I have looked at that data before and I just can't square the "actually society is quite equal" story with the society we actually have. There are things the kind of surface analysis of the data is missing, because things are quite clearly not fine.
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Things aren’t fine mainly because we have had 20 years of no real wage growth which has in practice crystallised a lot of intergenerational inequality but you can’t fix that with income taxes. Need to fix it by taxing housing and building more housing and infrastructure.
aug 25, 2025, 9:56 am • 7 2 • view
Definitely something to this. It feels like working households are being squeezed at both ends here with both no/low wage growth plus rising costs (housing especially) from intergenerational inequality.
aug 25, 2025, 10:05 am • 0 0 • view
So I work in finance and I have watched an entire succession of 30 year olds on 150-500k take on one hour commutes when they have their first homes. If even the top 0.1% of their age cohort can’t afford a family home with a short commute the system is clearly completely broken intergenerationally.
aug 25, 2025, 10:10 am • 5 0 • view
Those who grew up in London often have their parents in larger nicer homes closer to the office. It’s a wild statement that even the best paid 30 year olds can’t out compete their parents for central London family homes.
aug 25, 2025, 10:10 am • 6 0 • view
Who exactly is meant to be living in, say, South Kensington family homes when you have priced out mid career hedge fund employees earning many multiples of doctors salaries.
aug 25, 2025, 10:10 am • 4 0 • view
Who exactly? Clients of the bank of mum and dad.
aug 25, 2025, 10:32 am • 0 0 • view
Even this feels unlikely. At the top 1% still most wealth is tied up in pensions and property and unless the old people are willing to downsize there just aren’t many people who could gift a deposit on a central London family home. I’m sure low six figures gifts are common but you need more.
aug 25, 2025, 11:06 am • 0 0 • view
Fair. A proper register of beneficial owners of all property would be another good start.
aug 25, 2025, 12:17 pm • 1 0 • view
Fundamentally non building stuff favours wealthy homeowners and retirees because eg commuting capacity of the network doesn’t really matter once you aren’t tied to the working day.
aug 25, 2025, 9:56 am • 5 0 • view