Opinion of High Earners - 2007 Qualitative Research
This report provides the findings from a project looking at high earning people's attitudes to wealth and taxation in the UK today. It is part of a larger study on modern social attitudes to wealth and taxation conducted by Polly Toynbee and David Walker.
This report provides the findings from a project looking at high earning people’s attitudes to wealth and taxation in the UK today. It is part of a larger study on modern social attitudes to wealth and taxation conducted by Polly Toynbee and David Walker.
The project aimed to gather real evidence from people on high incomes in the UK to help develop hypotheses on their opinions and ideas regarding wealth, high earnings, taxation and redistribution.
The objectives of the research were as follows:
· To understand perceptions of high earning people on social justice, inequality and redistributive taxation
· To identify the potential for narratives and ideas which might cut through to create support from rich people for a politics which addresses social inequality
Two extended discussion groups were held, one at a leading firm of City solicitors on 11 July 2007, and the second one at an investment bank on 19 September 2007.
Summary of the findings
High earnings felt normal for these groups, who assumed median incomes were much higher than they are.
They had no more sophisticated a view of income distribution than the public as a whole. They assumed income differentials are narrower than they really were, as they assumed the lowest end, and the middle, of the social spectrum earned more than they do.
At the same time, like the general public, they felt people should earn in a narrower distribution pattern of incomes, giving more to those at the bottom and less to those at the top.
In terms of their attitude to their own incomes they were similar to the general public in London; backing up arguments with same rhetoric:
· I am near the top of the income distribution but there are many more well off than me
· Life is hard in London, high salaries compensate
· The government are unlikely to deliver on promises to improve services.
London was seen as different from other UK locations as it is competes with other global cities for resources and talent; this means it charges higher prices and gives larger rewards, and this benefits the whole UK.
They did not imagine that their high incomes (as opposed to the income levels of super-rich celebrities) guarantee political or economic power.
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