Inequality anxiety

❚ 2009: The Spirit Level was published in Britain arguing inequality was eroding many positive aspects of society, such as trust and mental wellbeing.

❚ 2013: Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century provided a massive boost to inequality researchers worldwide, reaching the top of The New York Times’ bestseller list. It argued that wealth was accruing to the owners of capital at such a rate that it would threaten democracy.

❚ 2013: Inequality: A New Zealand Crisis, edited by Max Rashbrooke, was published.

❚ 2014: Child Poverty in New Zealand by Jonathan Boston and Simon Chapple came out, based on the 2012 report by the Children’s Commissioner’s Expert Advisory Group on child poverty, which then prime minister John Key rejected.

❚ 2015: Rashbrooke’s Wealth In New Zealand was published examining the evidence on wealth inequality. One right-wing commentator accused Rashbrooke of being ‘‘consumed by hatred’’. Boston and Chapple published The Child Poverty Debate: Myths, Misconceptions and Misunderstandings.

❚ 2016: The New Zealand Initiative, which is funded by big business, published The Inequality Paradox, in which it argued against ‘‘imported narratives’’ on inequality that focused on concerns over a future dominated by the possessors of inherited wealth. The report focused on local government planning failures that have led to high house prices and rents in Auckland and Wellington. These had in turn increased economic inequality and worsened the plight of low-income renters.

❚ 2017: Oxfam published its Economy for the 99% report indicating that two New Zealand men own more wealth than the poorest 30 per cent of the adult population.