“The question of who is rich is fraught. A fascinating new book, Uncomfortably Off: Why the Top 10% of Earners Should Care About Inequality, by Marcos González Hernando and Gerry Mitchell, surveys unhappiness and insecurity at the top. The top 10% constitute the most unequal group, stretching from those who earn £60,000 at the bottom to the 0.1% whose multimillions and billions shoot off the graph. This powerful group are leaders of business and professions, yet are almost all much further from the top than they are to the median.
Most of them feel increasingly insecure, running on a hamster wheel, yet making little progress as pay retreats for them, too. Because they’re more likely to compare themselves to those above them, rather than those below, they don’t feel rich, and tend to be ignorant of how far above the ordinary they are. They feel insecure. According to the IFS in the book, a quarter won’t be in the top 10% in a year’s time. Half will fall out of this category within five years, due to economic shocks, illness or bad luck.”
