The people who have everything also run everything.

If everyone had the same amount of money on Monday, by Friday they would not be equal. Some people do their best to make their lives as comfortable as possible, others just spend what they don't have and then complain they want more. Yes, some people may seem to be lucky but you can make your own luck. You cannot improve the lives of the poorest in society by taking it off the rich, they have want to strive to improve their own lives.

From experience I know this. I was born into a poor working class family, lived in council property in a bad area with both parents working in factories. They didn't want that life for me so instilled in me the importance of a good education and a career. I now have a half a million pound mortgage free house in a nice area. I didn't get all that by being jealous of others' life styles, I did it by working hard and making sensible choices. It's the 'sensible choices' bit which is more important. I'm afraid, some people just don't seem to be able to make those, no matter how much they are helped..

A more equal society would give all people a fairer chance

Grany I completely agree BUT how do you make society more equal when it never has been?

What would you do to bring that about?

Most people would say "Make sure the rich pay the correct amount of tax." I also completely agree with that.

But it won't make a lot of difference. You cannot level out society.

You can throw money at the poor perhaps. Who subsidises who?

What is the solution? I don't think there is one. My advice would be, to everyone, if you want to get on, go to school, get an education, get a job. That is not always easy but it is a starting point and can eventually, maybe, set a poor person on the path to becoming a rich person. Yes, those starting rich have advantages, but would you advocate taking those advantages away to level the playing field. And if so, how would you so it?

I think we must accept society and life is unfair and that those born without the silver spoon have to make their own way in the world via schooling and by hard work. (If they are so inclined. Not everyone is.) It doesn't guarantee riches and it doesn't mean they won't be overlooked, but again, that's life. It was ever thus.

I'd like to win the lottery and win the high life. I'd like to emulate those with lots. It's not going to happen. I do not resent the rich though. I resent corruption and greed.

You cannot tar all wealthy and educated people with that brush.

I am waiting for someone to explain how we make the poor rich, or how we make the rich poor. It seems those with the politics of envy want to level a playing field that has always been sloped by getting at "the rich", as if they are criminals.

If we talked of the poor the way we talk about the 'rich' we would find ourselves hounded to the ends of the earth. Anyway, what is a definition of rich - twice the average wage, 4 times, 6 times, what?

So 7% of the population went to private schools get 39% of the jobs, but but that is a lot less than half and the other 61% of people in power presumably come from homes that are not 'rich and privileged.

It is the same with Oxford and Cambridge well over 50% of students at those two universities are from state schools. If 24 percent of their graduates get top jobs, it could be because they are actually a damn sight brighter than the rest of the population. I mean they are elite universities and you do have to be both very bright and very rounded to get in there. Presumably most of that 24% would be state educated.

I have very little time for those who winge on constantly about privilege. My grandparents, one a docker married to the daughter of Irish immigrants living in a slum in London, the other an Irish factory worker, who enlisted in the army and married a shop assistant, all started life in poverty and and near the bottom socially. All died as members of the comfortable 'middle class'. One grandfather became an army officer decorated by the queen and the pope for his charitable work.

They got there by being clever and socially ambitious for themselves and their children. No privilege, no strings pulled. That way has always been open for the determined and ambitious and it still is. My FiL worked on the assembly line at Vauxhall. His son, my DH, got to grammar school, university and proved so good at what he does, that he is still being called back to advise on major engineering projects in his mid 70s.

A person can be bright and wear a hoodie and use a food bank

Of course they can. Whoever said they can't? You are choosing to be offended.

You are becoming outraged on behalf of .....?????

Read my post.

I suggested it would be of no use to drag the wine drinkers (see the cartoon) to street corners, food banks and dress them in hoodies. I said NOTHING about the people who live like that and have to use food banks.

Simmer down, eh?

a blinkered soap-box communist full of hatred impose his sort of 'justice' on the country

Is this all that is available to us? Surely we as civilized human beings should be trying to promote equality of opportunity and showing compassion. Why should privilege be rewarded with more privilege? Social mobility is at an all time low.

The idea of working hard and making your way is not a reality for many people....through no fault of their own.

Please don't tell me to simmer down. That is very rude and patronizing.

The top 1% of earners pay 29% of all tax collected in U.K.

The haves and the have nots have always existed Yes Day6. I agree in a capitalist system such as ours this is inevitable, but is not an excuse for the extremes to which inequality has soared in the UK. Many other countries do not have this huge divide. 40% of the UKs wealth is owned by 10% of the population, and the wealthy have better access to better housing, education, health care and jobs. Students from public schools are over represented in the top universities. It is inevitable therefore that the "elite" will strive to maintain the status quo, but this inequality leads to a country which becomes unhappy, unhealthier physically and mentally and more unstable. Does this sound familiar I wonder?

If everyone had the same amount of money on Monday, by Friday they would not be equal.
True

Those blessed with better brains to start with are usually able to get the better jobs. 'Twas ever thus and always will be. What else do you expect?
You also need drive and ambition - even the best brains and qualifications are not always a guarantee of success (or common sense!) but have the determination to succeed can go a long way.

Mind you, I did think of the bankers when I read the OP.

What do you think we should do about the young people who refuse an education Lessismore? Do we have to have compassion for them when they become unemployable?

Life is so not straightforward.

Social mobility might be at an all time low, but education is there for everyone and has been for quite some time now.

Mr G and I have many people in our social circle who always vote Conservative and do not care about the plight of the less privileged.

Well, that's damning all who vote differently from you, presumably, as being uncaring.

Poor people vote for the Conservative party too. One of the biggest aberrations of our time is the way in which the Labour party has become the home of the wealthy middle classes who like to think they have a social conscience as they sit in their NIMBY enclaves.

I only know of two other couples, in our income bracket, who are willing to “give back to society”.

That sounds dreadfully self-righteously moralistic and superior. You are judging all the rest by your own 'virtuous' standards.

Most people, (not all) no matter their income, do care about others for whom life is a struggle. Shock, horror - Conservative voters do too! They are not going to wear sackcloth and ashes to prove it.

I think some people ( from whatever background) grab every opportunity they see, they work hard at school and whether or not they go to Uni or straight to work they learn as they go and strive for promotion.

Others frankly can't be a***d!!!

I also think some people mature at different rates and cba at 14 but possibly could do well at 20.

Numerous people give of their time and their money to charities and raising money for charities, they do not have to go round shouting it from roof tops to prove they are caring and decent people.

I worked in a primary school in an area of very high deprivation. The children spoke 28 different languages, we would have asylum seeker and refugee children along with EU Roma children arrive without warning and have to be immediately absorbed into classes when they were perhaps 7 or 8 years old and had never been to a school before. Three or four families would be living in one small house. Does anyone seriously think that many of these children are going to pull themselves out of this situation without a heck of a lot of help?

When the Labour government was in power, we were given funding to open a Sure Start facility at the school. It was open year round from 8 till 6 five days a week, fully staffed, offered English language tuition, parenting classes, health advice, outreach services for the most vulnerable children and adults, breakfasts for children who didn't get them, toddler groups led by qualified staff, and much more. It made a huge difference to the families in the area and, had it continued, would have continued to level the playing field a little for the children coming into our school, some of whom were extremely bright and could go far, given a chance.

Of course, like most Sure Start centres, its funding was slashed in the name of austerity. The facilities are still there but I have just checked and it is now open just 12 hours a week, term-time only, with one activity a day. What a waste, in so many ways.

Maggiemaybe I worked in a school in mainland EU, if the children couldn't speak the language of that country they were not admitted.

The state school system here is set up to teach in English, perhaps we are over generous in our admissions system.

There are other avenues to education. Evening classes, OU.

Hard to study if your stomach is rumbling.

Day6 - I was waiting to observe who would be the first to make a disparaging remark to my comment. Well done, you may take the prize! ?

My last post was in response to lessismore's.

Social mobility is not at an all time low. It may be lower than it has been at various times in the past, but the reson for this has more to do with money than social prejudice.

I went to a northern university in the early 1960s and I would have said that most of the students in the science and engineering departments had good northern working class backgrounds. This was thanks to the 11+, grammar schools and free university education with maintenance grants.

No, I am not campaigning for the return of grammar schools. Those were the days before coaching, when every child took the exam from the same level.

But, we need to make life easier for less advantaged children, either by making a degree less expensive, or returning to the other great way of entry into the professions in the 1960s and that is by making it possible for them to enter the professions from every educational level from O levels to degrees. The lower your exam achievements the longer the on the job (and paid) training and an extra layer of exams.

I have one friend, who started her solicitors training at 20, with minimal O levels and reached the highest levels of her profession where she was surrounded by Oxbridge graduates. Another followed a similar path into Chartered Accountancy. Whether they could do it today, having to go back to college for A levels, 3 years of university, all without fiancial support, only loans, instead of working while studying and having no need for debt, I am not sure

Many people have done it in the past lessismore, but I agree it shouldn't happen in this day and age.

The idea of working hard and making your way is not a reality for many people&

Well, you'll definitely have to explain that one!!!

Please tell us why working hard is not a reality for a person born into less than privileged circumstances.

Well, like it or not, GrannyGravy, children in this country are entitled to an education.

Would you really want to deny them that?