Fallacy of the Theory of Equal Division In the Newmarch Leotures at University College, Sir Josiah Stamp dealt with the distribution of income and wealth between sections of the population. He stated that- of late years much more exact knowledge had been available upon this subject, and that the results of research could be given without. any important allowance for error:—One-twelfth of the gross total income was received by about one-four-hundred-andeightieth part of the population, and, approximately, one-half of the total sum by one-tenth of the people, but these proportions were profoundly modified so far as the net sums available to the individuals, after bearing taxation, were concerned.
The actual proportions in which the total income has been dis. tributed amongst the people have hardly varied during the past 100 years. In comparing the year 1801 with the year 1920, and taking all the people with incomes over £500 then and now, there were 56 per cent. in the class from £500 to £1,000 then against 55.2 now; in the class £1,000 to £2,000 there were 26.3 then against 27.3 now; in the £2,000 to £5,000 class 13.9 per cent, then against 13 per cent. now, and in the class with over £5,000 3.8 per cent. in 1801 against 4.5 per cent. in 1920.
Of the total amount of income belonging to the people with over £500 a year, the people with £5,000 or more had 96 per cent. then against 34 per cent. now, and this was because of the general increase of wealth which had surged up evenly through all the classes, in-' creasing the bottom incomes and the top incomes, but leaving the "slope" of distribution quite unchanged.
Retativity or THE "Livina Wace."
Sir Josiah stated that the average person in 1914 had twice the money income of the corresponding person in 1801, and each £1 chad twice the purchasing power, so that practically all classes were four times as well off in rea] comforts and commodities, and the "standard of living was now four times as good as it was 120 years ago. The general conception of a "living wage" was, to a very con. siderable extent, not absolute at all, but relative to the particular age in which we live.
Dealing with the question as to what the result would be if in 1919-20 all the incomes for the} better-off people were pooled amongst the poorer, Sir Josiah
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