I found it strangely reassuring to read Anoosh Chakelian’s article (Britain’s richest 10% don’t think they’re wealthy – and that’s disastrous in the fight against inequality, 24 January). If nothing else, the article validated my own frustration at the situation. My partner and I earn about the average salary each and can manage, but certainly not live in luxury. We think about every purchase, and don’t waste, while we try to build our savings to the point that we can afford to adopt children. Two recent conversations with friends earning £80,000 and £100,000, in which they discussed struggling and being working class, were painful and have been echoing in my mind ever since.
I am a social worker, so I see the cold face of poverty constantly – the types of situations where a family doesn’t know whether to heat or eat. I would never describe my family as struggling. But my friends truly think they struggle as they manage their two very large mortgages, and worry about whether their next holiday will need to be a bit cheaper than the Maldives. I have no answers to this problem, other than to show them my take-home pay and watch as they imagine living on that, then break the news that the minimum wage pays half. They immediately thought-block, though, and tell me about the benefits those people get. I feel a bit hopeless, if I’m honest.
Jennifer Brown
Ruddington, Nottinghamshire
According to Anoosh Chakelian, I am among the top 10% of earners. And she’s right: I do not feel rich. Making £59,200 or more is well above the median salary in the UK, but for many it is not enough to live on in London. These numbers are constantly thrown around to upset people in impoverished regions who could live very comfortably on those wages, and upset people in London and other high-cost-of-living areas who feel they are struggling.
That division, which seems to quickly devolve into comment-section and social-media bickering, is an excellent distraction from any discussion of who holds most of the wealth in this country, as well as property. She has a point that perceptions are important, but these UK-wide averages and medians are meaningless in the context of local cost of living.
Nicole Robinson
London
I was surprised to read that Anoosh Chakelian believes it is a “stark view” that a quarter of Britons paid £100,000 or more identify as “working class”, the implication being that people on high salaries should consider themselves middle class. As one of these apparently misguided people, perhaps I can explain that I regard my class to be an immutable part of me – a set of attitudes and a culture learned from parents and peers while growing up in a deprived, postindustrial part of Britain. My children may be middle class, but I am working class; I can no more change this than I can change which school I went to.
Chris Tapp
Wantage, Oxfordshire
Obviously what people earn on a monthly basis matters. But many high earners from working-class backgrounds have no inherited wealth reserves to fall back on and hence will never be, or feel, as wealthy as their properly middle/upper-class friends and colleagues. Working-class offspring often end up supporting their elderly parents, who tend to rely solely on the state pension, whereas middle-class offspring receive early inheritance boosters from parents who have accumulated significant assets over their lifetimes. It’s time that people’s financial family backgrounds were taken into account. Monthly salaries don’t equal wealth. Inheritances do. It’s a class thing.
Berty Dodd
Malpas, Cheshire
