NEWS > BUSINESS > BRITAIN’S SUPER RICH DOWN IN THE DUMPS ABOUT ECONOMIC CRISIS

BRITAIN’S SUPER RICH DOWN IN THE DUMPS ABOUT ECONOMIC CRISIS

April 27 2009

London, U.K. – When it comes to the latest economic chaos there’s little debating that we are all in together. Never before has it been so apparent how intertwined the global economies have become as seemingly disparate incidents have caused hardship across the world. From foreclosures in Denver, to business closures in Tokyo, to bankruptcies in Bonn, the entire world has felt the pain of the economic crash in ways that only a few decades ago no one could have imagined.

Aside from equalizing many of the world’s economies, the crisis is also levelling the playing field for many individuals across all spectrums of society. That is no more apparent than it is with the extraordinarily wealthy who are seeing massive erosion of their fortunes through the economic crisis. While people of all demographics have been hit, very few have seen the level of collapse like the wealthiest who have lost billions in just a few months.

“Those with the most to lose do tend to lose the most but the sheer dollar amounts we are seeing being bled out of the rich is unheard of. In the United Kingdom alone the number of billionaires dropped from 75 to 43. You don’t see that kind of erosion amongst regular people, partly at least because
they don’t make lists for regular people, but nonetheless, the numbers are shocking,”
said Scrape TV Business analyst Ken Green. “If this continues at this level people across the world are going to have trouble finding someone to be among the elite of society. Many of the world’s billionaires are just going to get sick of the up and down game and decide to move on.”

In fact some already are. Andrew Lloyd Webber recently announced his intentions to leave the country over a tax increase and with his announcement came a dire warning that other wealthy artists may follow him. Though long from his days as a relevant voice in the British business and entertainment realm, Webber’s comments have concerned many that newer and more interesting celebrities and wealthy people may feel the pinch and leave the country.

“The first step would be reducing the tax rate on the very wealthy. The inclination is to go the other way to help people who are losing their homes but that kind of pressure will only increase the pressure on bank accounts prompting more and more people to leave the country in a search for greener pastures,” continued Green. “That’s of course assuming that they will want to stay rich after the way they have been treated. We may see a major upset in the traditional structure of capitalism after this if we don’t see a major effort to treat billionaires better.”

No other country has had the level of decay from the wealthiest members of its society the way the United Kingdom has done. Other major European economies, Japan, and the United States have taken measures to ensure that the wealthiest 1 per cent stay that way. The outrage in the U.K. has prompted a surge in popularity of the Conservative party who are now seen to be the front runners in next year’s federal election.

“Traditionally left-wing parties care very little for the good of the wealthy and while it’s difficult to see a difference in the United States, in countries like Britain the gap is quite significant. Couple that with Gordon Brown’s general unpopularity and you have a recipe for disaster but the question of whether or not a conservative government will be able to restore that wealth is still a valid one,” continued Green. “These are hard times and there are no easy answers. Unfortunately people on all levels of income just don’t have a lot of spare cash to throw around and so direct support of the wealthy is very unlikely. Hopefully once the economy bounces back there will still be a lot of wealthy people in left the U.K., for the good of the whole country.”

A charity concert for the wealthy that was to be headlined by Sting this summer has been cancelled due to lack of financing.      

William Ashford, Business Correspondent

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