| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re: Not propaganda - just fact! | |
| Posted by: | Kathleen Healy | |
| Date/Time: | 04/05/26 19:08:00 |
| Opportunity is linked to equality. The more equal society that was created after the war, with policies aimed at redistributing wealth, created opportunities for the generation born during and shortly after the war. I am a beneficiary of that. The building of millions of council homes after the war meant that in 1986, property was still plentiful and relatively cheap in London and I was able to buy a flat, aged 23. The belief that wealth should be shared went beyond government. Barclays gave me a subsidised mortgage, which also helped. My father in law, who worked for Barclays earlier than me, got a 1% fixed mortgage. Great opportunities. Free University tuition and grants for living costs. Cheap college fees if you studied at college, as I did. Loads of evening classes advertised in Floodlight every September. These were opportunities that don't exist now. Warren Buffet, at one time the world's richest man, lobbies for the rich in America to pay a fairer share of tax. He says the fortunes the rich have made have been enabled by creating an environment; infrastructure, education etc. in which there are opportunities. That was paid for by previous generations of tax payers. He is a friend of Bill Gates and gave his foundation a billion dollars in one year. He argues, and he says that Bill Gates agrees with him, that if Bill had been born in sub Saharan Africa, he could not have become a tech billionaire. He'd have been lucky to live beyond childhood. I don't think us boomers should don sack cloth and ashes, but I think we should acknowledge our good fortune and aspire for younger people to have similar opportunities, or at least to move in that direction and not see succesive generations poorer and poorer. As an added benefit, redistribution created a bouyant economy that enabled the country to repay a colossal post war national debt. |