Extreme Wealth

We all notice when the poor get poorer: when there are more rough sleepers and food bank queues start to grow. But if the rich become richer, there is nothing much to see in public and, for most of us, daily life doesn't change. Or at least, not immediately. In this astonishing, eye-opening intervention, world-leading philosopher and economist Ingrid Robeyns exposes the true extent of our wealth problem, which has spent the past fifty years silently spiralling out of control.

Getting rich is not a matter of environment, for if it were all the people in certain neighbourhoods would become wealthy; the people of one city would all be rich, while those of other towns would all be poor. Everywhere we see rich and poor living side-by-side, in the same environment, and often engaged in the same vocations. Getting rich is not the result of saving or thrift; many very penurious people are desperately poor whilst free spenders appear to get rich.