not defensible economically The Economy

Inequality of wealth % share of NZ’s total net worth

Opportunity The Great Gatsby Curve: More inequality is associated with less mobility across the generations

Boosting skills: helping schools, trade training, and creating high-wage jobs But also addressing the ‘fair share’ of rewards issue: Living Wage, collective bargaining and pay ratios Redistribution, too: taxes, benefits and the UBI Don’t forget about wealth (especially housing) Building shared communities What can be done?

In bookstores or at The books