González Hernando / Mitchell Uncomfortably Off

Why Addressing Inequality Matters, Even for High Earners
1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-1-4473-6753-6
Verlag: Policy Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 258 Seiten, Format (B × H): 138 mm x 216 mm

In highly unequal societies such as the UK, where the top 10% take a higher share of disposable income than in most other European countries, many feel resentment towards high earners. On paper, they are doing well, but inequality isn’t even working for them.

Uncomfortably Off reveals that those generally considered to be the most affluent feel anxious about the future and struggle to keep up, or even to stay put. They are starting to doubt their common sense ideas about hard work and meritocracy as work pays less and less and life is becoming more uncomfortable.

This book makes two crucial arguments. First, reducing income inequality will benefit everyone, even those quite near the top. Second, we need to understand the anxieties of high earners to understand their politics. As leading managers and professionals they have disproportionate influence on the institutions that rule over our public life. Their interests are ultimately not that dissimilar from those of the median earner: being able to afford a good quality of life in an ever more expensive and uncertain world.

The hope of this book is to prompt high earners to question accepted truths and long-held beliefs that affect how they see themselves and judge others. In doing so, it seeks to help us all understand why dismissing the concerns of this group will not help in the fight to solve inequality.

Autoren/Hrsg.

González Hernando, Marcos

Mitchell, Gerry

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Wirtschaftssoziologie, Arbeitssoziologie, Organisationssoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Soziale Gruppen & Klassen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: Why bother with the well-off?

1. Not billionaires, but well-off?

2. On the ubiquity and invisibility of the upper-middle class

3. ‘Work is life, that’s it’

4. Don’t rock the boat: politics and the well-off

5. Business class tickets for a sinking ship

6. Jumping ship, but where to?

7. Barriers to being comfortably off

8. ‘When the facts change, I change my mind’

Conclusion: Accepted truths, social distance and discomfort

Über Autor(innen)

Mitchell, Gerry
Gerry Mitchell is a British social policy researcher, most recently having worked for EVOC (Edinburgh) Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Nordic (Stockholm), Compass (London) and TASC (Dublin).

González Hernando, Marcos
Marcos González Hernando is Honorary Research Fellow at the UCL Social Research Institute, Postdoctoral Researcher at Universidad Diego Portales and Adjunct Researcher at the Centre for the Study of Conflict and Social Cohesion (COES).

Marcos González Hernando is Honorary Research Fellow at the UCL Social Research Institute, Postdoctoral Researcher at Universidad Diego Portales and Adjunct Researcher at the Centre for the Study of Conflict and Social Cohesion.

Gerry Mitchell is a freelance policy researcher, working most recently for the Think-tank for Action on Social Change (Dublin), Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (Stockholm and London) and the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (Brussels).