1 - Introduction

Summary

In 19th-century Britain, Scottish families used different commemorative practices to honour their dead. Commoners relied upon ordinary headstones while the wealthy used more expensive obelisks. The grave inscriptions reveal that those with obelisks lived longer lives; men averaging 65 and women 63 years. By contrast, the average male Glaswegian died at age 50 and the average woman at age 52 (Smith, Blane and Bartley 1994), a difference of 15 and 11 years respectively. To no great surprise, Glasgow's poor bore the brunt of premature death during the industrial age. Even in death, class inequalities exist. In the early 21st century one would hope that the problem of premature death among the poor would be largely resolved. Yet, in contemporary London, the differential between Holland Park and Tottenham Green is 10.6 years for men and 11.4 years for women. And even when high-rise social housing were introduced to areas like North Kensington, unnecessary penny-pinching when installing cladding and insulation led to 69 working-class people burning to death in the 2017 Grenfell Tower Fire (Symonds and De Simone 2017). Altogether 72 would lose their lives to the fire. Not only do these facts speak to the stubborn durability of unequal life courses in Western societies, but often the harrowing way life ends for those who suffer the most from the intensification of social inequality and the abjection that permits it.

In the United Kingdom, 1% of the population hold about 15% of the wealth, and the top 10% own 40% of the national wealth (Office of National Statistics 2012). By contrast, 37% of British families are one pay-cheque away from destitution (Collinson 2016). In the United States, 37.2 million people or 11.4% of Americans live in poverty (U.S. Census Bureau 2021), with many more financially insecure with 51% not even having $400 for an emergency (YouGov 2022). Nearly the same number have no assets (U.S. Federal Reserve 2022). In 2019, Jeff Bezos, then the wealthiest single American, was 21 times richer than Daniel Ludwig, his 1982 counterpart (Inequality.org 2022). A decade ago, ‘the wealthiest 1% of U.S. Households [had a] net worth that was 225 times greater than the median or typical household's net worth in 2009.