I TAKE Oxfam Scotland’s report on inequality with more than a pinch of salt (“Charity highlights wealth of richest families”, The Herald, October 8). For a start, thousands of people are at Calais trying to enter Britain in order to enjoy the standard of living of our poorest people. In many cases these migrants have paid thousands of dollars to people traffickers to get that far.
Oxfam Scotland makes a misleading comparison, when it claims that the four richest families in Scotland are worth £1billion more than the poorest 20 per cent of the population. To fairly assess the wealth of most Scots, you have to include all the free public services and welfare benefits we are entitled to. The NHS, free education and social security payments do not come cheap. We take all this for granted and forget that it all has to be paid for. If we each had to purchase these on the open market, we would need either a substantial income or significant personal wealth.
Incidentally, since when was it appropriate behaviour for a charity to campaign for socialism?
Oxfam Scotland needs a reality check; most British people are effectively among the rich of the planet. Greater state interference to equalise incomes will only tend to seriously undermine our economic position and impoverish us all.
Otto Inglis,
6 Inveralmond Grove, Edinburgh.
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