But half average household income is not based on any investigation as to how much money is required for an adequate standard of living. It must be acknowledged that new Labour has improved the lot of some with low incomes. But moderate increases in the incomes of the poorest without reducing those of the richest are not sufficient. Socialists want a more equal society because it expresses a more just distribution of resources. This is not all.
Studies now reveal that being at the bottom of a wealthy society induces a host of social handicaps.
Professor Richard Wilkinson explains that many in this position suffer feelings of failure, helplessness and loss of self-esteem which, when internalised, result in behaviour marked by withdrawal, apathy and aggression. When her unemployed husband killed himself, she retreated into depression. She struggled on with five kids in a damp flat and extreme poverty. There are hundreds of millionaires, but thousands living in poverty. She wanted to give up and took an overdose.