Reuters/Toby Melville
SrikandiTV - Termiskin 20 % peratus daripada isi rumah di UK mendapat hanya $ 9,530 setiap tahun, kadar yang mendadak lebih rendah daripada di negara-negara lain dengan pendapatan purata yang sama, menurut kajian baru.
Beberapa rakyat Britain mungkin akan bersetuju dengan pemerhatian bahawa "hidup ini lebih buruk (di UK) daripada ia adalah untuk yang ke-5 termiskin di hampir setiap negara lain Eropah barat laut," tetapi ini adalah yang sebenarnya kesimpulan Pusat Bayar Tinggi, sebuah ‘independent British think-tank’, telah dibuat dalam kajian yang baru dikeluarkan.
Menggunakan angka dari OECD Indeks Kehidupan yang lebih baik, laporan itu menun-jukkan bahawa purata pendapatan isi rumah UK $ 53,785, yang membentuk 20 % peratus terkaya di UK, menduduki tempat yg ke-3 di negara-negara Kesatuan Eropah, ketinggalan di belakang Jerman dan Perancis.
Tetapi itu adalah di mana persamaan ekonomi antara UK dan EU terhenti menjerit.
OECD menganggarkan pendapatan purata 20 % peratus bahagian bawah isi rumah UK pada hanya $ 9530, yang jauh lebih rendah daripada 20 % peratus yang paling miskin di Perancis ($ 12,653), Jerman ($ 13,381), Belgium ($ 12,350), Belanda ($ 11,274) dan Denmark ($ 12,183).
Laporan tersebut mendedahkan penurunan pesat Britain dari kesaksamaan ekonomi dalam hanya beberapa dekad.
"Sejak 1960, Britain telah pergi daripada menjadi lebih menjimatkan sama daripada Sweden untuk menjadi salah satu negara yang paling tidak sama rata di negara maju," menurut Pusat Bayar Tinggi. "Daripada 32 anggota Pertubuhan bagi Kerjasama Eko-nomi dan Pembangunan (OECD) hanya Portugal, Israel, Amerika Syarikat, Turki, Mexico dan Chile lebih tidak sama rata daripada United Kingdom."
The GOLDEN 1%: Britain's POOR Worse than EVER . . .
The poorest 20 percent of UK households earn just $9,530 annually, a dramatically lower rate than in other countries with a similar average income, according to new research.
Few Britons would probably agree with the observation that “life is much worse (in the UK) than it is for the poorest fifth in virtually every other northwest European country,” but that is exactly the conclusion the High Pay Centre, an independent British think-tank, has made in a newly released study.
Using figures from the OECD Better Life Index, the report shows that average UK household incomes of $53,785, which makes up the wealthiest 20 percent in the UK, ranked third in EU countries, lagging behind Germany and France.
But that is where the economic similarities between the UK and the EU come to a screeching halt.
The OECD estimates the average income of the bottom 20 percent of UK households at just $9,530, which is significantly lower than the poorest 20 percent in France ($12,653), Germany ($13,381), Belgium ($12,350), the Netherlands ($11,274) and Denmark ($12,183).
The report revealed Britain’s rapid decline from economic equality in just a few decades.
“Since 1960, Britain has gone from being more economically equal than Sweden to being one of the most unequal countries in the developed world,” according to the High Pay Centre. “Of the 32 members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) only Portugal, Israel, the United States, Turkey, Mexico and Chile are more unequal than the UK.”
Source: High Pay Centre study
Malah, kata ‘the think-tank’ tersebut taraf hidup UK terpinggir adalah lebih dekat kepada orang-orang negara-negara bekas blok Timur, seperti Slovenia dan Republik Czech.
Laporan itu menyatakan bahawa "ketidaksamaan tidak berlaku secara kebetulan," tetapi timbul daripada pilihan politik, sosial dan budaya yang sengaja dalam bidang seperti "cukai, perbelanjaan awam, perhubungan perusahaan, toleransi awam gaji yang tinggi dan yang rendah."
"Angka-angka cadangkan kita perlu lebih prihatin tentang ketidaksamaan dan bagai-mana kemakmuran dikongsi, dan juga pendapatan purata atau langkah2 agregat seperti KDNK," seperti Financial Times memetik Deborah Hargreaves, pengarah Pusat Bayar Tinggi. "Hakikat bahawa yang kaya lebih kaya di UK daripada banyak negara lain menyembunyikan fakta bahawa golongan miskin lebih miskin."
Ia harus diperhatikan bahawa kajian2 lain tlh menunjukkan bahawa tahap kemiskinan UK adalah kira-kira setanding dengan atas negara-negara EU.
Kajian Luxembourg Pendapatan Pangkalan Data, sebagai contoh, yang menunjukkan bahawa peratusan ke-20 UK dan isi rumah Perancis mempunyai pendapatan yg sama. Dan kedua-duanya adalah hanya sedikit kurang teruk berbanding dengan isi rumah yang sama di Jerman.
Namun kedua-dua kajian menunjukkan bahawa yang miskin di UK mempunyai taraf hidup yg lebih rendah daripada golongan miskin di Belanda, Sweden, Norway, Finland dan Denmark.
In fact, the think-tank said marginalized UK living standards are much closer to those of former Eastern bloc countries, such as Slovenia and the Czech Republic.
The report noted that “inequality does not happen by chance,” but arises from deliberate political, social and cultural choices in areas like “taxation, public spending, industrial relations and public tolerance of high and low pay.”
“These figures suggest we need to be more concerned about inequality and how prosperity is shared, as well as average incomes or aggregate measures like GDP,” as the Financial Times quotes Deborah Hargreaves, director of the High Pay Centre. “The fact that the rich are richer in the UK than many other countries hides the fact that the poor are poorer.”
It should be noted that other studies have shown that UK poverty levels are about on par with the top EU economies.
The Luxembourg Income Study Database, for example, suggests that the 20th percentile of UK and French households have very similar incomes. And both are only slightly less worse off than equivalent households in Germany.
Yet both studies show that the impoverished in the UK have lower living standards than the poor in the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark.
Reuters/Paul Hackett
"KEEMASAN 1 % Peratus"
Ketidaksamaan pendapatan telah terbukti mempunyai kesan langsung ke atas jumlah pendapatan persentil yang paling rendah bagi isi rumah.
Di UK, 1 % peratus terkaya mengambil 13 % peratus daripada jumlah pendapatan, iaitu nisbah lebih besar daripada di negara-negara Eropah Barat yang lain.
Top Pendapatan Pangkalan Data DUNIA melaporkan jumlah pendapatan di UK pada tahun 2011 (tahun yang paling baru-baru ini untuk rekod yang ada) pada £ 1 trilion. Oleh itu, bahagian 13 % peratus yg diambil oleh yang kaya 1 % peratus yg bersamaan dengan kira-kira £ 130 billion setahun.
"Jika bahagian yang ditangkap oleh 1 % peratus itu adalah sama seperti di Belanda dan Denmark, ia akan menjadi bernilai £ 60 bilion," laporan itu menekankan. " £ 70 billion perbezaan diedarkan di seluruh baki 99 % peratus di UK akan meletakkan tambahan £ 2,700 di dalam poket setiap isi rumah."
Bahagian 6 % peratus daripada jumlah pendapatan meraih oleh golongan kaya 1 % peratus di Belanda dan Denmark adalah yang paling rendah yang dicatatkan oleh DUNIA pangkalan data pendapatan atas; Walau bagaimanapun, bahagian di negara-negara lain seperti Sweden (7 % peratus), Norway (8 % peratus) dan Perancis (8 % peratus) juga jauh lebih rendah daripada tahap UK.
Jika jumlah pendapatan di antara 99 % peratus dan 1 % peratus daripada penduduk UK telah terbelah dengan cara yang sama seperti di negara2 Eropah dan Scandinavia, 99 % peratus itu akan menjadi "beribu-ribu pound lebih baik setiap tahun," kata laporan itu.
The "GOLDEN ONE Percent"
Income inequality has been proven to have a direct effect on the total earnings of the lowest percentile of households.
In the UK, the wealthiest one percent takes 13 percent of total income, which is much greater ratio than in other Western European countries.
The World Top Incomes Database reported total incomes in the UK in 2011 (the most recent year for which records are available) at £1 trillion. Thus, the 13 percent share taken by the richest one percent equates to about £130 billion per year.
“If the share captured by the one percent were the same as in the Netherlands and Denmark, it would be worth £60 billion,” the report emphasized. “The £70 billion difference distributed across the remaining 99 percent of the UK would put an extra £2,700 in the pockets of every household.”
The 6 percent share of total incomes grabbed by the richest one percent in the Netherlands and Denmark is the lowest recorded by the world top incomes database; however, the share in other countries such as Sweden (seven percent), Norway (eight percent) and France (eight percent) is also much lower than UK levels.
If total income between the 99 percent and the one percent of UK’s population was split up in the same way as in European and Scandinavian countries, the 99 percent would be “thousands of pounds better off each year,” the report said.
READ MORE: http://on.rt.com/30xwzh
