Clark heath hard times; inequality, recession, aftermath (2014)

HARD TIMES TOM CLARK writes daily editorials on economics, politics and society for the Guardian He runs the newspaper’s opinion polling, and hosts a weekly podcast He previously advised the last Labour government, after five years at the Institute for Fiscal Studies where he published peer-reviewed papers on poverty, inequality and social security He has co-authored a book on ethnic diversity, The Age of Obama (2010) ANTHONY HEATH is professor of sociology, University of Manchester, and emeritus professor at the University of Oxford In 2013 he was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List His most recent book is The Political Integration of Ethnic Minorities in Britain (2013) i ii HARD TIMES INEQUALITY, RECESSION, AFTERMATH TOM CLARK W I T H A N T H O N Y H E AT H YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW HAVEN AND LONDON iii Copyright © 2014 Tom Clark First published in paperback in 2015 The right of Tom Clark to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press) without written permission from the publishers For information about this and other Yale University Press publications, please contact: U.S Office: sales.press@yale.edu www.yalebooks.com Europe Office: sales@yaleup.co.uk www.yalebooks.co.uk Set in Sabon by IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd Printed in Great Britain by Hobbs the Printer Ltd, Totton, Hampshire Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Clark, Tom, 1976– Hard times : the divisive toll of the economic slump / Tom Clark, with Anthony Heath pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 978-0-300-20377-6 (alk paper) United States—Economic conditions—2009– United States—Social conditions Great Britain—Economic conditions—1997– Great Britain—Social conditions Recessions—Social aspects Global Financial Crisis, 2008–2009—Social aspects I Heath, A F (Anthony Francis) II Title HC106.84.C53 2014 330.973—dc23 2014002243 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-0-300-21274-7 (pbk) 10 iv For my mother T.C v vi Contents Foreword to the paperback edition: ‘Recovery’ 2015 Authorial note viii xxiv Introduction 1 Not quite 1933 13 All in it together? 27 Mapping the black stuff 48 Toil and trouble 68 Anxious individuals, unhappy homes 92 The small society 117 The long shadow 135 A tale of two tragedies 170 The veil of complacency 194 10 Shelter from the storm 216 Notes 238 Select bibliography 284 Acknowledgements 291 Index 295 vii Foreword to the paperback edition: ‘Recovery’ 2015 John McArthur knows a good deal about recession in post-industrial Britain, and he has recently been learning something about the nature of the current jobs recovery too.1 A 59-year-old electronics specialist with a rich CV, he previously worked factory floors, trained and retrained, moved into product development, and even started his own company But like many others in his part of Lanarkshire, in the central lowlands of Scotland, he has also endured extended spells without work During the depths of the Great Recession, he put himself forward, through a governmentbacked scheme, to work for LAMH Recycle Ltd in Motherwell, a social enterprise that reconditions computers and other materials ‘It was minimum-wage work, but I was more than happy to it’, he tells me in gentle, intelligent tones ‘I had experience to share They’d be rekitting televisions and things that would otherwise be getting thrown out, and I’d sit at the end of line, doing the final quality check, signing things off as good to go.’ He was well prepared for the fact that this work would abruptly come to an end at some point, as it duly did in 2011 – ‘I always knew the placement would stop, because it had this government backing, and these things run out.’ Nothing, however, could prepare him for what happened next viii FOREWORD TO THE PAPERBACK EDITION ix The Future Jobs Fund, which had supported the original placement, was axed soon after David Cameron’s arrival in Downing Street in 2010, but in fits and starts his coalition government came forward with make-work schemes of its own And it was through one of these, ‘community work placements’, that John was informed in August 2014 there was once again a post for him at LAMH The new ‘offer’, however, came with one significant twist: John would be going back to his old job without a wage He was now being ordered, on pain of losing his benefits, to put in 30 hours per week while continuing to scrape by on Jobseekers’ Allowance The usual weekly rate in 2014/15 is £72.40 For John, as for many others, the message of this recovery has been, ‘Yes, you can work, but it might not be work as you used to understand it.’ For some, what’s gone is the presumption of a single workplace with a stable body of colleagues, and all the social connections that come with that For others, such as the growing army of zerohours workers, what’s vanished is the idea of a fixed working week And for very many others again, another traditional notion has been upended – the old expectation that pay would never actually fall, and would instead tend to creep up over time As 2014 drew to a close, Britain’s economists disagreed about whether or not earnings growth, when properly measured, had truly caught back up with inflation at long last But all agreed that real-terms pay had been steadily sinking for six straight years That made for the sharpest pay squeeze since the 1860s, and the most sustained decline on record.2 John’s invitation to toil for nothing at all might thus be seen as a case of the adverse trends affecting the wider workforce being pushed to a logical extreme But the case is emblematic, too, of something else that Hard Times talks about – of welfare provisions that had originally been put in place to help people through an hour of need being refashioned into an instrument of punishment To those on the sharp end, at least, it increasingly feels like strictures that purport to encourage people to pick themselves up are instead operating to keep claimants in their place 290 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY Shirakawa, Masaaki ‘Deleveraging and growth: Japan’s long and winding road’, lecture at the London School of Economics, 10 January 2012, available at: www.lse.ac.uk/ asiaResearchCentre/_files/ShirakawaLectureTranscript.pdf Skidelsky, Robert John Maynard Keynes, vol 2: The Economist as Savior, 1920–37, Penguin Viking, New York, 1995 Smith, Adam An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Electronic Classics Series Publications, Hazleton, PA, 2005 [1776], available at: www2.hn.psu edu/faculty/jmanis/adam-smith/wealth-nations.pdf Smith, Jean Edward FDR, Random House paperback edition, New York, 2008 [2007] Steinbeck, John The Grapes of Wrath, Pan Books, London, 1975 [1939] Stiglitz, Joseph The Price of Inequality, Penguin/Allen Lane, London, 2012 Stuckler, David and Sanjay Basu The Body Economic: Why austerity kills, Penguin/Allen Lane, London, 2013 Thomas, K and D Gunnell ‘Suicide in England and Wales 1861–2007: A time-trends analysis’, International Journal of Epidemiology, 39:6 (2010), pp 1464–75, available at: http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/39/6/1464.full Tocqueville, Alexis de Democracy in America, Fontana/HarperCollins, London, 1994 [1840] Tversky, Amos and Daniel Kahneman ‘Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases source’, Science, NS 185:4157 (1974), pp 1124–31, available at: www.socsci.uci edu/~bskyrms/bio/readings/tversky_k_heuristics_biases.pdf Walkerdine, Valerie and Luis Jimenez Gender, Work and Community after De-Industrialisation: A psychosocial approach to affect, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2012 Whittaker, Matthew On Borrowed Time? Dealing with household debt in an era of stagnant incomes, Resolution Foundation, London, 2012 Wilcox, W Bradford (ed.) The State of Our Unions, 2009, National Marriage Project, University of Virginia and the Institute for American Values, Charlottesville, VA, 2009 Willetts, David The Pinch: How the baby boomers took their children’s future – and why they should give it back, Atlantic Books, London, 2010 Zedlewski, Sheila, Sandi Nelson, Kathryn Edin, Heather Koball, Kate Pomper and Tracy Roberts Families Coping Without Earnings or Government Cash Assistance, Urban Institute, Washington, DC, 2003, available at: www.urban.org/uploadedPDF/ 410634_OP64.pdf Acknowledgements The research underpinning this volume was undertaken as part of a five-year collaboration between the University of Manchester and Harvard University, known as Social Change: A Harvard–Manchester Initiative (SCHMI) The collaboration was directed by Robert D Putnam, the Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard, and Ed Fieldhouse, Professor of Social and Political Science at Manchester It was based at the Institute for Social Change at Manchester and ran from 2007 to 2012 This book draws especially heavily on work by the following individual scholars, whose work was funded through the programme and coordinated by Anthony Heath: • • • • • • • Gabriella Elgenius (Oxford) Paul Hepburn (ISC) James Laurence (ISC) Yaojun Li (ISC) Chaeyoon Lim (Wisconsin) Siobhan McAndrew (ISC) Lindsey Macmillan (Institute of Education, London) The correspondence between the research and the chapters that follow is not exact, but papers by Laurence and Lim particularly inform Chapters 5, and parts of Chapter 7; the work of Li, Chapter 3; and the 291 292 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS work of Macmillan, the final part of Chapter McAndrew’s work on suicide is used in Chapter 7, as is attitudinal data researched by Hepburn in Chapter 9, and they both helped with some of the historical trends documented throughout the book Full details of the research papers are provided in the notes to each chapter To say that we are grateful to these researchers is scarcely adequate – without them there would be no book Particular thanks are due to Gabriella Elgenius, who joined the project late, and then worked tirelessly with modest resources to conduct the interviews with hard-hit families that run throughout the pages In addition, we would like to thank other SCHMI scholars – especially Robert Ford (ISC) and Maria Grasso (Sheffield) – who produced interesting papers on other aspects of the experience of hard times which ended up being less central to the book as it evolved They also contributed valuable comments at SCHMI seminars in Manchester in 2011 and in Sarasota, Florida, in 2012 At the same events and since, we benefited greatly from the advice and insight of Professor Putnam himself, who suggested many telling points and ringing phrases that have made their way into our text, including the tornado image, which twists its way through the book Beyond his important direct input into the present work, we also need to thank Professor Putnam for his leadership over the five years of SCHMI, and Professor Fieldhouse for providing the day-to-day management with friendly dedication, as well as expert analytical support on quantitative aspects of the research Professor Rachel Gibson has subsequently taken over as director of the Institute for Social Change, and we would like to extend thanks to her for efficiently tying up the managerial loose ends, as we would to Magdalen Faulds for helping with the final administration The support of Jennifer Birchall, Tom Sander and Kyle Gibson is gratefully acknowledged in pulling off the major logistical task of bringing together scholars from both sides of the Atlantic Tom Sander also played a major role in our intellectual debates and we are very grateful for his expert input throughout the project SCHMI would not have existed without generous funding from the University of Manchester, which we gratefully acknowledge We ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 293 would like to thank the then President, the late Alan Gilbert, and the Vice-President and Dean, Alistair Ulph, for their enthusiastic support in making SCHMI a reality Tom Clark would like to thank: Stephan Shakespeare, Joel Faulkner Rogers and Peter Kellner of YouGov for providing data and expert guidance on its interpretation, and likewise Bobby Duffy of Ipsos MORI and Martin Boon from ICM Alison Park of NatCen Social Research was extremely helpful in providing BSA data For providing additional numbers – and help in making sense of them – debts are owed to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (especially Robert Joyce and James Browne) and the Resolution Foundation (where James Plunkett, Gavin Kelly, Vidhya Alakeson, Warwick Smith and Matthew Whittaker were all invaluable) Simon Kirby from the National Institute has been another great help in providing data, as has Danny Blanchflower at Dartmouth College, Professor Steve Machin of UCL and Professor Paul Gregg and Mariña Fernández Salgado at Bath John Goldthorpe kindly made time to talk over matters to with social class and social mobility, as did Professor Janet Hunter of LSE on Japan For helping us assemble a rich range of case studies with great speed, we would like to thank the Resolution Foundation for a second time, as well as Citizens Advice, Save the Children and the London MPs Stella Creasy and Karen Buck Tom also owes a debt of thanks to Alan Rusbridger and Paul Johnson at the Guardian for allowing him time off, and to his leaderwriting colleagues – David Hearst, Martin Kettle and Anne Perkins – for putting up with the consequences for their own workload He also wishes to thank Aditya Chakrabortty from the paper, for reading a near-entire manuscript and providing insightful tips, as well as Simon Lancaster who cast an eye over the proposal at an earlier stage, and Yale’s two anonymous readers for their expert suggestions We are also greatly indebted to copy-editor Clive Liddiard, for turning his eagle eye to every last line of the text, and averting many mistakes in the process Tom would like to thank his family, particularly Helen, but also her parents and his own mother for providing out-of-hours childcare, without which the writing could never have got done 294 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As agent, Sarah Chalfant did a wonderful job in guiding us to flesh out what was initially a rather flimsy proposal into something substantial, and particularly in encouraging us to bring in the voices of the recession’s victims directly Together with Alba Ziegler-Bailey and colleagues at Wylie, she showed extraordinary patience in shepherding a project, which encountered more than its share of upsets, through to deal and publication Finally, we could not have been blessed with a more efficient or intelligent editor than Phoebe Clapham at Yale, who exceeded any reasonable expectation, at one point even pointing us to a valuable new data source She, too, has been loyal to the book through many disruptions, and – faced with chaotic early drafts – she zoomed up and dived down across a messy landscape, and imposed some muchneeded order on the map The only thing she did wrong was to leave before publication, which could have been catastrophic, had not Rachael Lonsdale and Heather McCallum stepped forward and – with great energy – kept everything on track Index Abe, Shinzo¯ 227 absolute poverty 28, 39–41, 43, 181, 184, 219 African Americans 5, 61–2, 111, 177 Agricultural Wages Board 185 Almond, Gabriel 118 American dream 145, 157, 160 American National Election Studies 202 American Political Science Review 202 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 2009 178 Annual Population Survey 100 anxiety 97, 98–105, 115, 116, 203, 220, 221 arguments 113–14, 140–1 Aristotle 145 Asian communities 62–3 assets 138, 139 Atos 186 Attlee, Clement 196 austerity 8–9, 40, 47, 182–4, 207, 237 Australia 7, 9, 67 baby boomers 57, 144, 145, 157, 163, 164, 183 balance of payments 42 Bank of England 138 bankruptcy 177, 197 banks 3, 8, 41, 42, 106 bedroom tax 190, 231–4, 236 Bell, David 83, 100, 102 benefits job insecurity 88 long shadow of recession 149, 166 polarised public opinion 205–11, 213 post-recession agenda 226–8, 230, 231, 234 public policy 179, 181–9, 193 social security 32, 33–4 Bermudez, Isabel 117, 129 Beveridge, William 12, 171, 196, 220 Beveridge report 170 big government 208–9 ‘Big Society’ 7, 117, 126, 133, 221 birth rate 182 Blackpool 93 black population 62, 63, 111, 138 Blair, Tony 40, 181, 182, 231 Blanchflower, David 83, 100, 102 Bleasdale, Alan 49 Boehner, John 174 Bowling Alone (Putnam) 4, 5, 118, 171 Boyle, David 140 Boys from the Blackstuff 49 Britain see United Kingdom British Household Panel Survey 97, 148 British National Party 209 British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey 205, 213, 231 Broke (Boyle) 140 Brown, Gordon 13, 40, 156, 182, 233 Buckingham Palace 80 bullying 86, 87 Bureau of Labor Statistics 66, 70, 72 Bush, George H.W 201 Bush, George W 35 295 296 INDEX Cable, Vince Cameron, David 7, 100, 115, 117, 134, 156, 160, 208–9, 217, 221 Campaniello, Giuseppe 92 Canada ‘capability approach’ 29 capitalism 15, 181, 234 career ladder 142, 151 Carney, Mark 186 casualisation 90, 168, 177 Census Bureau 122, 139, 176 Chamberlain, Neville charities 150, 222 child poverty 182, 233 children 112, 113, 115, 158, 164, 219 Children’s Society 45 Christoulas, Dimitris 92 church attendance 120, 123, 222 Churchill, Winston cigarette sales 17 citizenship career 151–2 Citizenship Survey of England and Wales 119, 124, 129, 134 The Civic Culture (Almond and Verba) 118 civic infrastructure 3–4, 22, 118, 122, 123, 130, 150–3 class divide 54, 66, 67, 136–42, 158, 160, 203 class rigidity 157, 159 Clegg, Nick 158 Clinton, Bill 175, 200 coalition government (UK) 8, 9, 168, 183, 184, 207–10, 225, 234 Coming Up for Air (Orwell) 27 community life long shadow of recession 140, 141, 149–52 Marienthal post-recession agenda 217, 218, 221, 222, 223 public policy 171 social networks 4, 117–19, 123, 127, 128, 132–4 community work 222 Congressional Budget Office 36 construction work 71 contract work 82, 85–6, 87, 88, 168, 220 council housing 191, 212 CPS see Current Population Survey Credit-Anstalt credit crunch 1, 13, 165, 39 crime rates 24, 26, 217 Current Population Survey (CPS) 122, 128 Dahl, Roald 17 death rates 26, 217 debt austerity credit crunch 41–3 Great Recession and Depression human unhappiness 92, 99 long shadow of recession 137, 138, 140, 144 post-recession agenda 220 de Gaulle, Charles democratic life 118 dependency culture 165, 166, 226 Depression (economic) see Great Depression depression (human) 92, 93, 97, 100, 167 deprivation index 130 De Quincey, Thomas 21 disability 211, 229 Disability Living Allowance (DLA) 187 disposable income 34–8, 42, 43, 136, 144 divorce rate 78, 109, 110–11 domestic violence 112 Dorling, Danny 36 dropouts 45, 53–5, 111, 143, 144, 177 Duchenne smiles 93 Duncan Smith, Iain 163 Durkheim, Emile 151 economic growth economic gap growth and national income 19–20, 22–5 post-recession agenda 234, 236 public policy 175 social security 35 UK 9, 19–20, 25 wages 75 economic insecurity see insecurity Economic Journal 225 education economic insecurity 141 job insecurity 89 marriage rates 111 social mobility 160, 166, 168 unemployment 53–7, 66, 67 elasticity of intergenerational income 158, 159 Elder, Glen 112 Elder, James 135 elderly population 99, 137, 228 Emanuel, Rahm 179 Employee Benefits Research Institute 137 INDEX employment protection 7, 81–2, 104, 148, 225–6, 235 employment rates 52–3, 60 Employment White Paper (1944) 172 Eton College 160 Eurobarometer 94 eurozone 3, 50, 68, 223 expansionary fiscal contraction expectations 78–80, 94, 145, 154 faith 123 Faith Matters 96, 148 family class divide 140 human unhappiness 97–8, 108–15, 116 post-recession agenda 219, 221 public policy 177 relative financial standing 30, 31–2 social networks 128, 151 female employment 60, 61, 74, 77, 160–3 Fingleton, Eamonn 23 Fitzgerald, F Scott 14 food 17, 18, 25, 31–2, 44–7 foodbanks 46 food stamps 27, 44–5, 177, 180, 230 Foot, Michael 170, 171, 198 formal (or organised) volunteering 119–24, 130, 132–4, 150–6, 220–2 Fragile Families Survey 113 France employment protection 81, 226 human unhappiness 102–5, 114, 115 inequality social networks 132, 133 social security 33, 231 Friedman, Benjamin 196 Fukushima nuclear power plant 23 Galbraith, J.K 3, 108 Gallup polls 94, 128, 134, 200 Galton, Francis 158 GDP (gross domestic product) 15–17, 19–20, 22, 51 Geithner, Tim gender divide 60–1 General Social Survey (GSS) 200, 201, 203 generational divide 57–9, 136–7, 144, 145, 156–69 Gen X 145, 157, 163 Gen Y 145 Germany employment protection 82, 226 human unhappiness 102, 105, 114, 115 inequality 297 social networks 118, 132, 133 social security 33, 231 unemployment 58 girls, employment of 160–2 graduates 53–6, 142, 143 The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck) Great Depression change in GDP 16, 18 crime rates 26 death rates 26 Europe and Great Recession 3, 11, 18, 19, 67 growth and national income 19 human unhappiness 93, 105, 107–12 hysteresis 135 lynchings polarised public opinion 195, 196 public policy 170 social mood 17 social networks 3–4, 18, 120 social security 32, 33, 226 Steinbeck on unemployment 50, 53, 57, 67 ‘Great Gatsby Curve’ 158 Great Hanshin earthquake 22 Great Recession change in GDP 16, 18 economic gap 6–7 and Great Depression 3, 11, 18, 19, 67 growth and national income 19, 22 human unhappiness 94, 102–5, 109, 110, 112, 114 long shadow of class action 136–42 future generations 156–69 overview 135–6 unemployment 146–56 young people 142–6 low-grade jobs 71, 72 polarised public opinion 195, 198, 207 post-recession agenda 216–37 Cameron conundrum 217–22 future policy 222–9 polarisation 229–37 public policy 176, 180 social mood 16–17 social networks 119, 122, 123, 126, 128–31, 133 social security 33 start of 13 unemployment 50–1, 58–60, 62, 64, 66–7 uneven impact 27 Greece 5–6, 23, 106 Greenberg Quinlan Rosner 235, 236 298 INDEX Greenspan, Alan 14 Gregg, Paul 72 growth see economic growth Hacker, Jacob 141 Hansard 80 Hansard Society 120 happiness 93, 94, 100, 105, 116, 218, 220, 221 Happiness (Layard) 93 ‘Happy Days Are Here Again’ song 93 hardship 28, 29, 39, 43, 44, 101, 107 Hatton, Timothy 50, 57 health 18, 29, 45–6, 88, 96–7, 180, 223 healthcare 137, 147, 179, 204 ‘hedonic treadmill’ 94 helping (informal volunteering) 124–6, 128–31, 133 Help to Buy 142 heritability of unemployment 163–7 Heritage Foundation 28, 29 Hills, Sir John 42 Hispanic community 64, 138 home ownership 139–40, 142 Hoover, Herbert 26, 35, 82 household incomes 34, 74, 78, 129, 137 household leverage 42 housing costs 9, 40–1, 139–42, 212 home ownership 139–40, 142 housing benefit 189–90 poverty 45 social housing 190–1 wealth reduction 138 human unhappiness 92–116 family life 108–15 overview 92–3 public policy 171 suicide 105–6 unemployment 94–8 well-being data 93–4 working population 98–105 hysteresis 135, 142 identity 49, 147 immigration 61, 62, 63, 212 incapacity benefit 49, 51, 186, 211, 212 income 19–20, 34, 44, 77, 101 income distribution 6, 28, 35–9, 43, 73–4, 200–1, 203, 218 income support 165, 175 inequality 27–47 causes 47 economic gap 6–7 income distribution 36, 38 job insecurity 89 life satisfaction 116 polarised public opinion 197, 203, 204, 206, 214 post-recession agenda 216, 219, 233, 234, 237 poverty 45 public policy 171, 181 social mobility 158, 159, 160 social security 35 unemployment 67 inflation 171, 186, 223 informal volunteering (helping) 124–6, 128–31, 133 insecurity austerity 185 class divide 141 human unhappiness 98, 100–2, 105 job insecurity 80–8 pay gap 69 polarised public opinion 203 post-recession agenda 218, 220, 224 social networks 121, 131 unemployment 147 Institute for Employment Research 71 Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) 34, 40, 46, 47, 184, 186 intergenerational income 158 investment 90 Ipsos MORI 144, 145 Ireland isolation 220, 221 Italy 90, 106 Japan 6, 22–4, 38–9, 50, 78–9, 227 Jarrow March job insecurity see insecurity Jobseeker’s Allowance 207, 211, 212, 228 jobs growth 69, 70, 169, 224 Kahn, Lisa 143 Kan, Naoto 23 Kantar 17 Keynes, John Maynard 16, 19, 21–2, 94, 196 King, Mervyn Kobe 22 Komarovsky, Mirra 5, 48, 79, 108, 110–13, 116, 120, 144, 220, 221 Krueger, Alan 157, 159 Krugman, Paul Labour Force Survey 100 labour market 148, 225–6 INDEX labour productivity 74, 90, 221 ladder of opportunity 156 Layard, Richard 93 Lehman Brothers 3, 13 Leunig, Tim 189 Lewis, Michael 6, 23 life expectancy 24, 45, 118, 137, 228 life satisfaction 94–8, 100–2, 116, 141, 148 Lilley, Peter 166 living standards 25, 79, 136, 144, 145, 171 Li, Yaojun 61 loans 10, 43, 98, 186, 234 London 10–11, 41, 65, 134, 189, 190, 218 lone parents 166, 176, 177, 227 long-term unemployment 66–7, 135, 148, 179 low-grade jobs 70–3, 88–9, 143–4, 167–8, 176, 218, 224 Machin, Stephen 72 Macmillan, Harold 208 macroeconomic policy 223 male employment 60, 61, 74, 107, 162–5 male suicide 106 manufacturing 69, 70, 71 ‘marginalised’ workers 82 Marie Antoinette 79 Marienthal hardship 2, 3, 26 human unhappiness 93, 100, 101, 107, 109 neighbours informing on each other 194 social networks and groups 121 unemployment 1, 48, 66, 69 marriage rates 111, 115, 219 medical bills 197 medical staff 88 mental health 97, 140, 222, 223 Mexico 118 middle class 139, 141 migration 64 minimum wage 73, 144, 148–9, 173–4, 225, 235 mobility 156–60, 166, 168, 204 monetary policy 195, 217 money-saving activities 17–18 money supply 223 money worries 110, 112, 140–1 mortality rates 26, 217 motivation 121 National Child Development Survey (NCDS) 150, 161 National Conference on Citizenship 122 299 National Government 33 National Housing Federation 140 national income 19–20, 21, 22 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 161 necessities 29, 43 NEETs (not in education, employment or training) 58 neighbourliness 126, 128, 130 neoliberalism 68 net worth 138 New Deal 172, 195 New Labour 181, 232 New Right 171, 172 New York Times 44 New Zealand Nixon, Richard 165 Northern Rock 13 North–South divide 64, 65, 131, 138 Obama, Barack 8, 9, 35, 117, 137, 156, 174, 179 Occupy 213 OECD see Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development old age 99, 137, 228 O’Loughlan, Joel 62, 67 optimism 30, 145, 167 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 7, 33, 35, 81, 149, 176, 181 Orwell, George 27, 49, 109, 194 Osborne, George 8, 9, 52, 183, 185, 186, 198, 213 Packer, George 140 Pakistani community 63 parental income 158, 159, 168 parenting 112, 113, 115, 167 parent–teacher associations (PTAs) 5, 152, 153 participation careers 151, 153, 154, 155 part-time work 83, 100 path dependency 135 pay squeeze 75, 78, 95, 136, 142, 146–7, 224, 225, 237 Peck, Don 136 pensions 137, 144, 147, 183, 228 People’s Budget (1909) 36 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act 175 Pew Center 84, 111, 139 Philip, Prince 28 300 INDEX Philpott, Mick 198 The Pinch (Willetts) 57 polarised public opinion 194–215 desired level of inequality 204 divided communities 194 economic divide 197–200 genetic discrimination in healthcare 204 post-recession agenda 229–37 social security 207, 213 solidarity 194–7, 201, 206, 213–14 unemployment 202 policy see public policy postal deliveries 89–90 poverty absolute poverty 28, 39–41, 43, 181, 184, 219 debt 41–3 health 44–6 housing costs 40, 41 income distribution 39–40 losing face 30, 31 low-grade jobs 72, 73 post-recession agenda 219, 223, 232–3, 236 public policy 174–7, 180–4 relative poverty 29–31, 38–9 social security 180, 236 UK 39–41, 45, 180–4 unemployment 66, 205 uneven impact of recessions 28 US 41, 44–5, 174–7, 180 working population 78, 79 poverty pay 69, 174, 225, 235 pregnancy 160, 166 Prescott, John 140 Priestley, J.B 18 Probert, Nicola 84–5 productivity 74, 90, 221 PTAs see parent–teacher associations public investment 183 public mood 2–3 public policy 170–93 American neglect 173–80 British blind panic 180–91 overview 170–3, 191–3 post-recession agenda 217, 222–9 Putnam, Robert 4, 118, 123, 171 quantitative easing 8, 195 race 61–4, 66, 141, 209 Rawls, John 194 RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) 13 Reagan, Ronald 165, 26, 163, 171, 175, 200 real wages 75–7, 136, 173–4 recessions 118, 135, 199–201 see also Great Recession Red Cross 45 redistribution low-grade jobs 72 polarised public opinion 200–1, 203, 208 post-recession agenda 218, 231, 232, 233 redundancy employment protection 82 human unhappiness 96–8, 101, 116 long shadow of recession 135, 146–56, 167 long-term unemployment 66 Marienthal polarised public opinion 204 post-recession agenda 217, 223, 224 public policy 172 regional divide 64–5, 130, 133, 156, 165 Reich, Robert Relate 110 relative poverty 29–31, 38–9, 78, 180 religion 123 rents 40, 41, 212 replacement ratio 33, 35 repossessions 139 resentments 209–10, 233 Resolution Foundation 43 retirement age 228 retrenchment 9, 60–1, 92, 184–5, 188, 200, 207–8, 228 The Road to Wigan Pier (Orwell) Romney, Mitt 199, 213, 229, 230 Roosevelt, Franklin D 5, 27, 32, 48, 93, 105, 170, 195, 226, 232 Round About a Pound a Week 28 Rudd, Kevin Rutgers 146, 147 Ryan, Paul 230 Safe Anchor Trust 121 sanctions on benefits 188, 189, 234 Save the Children 45 savings 42, 98 school dropouts 45, 53–5, 111, 143, 144, 177 Scout Association 121, 123 Seefeldt, Kristin 177 Sen, Amartya 29 ‘setpoint theory’ of happiness 94 sex life 30, 112 single mothers 176, 177 INDEX slump-hit and slump-proof 104–5, 114–15, 130, 132–3, 208 Smith, Adam 29, 30, 43 social capital 118, 153 social housing 190–1 social insurance 186, 203, 204, 236 social mobility 156–60, 166, 168, 204 social networks and groups 117–34 community organisations 118–19 life satisfaction 116 social engagement 149–50, 186 unemployment 150, 151, 153, 167 social recession 7, 129, 132, 217, 219 social security Great Depression and Great Recession 32–3 polarised public opinion 198, 200, 205, 213 post-recession agenda 226–9, 231–6 public policy 181, 183, 185 US/UK contrasts 149, 165 Social Security Act 32, 232 solidarity 194–7, 201, 206, 213, 214, 216, 217 soup kitchens Spain 58 sports clubs 150, 151, 152 Steinbeck, John 2, 14, 26 Stiglitz, Joseph 36, 42, 234 Stuckler, David 107 student debt 57, 144, 168 suicide 11, 105–6, 107, 108 Tate museums 86 taxation polarised public opinion 196, 198, 213 post-recession agenda 232, 233, 234 public policy 178, 179, 181, 184, 185 tax credits 77, 78, 176, 182, 189 technology 19, 21 Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) 177 ‘temporary help’ agencies 85 Thatcher, Margaret 36, 140, 171, 181 To¯hoku earthquake 23 Tocqueville, Alexis de 118, 122 Trades Union Congress 51 trade unions 81, 86, 153, 235 trust 126, 130, 131, 145, 146, 155 ‘U6’ unemployment measure 82, 83 underemployment 82, 83–4, 100, 102, 121 Understanding Society study 148 unemployment 48–67 301 education divide 53–7, 67 eurozone 50, 68 female 161, 162–3 gender divide 60–1, 67 generational divide 57–9 graduates 56–7 Great Depression 50 heritability of 163–7 human unhappiness anxiety 99–102 family life 108, 111, 112 suicide 107 well-being data 94, 97, 98, 105 identity 49, 147 inequality 67 Japan 50 Komarovsky study 48 life satisfaction 94–5, 96, 116 long shadow of 135, 141, 144, 146–56 long-term unemployment 66–7, 135, 148, 179 low-grade jobs 72 male 107, 162–5 Marienthal 1, 48 polarised public opinion 202, 206, 207, 209–13 post-recession agenda 217–21, 223, 224, 226 public policy 179, 188 race divide 61–4, 66, 67 regional divide 64–5, 67 Roosevelt on 48 school dropouts 53–4 social mobility 160–3 social networks 125, 129 social security 32, 33, 35 start of Great Recession 15–16 ‘U6’ unemployment measure 82, 83 UK 49–60, 62–8, 147–50, 153, 154, 160–7 underemployment 83, 84 unequal impact of 53–67 US 50–2, 54–6, 58–64, 66–8, 94–8, 105, 148–50, 153–5, 160–7 young people 57–9, 96, 141 unemployment benefit 32, 33, 35, 149, 182, 185, 186, 205–7 unhappiness see human unhappiness United Kingdom (UK) austerity 8–9, 40, 47, 182–4, 207, 237 change in GDP 15, 16 credit crunch 42 crime rates 24 double-dip recession economic gap 302 INDEX employment protection expansionary fiscal contraction 8–9 growth and national income 19, 20 housing 40–1, 137–8, 139–40 human unhappiness 94–5, 97, 101, 102, 104–7, 109–15 income distribution 36–40 job insecurity 75–86, 90–1 life expectancy 24 living standards 25 long shadow of recession 136, 138, 144–5 low-grade jobs 69, 71, 73 polarised public opinion 196, 197, 204–9 post-recession agenda 217–22, 224–9, 231–4 poverty 39–41, 45, 180–4 public policy 173, 180–91, 192, 193 regional differences 27 riots 10, 11 social mobility 157–67 social networks 118–20, 122–6, 128–34 social security 32, 33–4 start of Great Recession 13, 15–16 unemployment 49–60, 62–8, 147–50, 153, 154, 160–7 United States (US) change in GDP 15–16, 17 credit crunch 42 crime rates 24 economic gap 6, employment protection growth and national income 19, 20 housing 41, 139, 140 human unhappiness 94–8, 101–10, 114, 115 income distribution 36, 37, 39 inequality 10 investment and wages 90 job insecurity 73–4, 81–3, 85, 101–4 life expectancy 24 living standards 25 long shadow of recession 136, 138, 145 low-grade jobs 69, 70, 72, 73 marriage rates 111 minimum wage 173–4 parallels with Depression polarised public opinion 196, 202–4 post-recession agenda 217–20, 222, 224–9, 231–4 poverty 41, 44–5, 174–7, 180 public policy 173, 173–80, 191–3 regional differences 27 social mobility 157–67 social networks 3–5, 117, 118, 122, 123, 128, 129, 132–4 social security 32, 33, 34–5 start of Great Recession 13 unemployment 50–2, 54–6, 58–64, 66–8, 94–8, 105, 148–50, 153–5, 160–7 universal credit 185 university fees 168 The Unwinding (Packer) 140 veil of complacency 198, 203 veil of ignorance 195, 199, 203 Verba, Sidney 118 volunteering 117–34 effect of insecure/unpredictable work 86, 121 formal (or organised) volunteering 119–24, 130, 132–4, 150–6, 220–2 helping (informal volunteering) 124–6, 128–31, 133 in Japan 22–3 post-recession agenda 219, 222 post-recession trends 12, 133–4 social networks and groups 118–22, 124–6, 128–31, 133, 134 unemployment 150, 152, 154, 155 US/UK differences 122–3 wages 72–8, 81, 90, 95, 98, 136–7, 142–4, 173–4, 235 Walkerdine, Valerie 147 Wall Street Crash 108 war 197 Washington Mutual Bank 13 wealth 138, 203–4 The Wealth of Nations (Smith) 29 welfare polarised public opinion 200, 201, 206, 212 post-recession agenda 226–9, 231 public policy 175, 176, 180, 183–7, 191–3 social security 32, 33, 35, 149 ‘welfare dependency’ theory 165, 166 welfare economics 29 ‘Welfare Queen’ 163 welfare state 12, 148, 172, 198, 213, 229 welfare-to-work programmes 85 well-being class divide 140, 141 human unhappiness 93–105, 115 inequality post-recession agenda 217, 220, 221 poverty 45 unemployment 148 INDEX white population 63, 111 Wilensky, Harold 151 Willetts, David 57 Wisconsin Longitudinal Survey 150, 154 work ethic 49, 230, 235 working class 71, 142 working poor 72, 99, 220 working population 68–91 human unhappiness 98–105 job insecurity 80–8, 102 life satisfaction 95 low-grade jobs 69–73 pay gap 69 polarised public opinion 210 303 real wages 73–8 relative expectations 78–9 unemployment 147, 151 volunteering 121 workplace benefits 137, 147 Yamada, Yasuteru 23 YouGov polls 16–18, 25, 30, 102, 113, 132, 145, 198, 207–9, 231 young people 57–9, 96, 141, 142–6, 156 Zedlewski, Sheila 177, 191 ‘zero-hours’ contracts 80–1, 85–8, 121, 224, 225 304 ... Britain (2013) i ii HARD TIMES INEQUALITY, RECESSION, AFTERMATH TOM CLARK W I T H A N T H O N Y H E AT H YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW HAVEN AND LONDON iii Copyright © 2014 Tom Clark First published... Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Clark, Tom, 1976– Hard times : the divisive toll of the economic slump / Tom Clark, with Anthony Heath pages cm Includes bibliographical references.. .HARD TIMES TOM CLARK writes daily editorials on economics, politics and society for the Guardian He runs