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Unjust Rewards: Exposing Greed and Inequality in Britain Today Paperback – 1 Aug 2008

by Polly Toynbee (Author), David Walker (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars 12 customer reviews
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Product details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Granta Books (1 Aug. 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1847080936
  • ISBN-13: 978-1847080936
  • Product Dimensions: 23.3 x 15.9 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 580,278 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

'A brilliant blend of moving human stories, cast-iron statistics and real-world solutions to our great national scandal' -- The Independent

'A dissection of Britain's record on today's inequality like none other' -- Will Hutton

'A persuasive case is made here for fairer taxation and justifiable state spending' -- The Times

'This is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the state we're in'
-- Rosie Boycott

`Unjust Rewards contains some striking and well-documented vignettes of contemporary society' -- Telegraph

`Unjust Rewards should be compulsory reading for anyone on £162,000 and over'
-- Peter York, Independent on Sunday

Review

`Unjust Rewards contains some striking and well-documented vignettes of contemporary society'

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Customer Reviews

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Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsUseful exposure of Labour's capitalism
By William Podmore on 23 Jan. 2009
Format: Paperback
Polly Toynbee and David Walker of the Guardian have written a fine study of the injustice of our society, the second most unequal among developed countries, after the USA. A UNICEF report of 2007 found that Britain was the worst of 21 `rich' countries for children to grow up in. A fifth of children still live in poverty.

They write of the key `myths that helps to keep things the way they are' and then assert, "A two-thirds working class society became two-thirds white collar ... with the working class a minority." Don't white collar workers work for a living, for an employer? Haven't they organised in unions to fight for better wages for more than a century? The idea that white collar workers are not workers is surely one of the most damaging of conservative myths.

The authors note that since 1997 the richest 10%'s share of the nation's wealth has risen from 47% to 54%. They write, "parental income pretty accurately predicts whether a child will win or lose in life: the more unequally income is shared, the tighter the link becomes."

Yet they write, "Without anyone quite willing it, the UK has become more divided." And again, "So Labour, unsure of its own mind, cut inheritance tax although only the richest 6% of estates were ever liable." (My italics) They repeatedly call the Blair and Brown governments `naïve'. Who is being naïve?

They replay Polly Toynbee's `camel train' image of society, which omits the key fact that the few at the front are only ahead because they have stolen the wealth produced by the majority. No wonder David Cameron has borrowed the image.

Senior executives gave themselves an average 33% rise in 2007-8, looting the country's wealth. The boss of Punch Taverns, for instance, got 1,148 times more than his bar staff.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsFascinating Read
By Mr. Christopher J. Moorhouse on 13 Aug. 2008
Format: Paperback
Ignore the Middle England Bedwetter above (A.Cook). This is a highly informative read with a lot of fascinating insight into just how out of touch and ignorant the extrordinarily wealthy have become in relation to the majority of the rest of us. If you have had enough of living in a virtual penal colony with absolutely nothing to offer its citizens (sorry, subjects) other than relentless Capitalist toil with nothing to show for your labours at the end of it all, then I would advise that this book is essential reading. As we witness the beginnings of the decline in unregulated Capitalism, future, fairer societies will doubtless wonder what on earth we were thinking and more importantly why we sat back idly and allowed it to happen.
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5.0 out of 5 starstruth about divided britain
By Mr. R. J. HESKETH on 16 Sept. 2008
Format: Paperback
This book is first class.As with Toynbees and Walkers previous publications it is exceptionally well researched.Through careful evidence based arguments the true nature of a socially and economically divided Britain is vividly critiqued and exposed using the full force of the authors considerable gift for bringing new light and clarity to issues of social justice. Despite the scandalous levels of inequality that prevail in Modern Britain that are explored in this book, the book is not at all defeatist or disheartening.
Why? Because the authors raise the debate by raising the game above complaining about terrible things are and how nothing can ever really change.Solutions is far more the theme of this book rather than problems.I as a reader was left feeling reinvigorated and hopeful for the future because any false mystique attached to the inevitability of having to settle with the current shambles as the best we can hope for is completly stripped away by Toynbee and Walker who refuse to tip toe around those whose entrenched priviledge needs to be urgently questioned.
The authorship of this book has a gift for clarity that is second to none.It will make uncomfortable reading for New Labour ,It will at first make you angry but you soon come to realise that the main problem is political will and that equality and fairness by no means need to remain just pipe dreams.An excellent book.A must for anyone truly interested in social justice.
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5.0 out of 5 starsExtraordinary account of inequality
By R. Wilson on 12 Sept. 2008
Format: Paperback
One of the most compelling political books of the year. The magnitude of inequality across Britain is extraordinary, the level of self-denial by the rich disgusting.

The research here is thorough and irrefutable. The rich really ARE stupendously overpaid, inequality HAS been rising to an insane degree, and the effect on the poverty stricken IS profound and unacceptable. The next time someone mutters something about dole scroungers to you, simply reel off the figures in here about how much tax dodging the rich do.

I don't write hyperbolic reviews - but I would say this is an essential read to understand one of the most serious problems in contemporary Britain.
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5.0 out of 5 starsA brilliant expose of the system!
By Bert or something...(AKA P&V and formless) VINE VOICE on 26 Aug. 2008
Format: Paperback
This book provides something that is sadly lacking in our society and prevents useful and meaningful dialogue-statistics. So often we hear people discussing tax issues and the problems of single parents or immigrants yet they have no numbers to their arguments.

This leads to weak and poor use of language which those on the right in our society can use to create the impression that 'capitalism works' and even if it doesn't work all the time it is a lot better than any socialist alternative.

Quite simply this book gives you useful information and very interesting data that shows that we are being conned with the notion that the rich create wealth-banks and debt do that!

Read this book and use Bruce Lee's formula:

Research your own experience
Absorb what is useful
Reject what is useless
Add what is uniquely your own

Then reflect and ponder!!!!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsFour Stars

Excelent book would recommend.

Published 10 months ago by H. J. Do
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

arrived as promised,many thanks

Published 23 months ago by Bypass
1.0 out of 5 starsShort memory!

Three years ago Toynbee wrote "Better or Worse: Has Labour Delivered?" This intervention gave the verdict that New Labour had delivered and that Britain was safer, better educated... Read more

Published on 1 Oct. 2008 by I. Taylor
3.0 out of 5 starsOne more to admire than to enjoy

Polly Toynbee and I sing from a similar hymnsheet in political terms.

There is much illuminating evidence here about how the wealthy (mis) conceive the less well off. Read more

Published on 30 Aug. 2008 by G. L. Haggett
1.0 out of 5 starsBreath-takingly selective and totalitarian

I heard Polly Toynbee at a debate recently and bought her book in order to read more data about the subject. Read more

Published on 27 Aug. 2008 by Rationalist101
1.0 out of 5 starsbrilliantly insightful

Wise words from a true hero to the 'working classes'. For years Polly Toynbee toiled at Badminton College, one of the roughest sink estate schools in the country and to this day... Read more

Published on 26 Aug. 2008 by A. Realist
5.0 out of 5 starsa must read for everyone in Britain today

Unjust Rewards is a must read for everyone in the UK: citizens, politicians, company chief executives, public servants, and people running civil society organisations. Read more

Published on 19 Aug. 2008 by C. Exeter

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