Inequality – The Green Tau

Counting on … 182

7th November 2025

The Eat-Lancet Commission reports that report, currently the “wealthiest 30% of people drive more than 70% of food-related environmental impacts” (1) but this is not the only way that wealth and food produce inequalities. Lack of money means many people go hungry and many others cannot afford a healthy diet.

Here in the UK the Food Foundation’s research showed that 14% of households experienced food insecurity in June 2024 affecting approximately 7.2 million adults. 18% of households with children experienced food insecurity in the same period affecting an estimated 2.7 million children. Their report, The Broken Plate, also noted that “many people in the UK lack the financial means to access decent food and that much of the food readily available and marketed to us is damaging our health and the planet.” (2)

Further they also highlighted that such inequalities affect not only the individual’s wellbeing but also that of their communities. “Food is a huge part of all of our lives, nourishing and fuelling us. It impacts our health, happiness and overall prosperity. But the current food system is holding our nation back. Because it is so difficult to eat healthily, poor diet is now the biggest risk for preventable disease, placing massive strain on our NHS.” (3)

Food, including food production and access to food, is a climate issue, a health issue, an economic issue as well as a justice issue.

(1) https://eatforum.org/update/eat-lancet-commission-warns-food-systems-breach-planetary-limits/

(2) https://foodfoundation.org.uk/publication/broken-plate-2025

(3) https://foodfoundation.org.uk/initiatives/nourishing-nation

Counting on … 157

3rd October 2025

“Growing wealth inequality in the UK could be a “major driver of societal collapse” within the next decade, according to a new report by the Fairness Foundation and the Policy Institute and Department of War Studies at King’s College London…

“The participants identified a negative feedback loop, whereby the government’s failure to tax wealth effectively means it lacks sufficient revenue to uphold the social contract by which strong public services, an effective social safety net and a healthy economy provide people with decent living standards.

“Trust in politics then declines further, politicians avoid honest discussions of the underlying problems and what to do about them, and the system’s legitimacy is increasingly questioned as the social contract collapses.” (1)

Looking at public attitudes, the report that “two-thirds (63%) of Britons now think the very rich have too much influence on politics in the UK – far higher than the share who say the same about businesses (40%), religious organisation (40%) or international organisations like the EU and UN (38%).

Improving incomes levels for the poorest, and taxing the richest clearly has multiple benefits.

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/wealth-inequality-risks-triggering-societal-collapse-within-next-decade-report-finds

Counting on … 150

24th September 2025

Doughnut economics refutes the mainstream theory that if the wealth of an economy increases, that that wealth will not just reward the rich but will trickle down and benefit the poorest too.

One flaw in this trickle down argument is that if you are poor is that you often pay more pro-rata than someone who is wealthy. A rich person who owns a house has both somewhere to live rent free and the means for raising extra money to invest in money making or money saving schemes and products (eg a rich person can afford the cost of a heat pump that will longterm save money). A poor person will not be able to afford to buy a house and instead will be forced to rent so each month income will be going out of their pockets and into the pockets of someone rich enough to own a buy to let property.

This flow of income away from the poor and to the rich (a trickle up effect) has been documented both nationally and globally. This is something Oxfam reports on annually.

“In 2024, the number of billionaires rose to 2,769, up from 2,565 in 2023. Their combined wealth surged from $13 trillion to $15 trillion in just 12 months. This is the second-largest annual increase in billionaire wealth since records began. The wealth of the world’s ten richest men grew on average by almost $100 million a day and even if they lost 99 per cent of their wealth overnight, they would remain billionaires.

“UK billionaires saw their collective wealth increase last year by £35 million a day to £182 billion …. Four new billionaires were created last year, taking the current total to 57.

“Meanwhile, according to the World Bank, the number of people still living in poverty – around 3.5 billion – has barely changed since 1990.“ (1)

The poverty line in the UK is determined as households whose income is under 60% of the median household income after housing costs for that year. (2) The Joseph Rowntree Report for 2025 reported that 2 in every 10 adults are in poverty in the UK, with about 3 in every 10 children being in poverty. Further the poorest families – those living in very deep poverty – had an average income that was 57% below the poverty line, with this gap increasing by almost two-thirds over the past 25 years. (3)

For further information read more from Oxfam’s report – https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/621668/bp-takers-not-makers-200125-summ-en.pdf;jsessionid=1D0798BB3DCCC8B2A556159969CB2CD3?sequence=1

Counting on … day 138

8th September 2025

Inequalities vis a vis the climate crisis exist not just between richer and poorer nations, but also between different communities within individual nations. Typically poorer communities struggle more and are more frequently adversely affected by the climate crisis. Whilst richer communities are better insulated against the impact of climate change whilst at the same contributing far more to the problem.

“The wealthiest 1 per cent of people in the UK each produce 11 times the amount of carbon emissions of someone in the poorest half of the population … Their carbon footprint is 6 times that of the national average. Those in the wealthiest 10 per cent – with income after tax of at least £41,000 per year – have a carbon footprint that is more than double the national average and four times that of someone in the poorest half.” (1)

Richer people because they spend more, consuming more goods and services, will generate a larger carbon footprint. At the same time, as influencers and trend setters they encourage others to to mimic their high carbon lifestyles. One clear example of this is the explosion in the number of SUVs that now fill our streets. These began life as a utility vehicle for areas where the ground was rough and unsuitable for regular vehicles. Next they became the new toy for the rich and wealthy. Now they are the must-have for the aspiring classes. So rather than seeing a switch to smaller, less polluting electrical vehicles which would benefit air quality, reduce pollution, and assist in mitigating the affects of climate crisis, we have a increased pollution and higher carbon emissions.

(1) https://www.oxfam.org.uk/media/press-releases/wealthiest-brits-have-a-carbon-footprint-11-times-that-of-someone-in-the-poorest-half-of-society/

More information on SUVs –

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c778ekg64mjo

Green Tau: Issue 90

24th May 2024

Profits part 2

Having written about what profits are and whether they are per se good, I have come across some news stories which point to the moral downside of pursuing profits.

Medicines

Is the profit motive a good way of determining which new medicines to develop or for which diseases to seek a cure? Should it be necessary to make a profit – as opposed to covering costs – in order to develop a medicine that will relieve suffering and/ or enable someone to live a more normal life?

And when a medicine has been developed, is it appropriate to sell it at a profit, knowing that this may be put it out of the reach of people whose health might otherwise be improved? Is it appropriate to charge a license fee for would be manufacturers in less affluent parts of the world?

Of course there is a cost in researching and developing new medicines and treatments – but how is that best paid for? Future profits or through taxation, allowing research to be seen as public service for the common good?

– https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/16/imagine-getting-life-saving-drugs-to-sick-people-without-relying-on-big-pharma-we-may-have-found-a-way?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Supermarkets

Supermarkets typically promote their business as selling best value foods – either as very cheap foods or as affordable but quality foods. But how benefits most from these low prices or who pays the cost of cheap food?

To ensure low prices, supermarkets utilise the benefits of economies of scale. This can exclude small traders from selling produce to them. It can cause particular complications for farmers if they struggle to grow enough of their crop that is of the right size, at the right time and in the right quantity. Failure may mean loosing the whole supermarket order: no sale, no payment.

Another way of ensuring low prices is to cut costs, especially labour costs which can mean cutting back on hourly rates or hours worked or staffing levels. This is usually to the detriment of the low paid workers rather than higher grade staff.

But where supermarkets are in fact primarily focused on profits, prices will be no lower than needed enough to maintain sales at levels that maximise profit. In this example profits rose by 159% whilst sales rose by just 7.4%.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/may/14/tesco-ceo-near-10m-pay-a-slap-in-the-face-for-struggling-workers-union-says?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Oil profits

Shell, like many oil companies has repeatedly made record profits – enhanced in part by the war between Russia and Ukraine. As consumers were forced to pay more and more for their energy bills, the government introduced a 35% windfall tax to recoup some of the unearned profits. The policy however allowed the oil companies to offset this tax to the tune of 91p for every pound they invested in fossil fuel extraction projects in the UK.

In 2023 Shell made profits of £22.3 billion and paid in tax £1.1 billion, including £240 million in relation to the windfall tax. This was the first time Shell had paid any taxes since 2017. As well as offsetting losses, Shell has also offset against tax, costs incurred in decommissioning North Sea platforms – a task that has yet to be completed, leaving many parts of the infrastructure leaking poisonous chemicals into the sea.

The profits that Shell makes does not benefit its consumers, nor UK citizens, nor the environment – only shareholders (which still includes various pension and investment funds) and board members.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60295177

https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/may/02/shell-unveils-new-35bn-share-buy-back-after-higher-profits-than-expected?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

The super rich

Whilst most people in the UK have seen their annual income fall in real terms, a select few have seen their income and wealth continue to rise. Typically these were people who inherited or otherwise could access money. People with money can buy property rather than renting, and can then gain from rising property values. At the same time this has the effect of raising property prices out of the re@ch of many people. People with money find that proportionately the things they buy – luxury items – do not rise as fast in price as basic items. The inflation rate for basic foods has been consistently higher than for more upmarket items. It is a true saying that ‘money begets money’.

The unequal spread of money distorts markets – shopping streets in affluent areas continue to thrive whilst in deprived areas, more and more shops have closed.

The Guardian reported “The richest 350 individuals and families together hold a combined wealth of £795bn – a sum larger than the annual GDP of Poland. Priya Sahni-Nicholas, a co-executive director of the Equality Trust, a charity that campaigns for the creation of a fairer society, said the list “demonstrates the obscene extent of inequality” in the UK. “Billionaire wealth is up by more than 1,000% since 1990 at a very real cost to us all,” she said. “This rich list is built off record bill increases, massive price hikes for essentials, an endless shortage of decent homes, and huge investment in fossil fuels.

“To make progress on these crises we must tackle inequality. The super-rich have spent centuries diverting wealth into their hands, making our democracy less responsive to people’s needs and damaging our communities. The result is we are poorer, sicker, less productive, unhappier, more polarised, and less trusting.”

https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/may/17/british-asylum-housing-tycoon-breaks-into-sunday-times-rich-list?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other