Can Poverty Kill?
Britain is one the most unequal countries in the world, inequality permeates every aspect of daily life.
The material effects of inequality are felt across society, shaping everything from regulatory capture and housing access to education and life expectancy.
Kensington & Chelsea is the most unequal borough in London, with a Gini index almost twice as high as the UK overall. It is home to one of the world’s most expensive streets, Kensington Palace Gardens, with an average house price over £30 million.
It is also home to Grenfell Tower, where 72 residents tragically died in an atrocity resulting from corporate greed, deregulation, and privatised housing management.
Ward to ward inequalities within this borough are shockingly vast; Women in Holland Park live to 93.2 years whilst those just 500 meters away live almost 20 years less to only 75.3 years. In the ward of Golborne children are five times more likely to be born into relative poverty than in the ward of Stanley.
Before the law? Of course we are all equal on paper, but many increasingly suffer the consequences of a system built on private production for profit and how that impacts our relationships with each other.
Drastically unequal conditions often creates masses of avoidable distress to people all across the world.
When media, politicians and public figures discuss economic inequality, it is often presented as an unavoidable evil that will permanently exist.
When a child born just a ten-minute walk from another faces such drastically different life chances, we have to question what kind of society we live in? How much inequality are we willing to live with?
