Using the material from item 3B and elsewhere, assess the reasons for the widening gap between the rich and the poor in the UK.

Beth Clarke.

One reason for the widening gap between the rich and the poor is that since 1970, the government taxation policies have changed, these policies are more favorable to the wealthy people. This means that households within the higher tax bracket are paying less tax, this in turn then makes the rich people richer meaning the gap between the poor even greater. for example as item 3B shows in 1970 the share of total income taken by the top 1% of earners was only 7.1%this had risen by more than half in 2005 and the share of total income take by the top one percent of income was now 14.3%.

A second reason for the widening gap between the rich and the poor in the UK is changes to the labour market, these changes have led to more relatively low paid jobs such as in the tertiary sector. With less people working in the higher paying primary and secondary sectors the gap between the rich and the poor will be widening as more people will begin to work within the substantially lower paying tertiary sector, this will widen the gap between the rich and the poor as it means there will be more people working in lower paid jobs.

Item 3B also raises the Marxist Argument that our Capitalist society is the underlying reason as to why there is inequality in our society. It could be argued that Capitalism is to blame for the widening gap between the rich and the poor as Capitalism believes that those who work hard within society , should be rewarded for their work whereas those who don't should not be rewarded as they have not worked hard enough to gain a reward. This type of economic system favours the rich, as the 'rich' people within society are seen to be the hardest working people, this is often not the case, but due to capitalistic