The five richest families in the United Kingdom own more wealth than the bottom 13 million people.  The extreme inequality these numbers illustrate will likely be a motivating factor for UK voters in the imminent general election. These voters have a clear choice: accept the years of austerity that have deepened UK inequality or set a course for a more equitable future. (Inequality.org).

We are accustomed to talking about inequality in the US, but the UK is just as bad, and getting worse.  The possibilities for the man in the street to have a calm, rewarding and happy life are reduced when corporations and the ultra-rich are able to skew government policy to their own advantage.  Britain has had a long and severe bout of deliberate cutbacks to most social programmes.  The people who live far from London have felt ignored and poorer every year. But it looks as if this  will be getting even worse shortly, as the UK leaves the EU.

The welfare of the greatest number is the legitimate concern of Epicureans.  It is quite clear that massive, yawning gaps in wealth are bad for the man in the street, bad for the people with the money, and a threat to what little democracy we have left.  This is not party political comment, just a statement of fact.