Taxation

Jim regards the implicit inequalities in wealth and income with an equanimity that is unlikely to be shared by the increasing number of people relying on charity food banks.

Jan Pen, the Dutch economist, illustrated the inequality problem with his “parade of the dwarfs”. Imagine the earning population passing before you over a period of an hour, their height representing their income.

If the pile thickness on the red carpet is more than 1mm then for several minutes the people will be invisible. Then follow people a few inches tall, those on part time minimum wage jobs.

After 15 minutes, full time manual workers pass by, their height is about one foot.

At this stage it becomes boring since there are millions of these.

Later come teachers, junior managers, police and firemen.

The averagely tall, about 5ft 9in, throng by after 45 minutes.

Note there are far more below the arithmetic average than above, since a small number of earners pull the average up.

After 55 minutes doctors and lawyers stroll by, they peer down from 50ft.

In the penultimate split second premiership footballers and pop stars lumber on. They are 1,000ft high.

In the last nano-second come the grotesquely deviant final thousand. They pay no tax and cannot see the food banks beneath their shoes since their very soles are 60 metres thick.

That’s OK by Jim, but does anyone else see a problem here?

Rob Meggs, Hartlepool.